Jerry Rawlings, who as a young military officer orchestrated two coups to seize control of the government in Ghana, then led the country for 20 years, guiding it through a period of relative stability with an idiosyncratic blend of autocratic rule and democratic reform, died November 12 at a hospital in the capital Accra. He was 73.
The death was announced in a statement by President Nana Akufo-Addo, citing an undisclosed illness.
Rawlings was a 32-year-old air force officer when he first attempted to overthrow what he considered a corrupt government in May 1979.
With the help of disaffected soldiers and non-commissioned officers, Rawlings escaped from prison on June 4, 1979, then proceeded to a radio station to urge his followers to seize power.
By the end of the day, Ghana’s military leader Frederick Akuffo had been overthrown.
Rawlings, who was often known as “Flight Lt Rawlings” for his military rank, charged Akuffo’s regime with corruption and profiteering.
“The rich became richer, including high military officers, and most of us were starving,” he said at the time.
Democratically elected leader
A presidential election was already scheduled, and Rawlings vowed to step aside in favour of the new democratically elected leader.
But during his 112 days in power, he oversaw the hasty creation of military tribunals that put Akuffo and two other former heads of state – Ignatius Kutu Acheampong and Akwasi Afrifa – on trial.
The three were publicly executed, along with numerous high-ranking officials.
True to his word, Rawlings and other coup leaders returned to their military positions when Hilla Limann was sworn into office as president.
In a speech at the country’s parliament, Rawlings looked directly at Limann and issued an unmistakable warning.
“If people in power use their offices to pursue self-interest, they will be resisted and unseated,” he said, before ominously adding: “We have every confidence that we shall never regret our decision to go back to the barracks.”
In 1957, Ghana became the first Sub-Sahara country to declare independence from a colonial power, in its case Great Britain.
After Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah was overthrown by the military in 1966, the country faced increasing poverty and unrest under a series of military and civilian leaders.
That trend continued during Limann’s first two years in office, as Rawlings travelled throughout the country, giving speeches to crowds and denouncing the “rottenness of a system that would permit those same corrupt forces to retain their hold on Ghanaian life.”
Limann maligned Rawlings as “that boy”, and some of his associates mocked his mixed-race ancestry, calling him half African.
On December 31, 1981, Rawlings led a second coup, calling Limann and his supporters “a pack of criminals who bled Ghana to the bone”.
This time, Rawlings had no intention of relinquishing authority.
He dissolved parliament, abolished the constitution and banned all political parties except his.
He aimed to establish a socialist state in Ghana, espousing admiration for Libya and its leader Muammar Gadaffi.
“I am prepared at this moment to face a firing squad if what I try to do for the second time in my life does not meet the approval of Ghanaians,” Rawlings said.
He was, without question, an authoritarian ruler who dismissed judges and shut down opposition newspapers.
His regime drove out many of the country’s business elite, particularly those of Lebanese descent, and publicly flogged people accused of charging too much money for commercial goods.
Rawlings withstood several attempted coups, with political dissenters arrested and, in some cases, sentenced to death.
Yet, by the standards of other despots, Rawlings demonstrated a certain measure of enlightenment and restraint.
Instead of imposing Soviet-style economic programmes, he took the advice of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and launched free-market reforms that led to a decade of growth.
He resisted the establishment of a cult of personality around himself and seldom used the title “president”. No pictures of him were allowed in public places, and he was never implicated in scandals involving financial corruption or personal behaviour.
He also pledged to restore democratic elections to Ghana and to allow opposition political parties, provided that they not have names that had been used before.
In 1992, after more than 10 years of one-man rule, he ran for election and won the presidency with 58 per cent of the vote.
Despite economic setbacks over the next few years, he won again in 1996 in an election that local and international observers agreed was free and fair.
Under the new constitution, which he helped produce, Rawlings could not seek a third term.
When his party’s candidate lost the presidential vote in 2000, the peaceful transfer of power was considered a rarity in Africa.
Rawlings was born Jerry Rawlings John in Accra on June 22, 1947. His father was a Scottish businessman, and his mother was from Ghana’s Ewe ethnic community. His parents were not married, and Rawlings was raised by his mother.
When he entered Ghana’s training academy for air cadets, his last name, John, was omitted from his official form, and he became known as Jerry Rawlings, or sometimes Jerry John Rawlings. (Ghanaians often called him “JJ”, which some critics said stood for “Junior Jesus”)
Rawlings excelled as a pilot and, after his first coup in 1979, reportedly celebrated by going for a joyride in a jet fighter, flying low over Accra and the countryside.
Survivors include his wife of 43 years, Nana Konadu Agyeman, who ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 2016; and four children. In later years, Rawlings remained a powerful voice in Ghana’s public life.
Despite his rise to power on the strength of a military coup, he came to be seen as a pan-African statesman and as a primary architect of his country’s emerging social and political stability.
He lectured around the world and participated in peacekeeping and diplomatic efforts for the United Nations and African Union.
In a 1979 interview with The Washington Post, Rawlings cited the influence of Frantz Fanon, a Black psychiatrist and writer from Martinique whose books delineated the dehumanising effect of colonialism and economic inequality.
“Well, that is what we are about,” Rawlings said. “It’s not a Black-White thing here but the rich suppressing the poor, exploiting us, oppressing us.”
