EXCLUSIVE: The full Life Story of Ghana's Sally MonteCarlo & Where She's Been 'Hiding'
Reader's Notice: In response to the numerous enquiries about the whereabouts of former Ghanaian socialite, Sally MonteCarlo, writer Eugene Selorm Owusu delves into her life story, and what she has been up to in her 'hiding place'.
In the early 2000s, a wealthy Ghanaian lady colloquially and popularly known as Sally MonteCarlo erupted into Ghana's show business (showbiz) industry and immediately became the toast of all.
Back then, there were divas, and then there was a supreme diva – Sally – who was like the monarch of all the divas and "slay queens" she surveyed in the country. Her supreme supremacy stemmed from the enormous wealth she had at the time. Indeed, she reigned supreme on the local scene in those days.
Before the arrival of latter-day folks like Nana Kwame Bediako (a.k.a Freedom Jacob Caesar or Cheddar) and Hajia4Real (Mona4Real), Sally was the one known for the ostentatious display of wealth in Ghana.
The lass was always tastefully costumed in expensive designer wear, looking scorching hot anytime, any day (even when she had just awoken from bed, possibly).
Those who had access to her were entranced, and sometimes intimidated, by her magnetic and imposing presence. Some of them even worship the very ground that she walked on. Suffice to add, Sally was like a demi-god, accorded absolute reverence and veneration by her worshippers.
Needless to say, her social life was an unscripted reality show, which generated public attention and interest.
Her $1 million mansion, situated behind the Entrance Pharmaceuticals & Research Center at Spintex – a suburb of Accra (the nation's capital city), was a cynosure of all eyes in the neighbourhood. With an artificial waterfall refreshingly dropping into a squeaky-clean swimming pool, amongst other luxurious features decked out in the house like an Arabian King's palace, Sally's palatial home was a veritable paradise on Earth.
To say that she was very moneyed and luxuriated in sheer opulence is certainly an understatement.
Think American socialite Paris Hilton, and you would understand why Sally MonteCarlo was such a big deal in Ghana.
The Ghanaian socialite was among the first crop of private car owners in the country to start using customised licensed car plates. Her fleet of expensive automobiles, viz. Mercedes-Benz, Escalate, Hummer H2 and Range Rover, either had "MONTECARLO" or "MT.CARLO" ("MT" for Monte) boldly placed on the car plates; except for her BMW car which had "PU55Y", probably the stylised form of the risque word 'P*SSY', as the "55" on the car plate allegedly represents "SS".
She seemed very much attached to her cars, making keen observers wonder if she could ever live without them, especially the Hummer H2 sports car. Perhaps because she was reportedly the first individual in Ghana to have acquired a Hummer, the American-made vehicle became her favourite among the lot. She was often seen tooling around the city in it, apparently to show it off to impress the ever-impressionable Ghanaian public.
Aside from her collection of pricey cars, she also had a private jet at her disposal to satisfy her jetset and Hollywood-celebrity lifeclass. Junketing from one country/continent to another and exploring the world was obviously her favourite pastime.
However, circa 2012, it was on such a trip, which would turn out to be her very last, that she mysteriously vanished into thin air. Her absence in Ghana was immediately felt. Many started making enquiries about the whereabouts of Mama Luu, as she was affectionately called.
But it did not take long before the rumour mill began to grind the news that the popular glamour girl had been arrested in the UK, and was being held in Yarl's Wood Detention Centre at Bedfordshire in England (UK), for illegal drug offences.
The news of her arrest and detention plunged the whole country into shock, shaking the entire foundation of the nation. Some of Sally's kith and kin initially wondered if it was not a smear campaign designed to character-assassinate their beloved diva. But the news about her arrest and detention eventually turned out to be nothing but the truth.
Since then, Nothing has been heard about the self-classd entrepreneur who 'terrorised' the nation, especially the majority 'poor' population, with her extreme opulent living and Hollywood-esque lifeclass in her heyday. She simply disappeared from the scene like an aircraft that had gone missing on radar.
Beginning of Sally MonteCarlo
Born Salamatu Kambonaba (not "Kanbonaba" as spelt in earlier publications) in Bawku in the Upper East Region of Ghana to Mr Mathew Kambonaba and Hajia Adiza Salifu, Sally (the clipped form of 'Salamatu') began her journey on Earth on the 12th of November in 1975.
She started her basic/primary school education in Wa (Upper West Region), where her father worked or was working as a civil servant, having worked earlier in Bolgatanga (Upper East Region) in that same capacity. Sally's parents, who were both Ghanaians, had separated at the time. As a result, she (Sally) and her younger sister by name Saha (who was about a year younger) lived with their father in Wa.
Mr Kambonaba (Sally's father) was later transferred to Accra to work as a personal secretary to the then president of Ghana, His Excellency Dr Hilla Limann, at the Osu Castle – the seat of the Government of Ghana at that time. Accordingly, Sally briefly spent part of her formative years at the Osu Castle in Accra.
In the wake of the Jerry John Rawlings-led coup d'etat on Thursday, 31st December 1981, Mr Kambonaba took his only two children (daughters) – Sally and Saha – to his elder sister, known as Cecilia Azumato Kambonaba, in Sandema (Upper East Region). He then fled Ghana to Nigeria for fear of being persecuted and prosecuted by the fierce military junta that had forcibly taken up the reins of the country.
Sally continued her primary school education in Sandema and stayed there with her paternal aunt (her father's sister), hoping to reunite with her dear father someday.
When the tensions in Ghana had subsided a wee bit in the mid-1980s, Mr Kambonaba evasively returned to Ghana to take her daughters (Sally and Saha) to Cameroon. In the Central African nation, he worked as a teacher in a town called Bamenda until 1989, when he decided to relocate back to Ghana with his daughters.
Now back home in Ghana, Sally was enrolled at the Bolgatanga Girls Senior Secondary School (now Bolgatanga Girls Senior High School) for her secondary school education. But due to her unruliness, she was later given "indefinite suspension" by the school's authorities. Her younger sister, Saha, who was in the same school, completed her education there.
The ever-troublesome Sally was subsequently admitted into Sekondi College (located in the Western Region) to continue with her secondary school education.
She completed school after sitting for the General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (GCE O-Level) in June 1994 – the last time it was written in Ghana before being phased out for the SSSCE (Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination), which was replaced by the WASSCE (West African Senior School Certificate Examination) in 2006.
By then, Mr Kambonaba had settled in Takoradi (Western Region) and had also rejoined the civil service as Director of Education at the Ghana Education Service of the region. Years later, he (Sally's father) became a senior administrative officer at the Western Regional office of the Ministry of Health. And Sally and her younger sister continued to live with him.
Salamatu's (Sally's) inability to pass her GCE O-Level consequently ruined the good relationship she had with her father. One day, in 1994, after one of many 'shouting matches' between the two, she unceremoniously packed out and headed for Accra, via a State Transport Corporation (STC) bus, to start a new life.
As a matter of fact, Sally was a very ambitious girl who had always dreamt of travelling the whole wide world and experiencing the finest things in life, like the Hollywood glitterati she grew up admiring and aspiring to be like.
Accra, being the finest place in Ghana, she moved there to figure out how to actualise those lofty dreams and aspirations she had been courting. Having arrived safely in the capital city in 1994, she pitched camp in a student's hostel. And to fit into the hostel setting, she classd herself as a student of a secretarial school in Accra called Feden School of Secretaries (when, in fact, she was not).
Soon, the belle became a night owl. She basically slept during the day and was wide awake at night, hopping from one nightclub to another. It was during one of those nightly outings that she crossed paths with a businessman from Switzerland.
In no time, they became somewhat of an item: less than 'lovers', but more than 'friends'. Through this Swiss businessman, the doors to Europe (Sally's dream place on Earth) opened for her. After shuttling between Ghana and Switzerland with her Swiss 'boyfriend' for a while, she decided in 1997 to make Switzerland her country of residence.
Life in Switzerland
Barely had Salamatu (Sally) permanently relocated to the European nation when she discovered that her Swiss 'boo' had a secret marital partner. On that discovery, she instantly severed all ties with him and moved on with her life.
Her sojourn in Switzerland came with its own good tidings and bad times.
To continue to live in a country best known for its high standards of living and high-quality infrastructure, she enrolled at an upscale dance school called Lugarno to hone her dancing skills. Naturally, Sally loved to dance; an activity she deemed a great workout routine, and also a way of releasing stress associated with her daily life struggles as an African immigrant in a 'racist' society.
After completing the dance school, she landed a job at one of the best nightclubs in Geneva called Pussycat as a 'stripper'. To ensure she had more than one stream of income, she also worked at another strip club known as Moulin Rouge, also situated in Geneva.
For Sally, stripping was just a fun activity as she was a natural performer of raunchy routines. She had been leisurely practising those erotic and exotic dance moves in front of the mirror in the sanctuary of her bedroom for years. Hence, when she arrived in Switzerland, she decided that was what she would do to stay afloat and not drown in hardship.
As a natural dancer, she thrilled the audience at the two nightclubs she worked at by performing steamy stripteases. It was said that the manner in which she seductively moved and swirled and twirled her lithe body on the podium drove the male audience crazy, with a chunk of these male spectators drooling saliva as they watched on thirstily with gaping mouths.
The Ghanaian stunner (Sally) thus became the magnet that attracted male patrons to the two nightclubs she was performing at. This compelled and impelled the club owners/managers to pay her well so as not to lose her, as losing such a gem of a stripper would be akin to a football club losing its top goalscorer.
As a stripper in the late 1990s in Switzerland, Sally earned 170 Swiss francs (CHF) a night. And at the end of every month, she paid 12.5% of tax on her earnings. It is a huge understatement to say that she made lots of money from stripping, which enabled her to support her younger sister's undergraduate studies at the prestigious University of Ghana, Legon.
Knowing very well that she had overstayed her stay in Switzerland and had become an illegal resident, she strenuously avoided coming into contact with the police and having a brush with the country's laws.
But, as a young, needy lady who had suddenly and unexpectedly found 'fame' and 'fortune' (in stripping) in a foreign land, she possibly got carried away by the dangerous winds of fame along the way. Sally may have also forgotten that she was still a 'log' in a crocodile pond, and not a true crocodile.
In 1998, the then 22-year-old immigrant was fished out (from the pond) and apprehended for being an illegal resident. She was summarily deported in handcuffs with two Swiss policemen in tow to make sure she touched down on Ghanaian soil.
The second coming
As devastating as the turn of events was for Sally, she did not allow her point of fall to become her permanent resting place; perhaps having in mind that in life one had to experience darkness before dawn.
Despite being a youngster at the time, she had a penchant for spurring herself on when discouraging circumstances arose.
After living despondently in Ghana for about a year, feeling desolate and crestfallen, she dusted herself off and devised a plan to return to Switzerland. Her grit and determination to make it in Europe at any cost landed her back in the same country she had been deported from and forever barred from re-entering.
But one may wonder how the Ghanaian deportee had been able to re-enter a nation with a high degree of societal security and robust institutions like Switzerland, unnoticed at the point of entry.
When Sally was departing Ghana for Switzerland, she selflessly assisted one of her struggling friends, named Fawzia, to also get a visa to emigrate to Europe with her.
Fawzia's ultimate dream during her days in Ghana had been to establish herself abroad as a hairdresser. And so, immediately after settling in Geneva, she (Fawzia) set up a modest hairdressing salon purposefully to cater to African women. In a twinkling, the salon became a go-to place for a myriad of African women based in that part of Switzerland and its environs. This was mainly due to Fawzia's adeptness at hairdressing, which she did with gusto.
As typical of African hair salons, irrespective of where they are located in the universe, Fawzia's salon became not only a place for hairdos and hair treatments, but also a 'parliament' for gossiping, where a teeming group of gossipy female 'parliamentarians' convened almost on a daily basis to discuss all kinds of issues. Sally herself was a regular and active 'member of parliament' (MP) in Fawzia's 'parliament house'.
Based on that account, when Sally was deported to Ghana, Fawzia did not leave her bosom friend in the lurch. She (Fawzia) showed up for Sally in the throes of grief to offer all kinds of support.
Before the advanced internet era, fact-checking was quite a challenge for immigration authorities in most countries worldwide. Sally and Fawzia, hence, took advantage of this loophole to outwit the Swiss system. All they had to do was for Fawzia to send her document to Sally, who, in turn, falsified the document by replacing Fawzia's picture with hers. This unscrupulous move enabled Sally to travel back to Switzerland to continue stripping.
On her return, she was very alert not to get arrested the second time, as that would definitely spell doom for her. She kept a low profile this time around as she continued to pursue her European dream in fulfilment of her Ghanaian hopes.
But alas, Sally was arrested again shortly after her return. When her fingerprints were taken, and the authorities realised that she had been to the country before and had been deported, she was arraigned before the court. Switzerland, being a country where if people do the crime, they do the time, Sally was sentenced to ninety (90) days in prison, awaiting another deportation to Ghana.
Life after jail
The three-month stay in jail, which involved highly regimented daily routines, was quite hellish for the Ghanaian convict, considering the 'party animal' she had always been.
She was expected to be deported back to Ghana after serving her short jail term, but that did not happen. Upon her release from prison, she mysteriously disappeared and later reappeared in Monaco, a sovereign European city-state on the French Riviera.
It is worth noting that, while serving her jail term in Switzerland, Sally met a European man who goes by the name Hendrik Kleijn (a Dutch surname also spelt as "Kleyn" or "Klein"), or "Henk" for short. They became good friends and constantly communicated during their time in prison.
Coincidentally, Sally and Henk (the Dutch form of Hank) were both released from prison on the same day. And as fate would have it, she was spirited away from Switzerland to Monaco by Henk, who had completely fallen in love with the Ghanaian beauty while they were in prison; a perfect case of the "power of love"!
In Monaco, the duo lived in a small but affluent suburb called Monte Carlo. There, Henk (Hendrik), who was so fabulously rich, gave Sally a strong financial foothold – the start the Ghanaian damsel had always needed to make something out of her life.
To pay homage to the city that had given her almost everything she had desired in life, she adopted the name 'Monte Carlo' as her moniker. And that was how Salamatu Kambonaba became popularly known as "Sally MonteCarlo" (or Sally Monte Carlo).
In June 2001, the lovebirds officially became 'Adam & Eve'. The marriage union was memorialised in a mixed-race daughter named Cornelia, also known as "Coco", who was born in December 2002 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, where Henk (Sally's husband) hailed from.
Back home again
Circa 2004, when Mrs Salamatu "Sally" Kleijn made her permanent return to Ghana following her sojourn in Europe, she allegedly came along with loads and loads of hard currencies: dollars, euros, pounds and francs.
The fashionista boasted of a vast wealth worthy of anyone's envy. In those early days of her grand return, she was the most flamboyant private individual in the country. Expectedly, family and friends swarmed around her like bees, hoping to benefit from her largesse.
As the saying goes, "a fool and their money are soon parted." But Sally MonteCarlo was no fool. Having seen the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of life, the young hustler had become as wise as a reincarnated soul at that point in her life.
So, instead of sharing or throwing her hard-earned money around like confetti to impress all those leeches and parasites, she thought it wise to invest in profitable business ventures to fortify herself financially.
Having contemplated entrepreneurship, she took the plunge to open a high-end fashion shop in 2004 called Monte Carlo Forever Fashion House, located at Osu Oxford Street in Accra. Through the fashion business, she became a local dealer in top Western fashion brands such as Gucci, Christian Dior, Roberto Cavalli, among other top fashion brands.
In 2007, she set up an exotic bar and a restaurant, and a nightclub called Monte Carlo Grand Cafe (opposite the site which used to house Metro TV at Labone in Accra). Along the way, she added a new modern bar to her business establishment called Monaco Avenue (in honour of Monaco, one of her former places of residence in Europe).
In Sally's quest to be at the forefront of Ghana's tourism and hospitality industry and to help push the country's tourism drive, she added more facilities to the existing ones, including a new VIP private clubbing section for private individuals. She also deemed it prudent to relocate her Monte Carlo Forever Fashion House from Osu to the new site at Labone.
With all sections of her Monte Carlo businesses now in one place, what the young businesswoman sought to do was to make it convenient for patrons/customers to do almost everything at one location: savour on Ghanaian and continental dishes; sip on drinks; shop for the world's finest designer clothes and accessories, et cetera, et cetera.
No wonder the ambience at Monte Carlo Grand Cafe was reflected in its slogan: "We don't make the party, we are the party."
Though she had been branded by some people as uppish, Mrs Kleijn (Sally) was generous to a fault. Her noble generosity went as far as adopting a maternity ward at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra. The philanthropist regularly paid medical bills for new mothers at the ward.
During media interviews, she never shied away from sharing her journey from a childhood of instability in Ghana to the hustles and struggles in Switzerland, as well as her eventual breakthrough in Monaco, and now back home as a 'self-made' rich entrepreneur.
Despite her troubles abroad, it was her business acumen and genuine generosity on her return to the country that would ultimately prevail over her troubling past. In fact, Mama Luu embodied the perseverance that comes with the unforgiving life of a young, unprivileged go-getter.
Foray into entertainment
Sally MonteCarlo first knocked on the door of stardom in the mid-1990s, after relocating from Takoradi to Accra to begin a new life. At the time, she was singing and rapping with the likes of Reggie Rockstone, an experience she would later on in life realise was a useful baptism into the world of music and entertainment.
Like a prophet, she was one of the few people who realised very early the potential of Hiplife music (Ghana's localisation of American Hip Hop originated by Reggie Rockstone) to become a mainstream genre on Africa's music scene. Therefore, she dabbled in it before leaving the shores of the country in the late 1990s for greener pastures.
When she moved back to Ghana in the early 2000s, she devoted some time and energy to supporting the music and entertainment industry, as well as the tourism sector of the nation.
In March 2005, when Citi 97.3 FM flew in Jamaican dancehall act Beenie Man and Nigeria's 2 Face Idibia for a two-night music concert at the Accra International Conference Centre and Accra Sports Stadium in commemoration of Ghana's 48th independence anniversary, with the second night concert at the stadium flopping (an incident that nearly resulted in Samuel Attah-Mensah (Sammens) and his Citi FM crew, including the almighty Bernard Avle, being beaten up at the venue), Sally MonteCarlo linked up with the aforementioned music artistes afterwards.
It is on record that she played a crucial role in the musical collaborations between her long-time buddy, Reggie Rockstone, and the visiting music stars: Beenie Man and 2 Face Idibia.
For the two songs that were released after that musical encounter, namely "King Meets King" a.k.a. "Chuku Chaka" (Reggie Rockstone featuring Beenie Man & Kochoko) and "Nfana Ibaga Remix" (2 Face Idibia featuring Beenie Man & Reggie Rockstone), Sally made sure that they never went through the hassle of shooting music videos for the two songs.
She actively participated in all activities behind the scenes, including providing costumes and make-up for both video shoots. She even made a cameo appearance in the "King Meets King" (Chuku Chaka) video and went on to give the production crew carte blanche to use her famous mansion at Spintex for the entire video shoot for "Nfana Ibaga Remix".
The two music videos, shot and edited by Ghana's Ezekiel Tetteh a.k.a. "STIP" (then of OM Studios), were originally released collectively as a nine-minute-long music video; with 2 Face Idibia's "Nfana Ibaga Remix" as a sequel to Reggie Rockstone's "King Meets King" (Chuku Chaka) video, which had been filmed at defunct Accra-based nightclub Rema's Place (or Rema's) and the iconic Hush Hush Studios.
About a year later, Sally MonteCarlo also entered the studio to record a slow-tempo dancehall track titled "Keep Moving On" with Batman (who shortly became 'Batman Samini', and is now simply called Samini).
Around that same time in 2006, when music producer Jay Q wanted to discard his popular male-baritone signature jingle, which he had been adding to his music productions, it was Sally that the celebrated Ghanaian music producer fell on to lend her voice for the new jingle. As a result of that, her ear-piercing voice can be heard on some of the songs produced by Jay Q, such as "Comm. Centre" by Castro; Okyeame Kwame's "Medo Mmaa"; and "E Dey Be" by Mzbel (featuring Castro).
Where's Sally? Dead or alive?
The burning number one question that has been on many lips since Ghanaian media personality Bola Ray earlier this year (January 2025) posted on social media an archival video of a 2006 TV interview he had with the former socialite has been: "Where is Sally MonteCarlo?"
Everything concerning her arrest and detention in Europe, as well as her deportation to Ghana, has been somewhat shrouded in secrecy.
Besides, Sally's inner circle (purportedly including her 'cousin' Samira Yakubu, Jackie Appiah, Kalsoume Sinare, Reggie Rockstone, and Confidence Haugen of Aphrodisiac Nightclub fame) has remained tight-lipped about the whole incident to date.
A couple of years ago, when news broke about a certain Hajia MonteCarlo who had passed on in her home in Hamburg (Germany), a section of the Ghanaian public at first believed the deceased was good 'old' Sally. It later turned out, however, that the late German-based Ghanaian lady was not the real McCoy (Sally) as had been circulated. According to insiders, the late Hajia MonteCarlo had been a "Sally-MonteCarlo wannabe" and had assumed the name 'Monte Carlo' as an expression of respect for her Ghanaian idol (Sally MonteCarlo).
Rumours have been rife in recent times that Sally is still alive and resides in Ghana. Through the grapevine, it has been made known that she is domiciled in Tamale (Northern Region). Occasionally, she is seen in the Upper East Region, specifically in Fumbisa (her father's hometown and where he was buried in 2012), as well as in Sandema, where she (Sally) partly spent her formative years with her father's elder sister.
Perhaps because she has 'lost' almost everything in life, including her glamorous looks, it has been easy for the former glamour girl to assume an anonymous existence without being recognised. Moreover, it has been alleged that she has been battling a cancer disease, which, according to sources, is currently in remission.
From the foregoing, it's evident that Mama Luu has been holed up in the northern part of Ghana all these years incognito and obviously languishing in silence.
What she has been up to since stealthily returning to the country, following her deportation in September 2016, remains a mystery, even the mystical Komfo Anokye may not be able to demystify.
Salamatu Kambonaba's life story is a classic example of how an individual can/could be on top of the world, and the next moment, that same person's high-flying life would suddenly take a nosedive like an aeroplane, crashing to pieces in the end. Oh, the vagaries of human life indeed!
Written by Eugene Selorm Owusu
E-mail: eugeneselorm@gmail.com