President John Dramani Mahama’s father is Emmanuel Adama Mahama, born in Bole Bamboi and had ties to Damongo, the former capital of the West Gonja District. Mr Emmanuel Mahama was a prominent Ghanaian politician, educator, and rice farmer from the Gonja ethnic group in the Savannah Region. A devout Presbyterian, his Christian values profoundly shaped his family’s upbringing.
His multifaceted career began as an educator in the Northern Region, where he also ventured into rice farming, an enterprise he significantly expanded later in life.
Emmanuel Adama Mahama was a close ally of Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. He served as the first Member of Parliament for the West Gonja constituency and the first Northern Regional Minister (then referred to as Regional Commissioner) under Nkrumah’s government during Ghana’s First Republic.
He was instrumental in supporting Nkrumah’s administration, particularly in the Northern Region. – Attached is a photograph of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of the Republic of Ghana, pictured with his Ministers. Emmanuel Adama Mahama (wearing a smock) is in the far-right corner.
A rare photo of Emmanuel Adama Mahama, father of President John Dramani Mahama, with Queen Elizabeth II during her state visit to Ghana in November 1961.
Emmanuel Adama Mahama also served as Deputy Minister of Industries during Nkrumah’s government and represented Ghana at the 1963 Leipzig International Fair in the German Democratic Republic.
Following the 1966 CIA-backed coup that overthrew President Kwame Nkrumah’s government, Emmanuel Adama Mahama was imprisoned for two years due to his political involvement as a close ally of Nkrumah.
His son, John Dramani Mahama, while revealing why he was reluctant to venture into politics, noted that his dad’s traumatic experience led him to pursue a career as a commercial rice farmer.
Despite Emmanuel Adama Mahama’s reluctance to re-enter politics, he later served as a Senior Presidential Adviser during Ghana’s Third Republic under President Hilla Limann (1979–1981), reflecting his continued influence in Ghanaian politics aligned with Nkrumah’s legacy. His appointment stemmed from Limann’s need for experienced allies sympathetic to Nkrumah’s ideals, as Limann’s People’s National Party (PNP) drew inspiration from Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party (CPP).
After serving as a Senior Presidential Adviser during Hilla Limann’s government (1979–1981), Emmanuel Adama Mahama was deeply affected by the 1981 coup d’état led by Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, which overthrew Limann’s administration.
He went into exile in Nigeria after the 1981 coup, as noted by his son, John Dramani Mahama, in his memoir titled “My First Coup d’État: And Other True Stories from the Lost Decades of Africa”, published by Bloomsbury on July 3, 2012.
An exclusive throwback video of President John Dramani Mahama recounting how he was raised in Offa, Nigeria, by his stepmother, a Yoruba woman, after his father, Emmanuel Adama Mahama, sought exile there following the 1981 coup that overthrew Hilla Limann’s government.
Emmanuel Adama Mahama passed away on June 14, 2001, and at the time of his death, he had 19 children, including the current President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, and Business mogul and Philanthropist Ibrahim Mahama.
A throwback video of President John Dramani Mahama talking about how his father, Emmanuel Adama Mahama, and Dr. Bawumia’s father, Alhaji Mumuni Bawumia, were close friends, noting that they both attended Tamale Senior High School, served as Northern Regional Ministers, each had 19 children, and called each other neighbors because they lived in the same vicinity.