PHOTOS: Rawlings through the times

Former President J.J. Rawlings died last Thursday weeks after burying his centenarian mother last month.

It was his wish that he buries his mother before he dies, his daughter and member of Parliament for Korley Klottey, Dr Zanetor Rawlings, recalled 24 hours after her father’s death.

He did just that. But passed on 24 days later after short illness suspected to be COVID-19.

 

A decorated soldier, Rawlings nursed his military dream in the prestigious Achimota School, where he graduated with an O’ level certificate and as a respected member of the school’s respected cadet corp.

That zeal took him into the Ghana Armed Forces, where he graduated in 1969 and later commissioned as a pilot with the rank, Flight Lieutenant.

A fighter against injustice and promoter of social justice, the late septuagenarian entered Ghana’s political scene in May 1979 through a mutiny that nearly cost him his life.

While under trial, he was released from prisoners by his compatriots in rank. Rawlings led another coup-June 4, 1979—superintending over the shortest administration in Ghana’s history—112 days.

But it would not be the last Ghana would see of him.

He bounced back on December 31, 1981, and overthrew Dr Hilla Limann, the man he handed over to in 1979.

Rawlings lived for 73 years. He gave 51 years of his life to public service, first as a young soldier from 1969, a military leader from December 1981 to January 1993 and later, a civilian leader from January 1993 to January 2001.

He later joined the roll call of Ghana’s statesman from January 2001 until the sun set on his colourful, but controversial life on November 12.

A man of the people, he led by example and was a hands-on leader. Whether it was carrying thousands of cocoa bags locked up in rural communities or refurbishing railway lines bare-chested in the 1980s, he was neck-deep in it.

Theghanareport.com walks you down memory lane with some photos from the past…