Susanna Al-Hassan or Susan Alhassan was a Ghanaian politician, who in 1961 became Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

's first female parliamentary minister. She has written several children's books.

Al-Hassan was educated at Achimota School

Achimota School

Achimota School , is an elite and highly selective co-educational secondary school located at Achimota in Accra, Ghana. It was established and commenced operations in 1924 and formally opened in 1927 by Sir Frederick Gordon Guggisberg -- then governor of the Gold Coast...

. A beneficiary of the 1960 Representation of the People’s (Women Members) Bill, Al-Hassan was returned unopposed as an MP representing the Northern Region

Northern Region (Ghana)

The Northern Region is the largest area of Ghana. As of 2009, it is divided into 20 districts. The region's capital is Tamale. Climatically, religiously, linguistically, and culturally, the region differs greatly from the politically and economically dominating regions of central and southern...

 in June 1960. From 1961 to 1963 she was Deputy Minister of Education in Nkrumah's republican government. From 1963 to 1966, and again in 1967, she was Minister of Social Affairs. In July 1984 Jerry Rawlings

Jerry Rawlings

Jerry John Rawlings is a former leader of the Republic of Ghana and now the African Union envoy to Somalia. Rawlings ruled Ghana as a military dictator in 1979 and from 1981 to 1992 and then as the first elected president of the Fourth Republic from 1993 to 2001...

 appointed her to Ghana's ruling military junta, the Provisional National Defence Council

Provisional National Defence Council

The Provisional National Defence Council was the name of the Ghanaian government after the People's National Party's elected government was overthrown by Jerry Rawlings, the former head of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council. This was on December 31, 1981. It remained in power until January 7,...

.

In 2007 Al-Hassan was commemorated on a 50th anniversary stamp.

Works

• Issa and Amina, 1963
• Asana and the magic calabash, Longman, 1963. Republished, 1998
• Two tales, 1966
• The river that became a lake : the building of the Volta Dam, 1979
• The river that became a lake: The story of the Volta river project, 1979
• Voices of wisdom, 1994
• 'The Role of Women in Politics in Ghana', Feminist Perspectives, Ottawa: MATCH International Centre, 1994, 9-18.

External links

• Reference to the "late Mrs. Susan Alhassan"