It took time for Rawlings’ mother to warm up to our marriage -Konadu
Former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, has opened up about her relationship with her late mother-in-law, Madam Victoria Agbotui,a woman she described as a ‘strong pillar’.
Looking back at the early years of her marriage to the man who later became president, she said Rawlings’ mother had opposed her marriage to her son.
Recounting incidents in 1976 when her sweetheart formally introduced her to his mother, Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings said Madam Agbotui’s first reaction was that of hostility.
Madam Agbotui passed away at her home on Thursday, September 24, 2020. This was after some few weeks to mark her 101 birthday.
Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings was seen in a joyous mood and danced happily to various tunes, including a performance of the traditional Agbadza dance of the Ewe people to celebrate the woman who gave her the love of her life.
In an opposite mood during an interview at Asaase FM on Sunday, September 27.
Answering a question on her interactions with Madam Agbotui, Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings said: “it was a cat and mouse relationship.”
The first formal introduction was in 1976 but Madam Agbotui “was very upset,” she said.
Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings was short of further explanations but pointed out that “the little she (Madam Agbotui) said, she thought that somebody else should have been the one to marry him”.
“Somebody else I think she was closer to,” Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings added.
“I didn’t have to work hard” to overcome it at the time,” she noted. “Sweet sometimes, sometimes bitter but from my side, always sweet,” she indicated.
Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings, who is also the flagbearer of the National Democratic Party (NPD) after breaking away from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) which was founded by her husband, described her mother-in-law as a “very strong” character.
She explained that Rawlings “knows his family, he knew what he wanted, we knew what we wanted but he didn’t let the resistance stand in the way in the end story”.
Mr Rawlings had to convince some aunties to accept his lover.
He told them that if there was anyone to complain it should not be from his side family.
One of Rawlings’ aunties had to bring in one of the oldest of the family women “and she agreed to come and do the engagement because he insisted and at the time, I didn’t realise that it would be a problem but it did”.
Mr Rawlings is mixed race with his father, a Scottish chemist from Castle Douglas in Kirkcudbrightshire who was in Ghana during the colonial days.
With Rawlings’ life shaped by his mother who hails from the Volta Region, the traditional engagement had to be Ewe style.
Opposition also came from Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings extended family.
There were “class expectations” and “ethnicity” issued which affected their relationship “more from the Ewe side and the Ashanti side and it was my uncles and aunties who were” fueling the rift.
She said there were other challenges but they were resolved as she got along with Mr Rawlings.
The young lovers finally got married in 1977.
The pair have been married for 43 years and blessed with four children.
Their first, Dr Zenator Agyeman-Rawlings, now a politician, and medical practitioner is the lawmaker for Klottey-Korley on the ticket of her father’s party.
Two other daughters and a son are Yaa Asantewaa, Amina and Kimathi.
Impact of Madam Agbotui’s death
Mrs Agyeman-Rawlings sees the demise of her mother-in-law as a huge blow.
She has been instrumental and played a single-mother role in the life of Mr Rawlings serving as a strong pillar of support during difficult times.
“[Mr Rawlings] is coping. Of course, it won’t be easy because his older brother passed before the mother and it was difficult for him. For the mother to go, everybody knows that is a difficult situation,” she noted.
The details of the burial are yet to be communicated to the public.
But the family has made arrangements for people who wish to pay courtesy visits.
The family has also requested that public to respect their privacy.