Our late President, Jerry Rawlings, passed in 2020, leaving a void so deep,
And five years later, you joined him in eternal sleep.
I saw on Ghana’s national television
Members of Parliament passing by
As you lay in state—
A nation holding its breath,
A people pausing to remember.
I heard spirited debates about your legacy,
Voices on national television
Measuring a life lived boldly,
A life of service,
A life without apology.
The nation paid you its final respect.
We saw statesmen and women—
The Right Honourable Speaker Alban Bagbin,
Vice President Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang,
Your mournful children,
Former President Akufo-Addo and wife, Rebecca Akufo-Addo—
All filing past in solemn tribute.
Accra, our capital,
Came to a mournful halt.
Some of us could not attend to give our final salute, our final farewell,
But we mourned like the rest of the nation from our homes,
Pondering, remembering moments of your visit to Takoradi
And your spirited character.
Members of Parliament arrived as one,
Led by Majority Leader, Honourable Mahama Ayariga—
All gathered to etch your memory
Into Ghana’s living history.
Then came our nation’s President,
His Excellency John Dramani Mahama,
And the First Lady, Lordina Mahama,
Offering the nation’s collective grief
With gentle steps and bowed heads—
A realism of state,
A ceremony of national affection.
What a farewell.
What a fitting departure of national proportion.
Your family told us you were a role model—
A pillar, a matriarch, a compass.
And we believed them.
For we saw the evidence ourselves:
How did you raise such fine children,
Steadfast and grounded,
Under the intruding eyes of the public,
Amid the storms of power,
And the harsh lights of scrutiny?
Yet you did it—
Gracefully, courageously, unshaken.
Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings—
Former First Lady of the Republic of Ghana,
Mother of a nation,
Torchbearer of courage—
Journey well.
The land you loved
Stood still today
To say goodbye.
Rest.
For Ghana remembered.
By Seth Kwame Awuku
