MONROVIA – Former River Gee County Senator Conmany B. Wesseh has paid an emotional tribute to the late Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, widow of Ghana’s former President Jerry John Rawlings, describing her as “a woman who cannot and will not die” because of her enduring legacy in Ghana and across Africa.
In a reflection titled “Nkar Is Still Alive,” Wesseh recalled his decades-long acquaintance with the influential Ghanaian political figure, dating back to the aftermath of the June 4, 1979 revolution—known as the “first coming of J. J. Rawlings.”
“Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings is not dead, cannot and will not die,” Wesseh wrote. “She is a heck of a woman who I began knowing and tried to understand since post-June 4, 1979 — the first coming of J. J. Rawlings era.”
Wesseh, who lived in Ghana for ten years during his exile between 1981 and 1991, said two defining experiences deepened his respect for the late Nana Konadu: her sterling leadership of Ghanaian women through the 31st December Women’s Movement, and her courage to pursue independent political ambition in a male-dominated arena.
He recalled accompanying the late Dr. Amos Claudius Sawyer, former Interim President of Liberia, to meet Mrs. Rawlings in an attempt to persuade her to abandon her presidential aspirations after she formed a new political party separate from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) — the very party she and her husband had helped to found.
“Sawyer had been prodded onto this venture by key Ghanaian and some African leaders,” Wesseh recounted. “We were moved by her strong reasoning, and so Sawyer gave up. Jerry had obviously failed or did not try enough.”
The former Liberian senator described Nana Konadu as a woman of conviction whose intellect and vision commanded respect even among seasoned statesmen.
Wesseh also recalled his more recent encounters with her earlier this year at two historic events in Accra: the 40th Anniversary of the Dedication of the W. E. B. Du Bois Memorial Centre for Pan-African Culture on June 22, where one of her daughters, Yaa Asantewaa Agyeman-Rawlings, delivered what he described as a “brilliant and powerful keynote address,” and again at the 62nd Anniversary of the Passing of Dr. Du Bois on August 27.
“All speakers, including myself at both events, paid glowing tributes to Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings in acknowledgment of her role in the recent history of Ghana,” he said.
Reflecting on her strength and independence, Wesseh wrote:
“She is certainly such a woman it takes to be a lifelong partner of my friend and leader, a national and Pan-African hero as Jerry John Rawlings — and to step out of his huge shadow into her own big bright light.”
He ended his tribute with a message of comfort to the Rawlings family: “Cry not, my dear Zenator, Yaa Asantewaa, Amina, and Kimati,” Wesseh wrote, signing the note on behalf of himself, his wife Medina, and the entire Wesseh family in Monrovia.
