Nana Yaa (Nayas) stayed in Germany with her husband, Nana Sarfo Kantanka, for eighteen months after selling her belongings to foot her travel expenses although she was unsure why she married him. While the Ghanaian actress and singer kept her hopes high, the narrative turned sour four months into the marriage.

“I regretted it after four months because my Visa was for just three months. About a week to its expiration, I began having regrets but I was hopeful things would turn around.

“When I cast my mind back to the time I was in Ghana, how I was able to eat what I wanted and survived as an independent woman who even took care of my family, I realized I had made a mistake. No help was underway so I decided to stay,” she told Deloris Frimpong Manso on The Delay Show in the Twi language.

With a determination to make it, Nayas started working as a cleaner. While she did that, her husband discouraged her from dressing nicely as he insisted cleaners were not to wear fancy or attractive clothes, she claimed.

Nayas recalled becoming the breadwinner of the nuclear family after her husband fell ill and despite making money from her daily struggles, she had no right to “even buy sanitary pads” without his approval.

“We relied on my salary. Even with that, I never touched it without his consent. A number of people gave me money but whenever they did, he took hold of it,” she claimed in the interview monitored by GhanaWeb.

On why her husband sacked her from the house, Nayas said that was her reward for complaining about the manner she was treated.

She said: “He ordered me not to talk to anybody. He claimed all the women are depressed and none of the men is of good behavior so he was the only one I should be engaging. I got bored sometimes.”

“He complained I was disturbing him whenever I played songs on my phone, it was more like I had to sleep even when I was not sleepy. I go out to work and when I’m back, I must sleep. It was frustrating and when I complained, he sacked me.”

According to her, she was sacked on four occasions. In one of the instances, she reported her husband to the police with the hope that he would change but that was an exercise in futility.

“When he sacked me for the first time, I went to the police station. I didn’t go there to report him; I thought they’d bring me home so he wouldn’t sack me again. But they told me it’s not done in Germany,” she narrated.

She mentioned that the police officers told her “That, if he angrily sacked me, nothing good could be guaranteed when I go back. So, they gave me accommodation and I spent about three days there. He later came and begged me so I went back. He sacked me on four occasions.”

Nayas got married to Nana Sarfo Kantanka in 2019 at a private ceremony in Kumasi. The marriage, however, collapsed in 2021.





BB