Ghana’s first female brigadier general, Constance Emefa Edjeani-Afenu, is dead

The first female general in the Ghana army, Brigadier General Constance Emefa Edjeani-Afenu, is dead. She died at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra yesterday (24 January 2022), following a short illness.

Constance Emefa Edjeani-Afenu was promoted to the rank of brigadier general, the highest position ever held by a woman in the Ghana Armed Forces, on 7 March 2016.

Rise through the ranks

Edjeani-Afenu was commissioned into the armed forces on 25 April 1980 as a second lieutenant after 18 months of regular training at the Ghana Military Academy.

On completion of her initial training, she undertook regimental training by serving as platoon commander to the 2nd Battalion of Infantry in 1980 , after which she was posted as platoon commander and adjutant to the 3rd Border Guards Battalion from 1981 to 1982.

She was subsequently appointed a general staff officer grade 3 in charge of training and personnel at the Border Guards Headquarters (1983-84) and then moved to become adjutant of the Border Guards Training School in Kpetoe in 1984.

In 1995 she was appointed second-in-command of the Ghana Armed Forces Pay Regiment and in 1999 rose to become commanding officer. She was the first woman to occupy any of these postings in the Ghana Armed Forces.

New York to Nimba

In 2013 Edjeani-Afenu became the first woman to be named as deputy military advisor (DMILAD) to Ghana’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, based in New York City, a post she retained until 2016.

In 2016, while still serving as DMILAD, she was promoted to the rank of brigadier general, becoming the first woman ever to be made a general of the Ghana Armed Forces.

She also served as the Armed Forces representative to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department.

Brigadier General Edjeani-Afenu further participated in UN peacekeeping operations under the banner of GHANBATT (the Ghana Battalion) in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL; 1994 and 1998), the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Congo (MONUSCO; 2007) and the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL; 2009).

Wilberforce Asare

Asaase Radio 99.5 – tune in or log on to broadcasts online
99.5 in Accra, 90.7 in Ho, 98.5 in Kumasi, 99.7 in Tamale, 89.5 in Tarkwa, and 106.9 in Walewale
Follow us on Twitter: @asaaseradio995
#AsaaseRadio
#TheVoiceofOurLand

Further she served as Military Observer between 2003 and 2004 in MONUSCO and first female Team Leader in that Mission.