Spouse of Former President, Jerry John Rawlings, Nana Konadu has revealed how she had to endure hearing her mother-in-law suggest awkwardly, that her first daughter, Zanetor had been ‘produced’ from another source since some baby features of hers didn’t portray her mother’s, father’s or any of their parent’s.
Highlighting some pretty controversial aspects of her newly launched ‘It takes a woman’ book, she admitted that the relationship between herself and her husband’s mother was not exactly a smooth one.
This was quite plainly illustrated by the latter she explained, when she had her first baby girl, Zanetor Rawlings who is the incumbent Member of Parliament for Klottey Korle.
Whereas mothers will usually pride themselves with the birth of their first grandchild, thereby coming around to congratulate the new mother among other things, Nana Konadu barely got a conversation from her in-law when she visited the labour ward after Zanetor’s delivery.
Recounting circumstances surrounding the birth of her first born on the ‘Good evening Ghana’ show, Mrs. Konadu Agyeman Rawlings said;
“My little baby girl arrived on the 1st day of June 1978. After her birth, I was wheeled from the delivery room back to the labour ward in a state of extreme exhaustion, the nurses put the baby in a nursery so I could rest, Jerry (Flt. Lt. Rawlings) returned at 9 am and it appeared I had not moved since he left.”
“Nana, he called out, I opened my eyes from a deep sleep and was surprised to see him back so soon. Usually, the military intelligence would keep him for several hours for their interrogations. Have you been released already? Oh yes, they just asked me usual questions he said, I’ll tell you the details later.
The M.I had nothing on him so after interrogating him like several times before, they had to let him go;
When is the baby coming, he asked eagerly, Oh the baby has been born. Already? He questioned, scanning my body covered in blankets. A boy or girl? A girl, she’s in the nursery. I was so exhausted, I drifted back to sleep”.
“…..Jerry’s mother arrived, she embraced her son and was happy to see the new baby but as usual, she had very little to say to me. After observing the baby’s features, she turned back to ask my mother. “Ah! Where could this baby’s nose be coming from? Because in my family, Mrs. Rawlings said, we don’t have such flat noses. I was in disbelief that she could start such an awkward conversation at this moment. I did not have the energy to entertain her off-handed comments”, portions of the book read.
Her mother on the other hand, Nana Konadu explained, in her defense responded;
“Well, this nose is certainly not an Agyeman nose because the Agyemans don’t have such noses so it didn’t come from us, but Vic (Jerry’s mother), if we look at you closely, I think this baby’s nose is like yours”, a response which sort of brought the issue to rest.
About her relationship with her mother-in-law, Mrs. Agyeman Rawlings detailed that though it was not strained, had very little to offer.
“She didn’t quite say much to me, she doesn’t all the time’, she said. “We were okay”, sometimes she is happy with me, sometimes she’s not”.
Responding to the question; “was she at any point against the marriage?”
Nana Konadu answered in the affirmative adding that “…but so was my mother”.
The autobiography released by the 70-year-old former First Lady gives her political account down the years and promises to be a good read.
