Ruler · 1947 – 2020

Jerry Rawlings

Lived 1947 – 2020; politician, military personnel. President of Ghana (Ghana), 1979 and 1 more term.

For the full story, the article on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); this page holds what the record says of the reign.

Lived: 1947 – 2020; 73 years
In office: 20 years; 2 reigns
Lines: 1; Ghana
Left it: left office alive; read off the dates alone

President of Ghana

Ghana · the 9th and 11th of 16 dated reigns · 1957 – 2025

5 before

Edward Akufo-Addo1970 – 1972

Ignatius Kutu Acheampong1972 – 1978

Fred Akuffo1978 – 1979

Jerry Rawlings1979

Hilla Limann1979 – 1981

Jerry Rawlings1981 – 2001

John Kufuor2001 – 2009

John Atta Mills2009 – 2012

John Mahama2012 – 2017

2 after

killed, executed or dead in battledeposed, abdicated, exiled or removeddied in officeleft alive by a regular roadstill in officeending not on recordthis entry

Reigned 1979 · under a year · came to it aged 32 · term 1 of 2

Left it: left office aliveread off the dates alone: the term ends in 1979; they died in 2020

Reigned 1981 – 2001 · 20 years · came to it aged 34 · term 2 of 2

Came to it: seized power
Left it: left office aliveread off the dates alone: the term ends in 2001; they died in 2020

After handing power over to a civilian government, he overthrew the democratically elected Government through a military coup on Thursday, 31 December 1981, as the chairman of the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC).

Open in the atlas

Jerry Rawlings in the atlas: the article, every line they sat in, and the map in their years.
Analyse the succession of Ghana: every reign, how each ended, and the numbers over them.
States of Sub-Saharan Africa, and every state with a page.

Wikidata Q51002 (CC0) · the reigns from Wikidata's P39 terms, the rulers' own articles read by grammar (sentences quoted above, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Kokkonen & Sundell where they code the line · data built 2026-10-06 · Pastlas v2.9.1, by Oleh Voronko. The published atlas and its data are for non-commercial use.