
For many Ghanaians, Kyeiwaa was a face you never forgot. Rose Akua Attaa Mensah played the title role in the Kumawood film Kyeiwaa, and the character became a household name. She played the witch, the schemer, and the comic with such conviction that, as one social media user said when she reappeared online, they grew up afraid of her. Fame like that is supposed to come with security. Her own account says it did not.
Her story has resurfaced, and it deserves a careful reading rather than a quick laugh or a quick pity.
What She Has Said
According to Graphic Showbiz, Kyeiwaa recently described the financial pressure she faced during her acting years. Her films were showing, and she was a familiar face, yet she could not afford the life people assumed a celebrity lived.
She recalled that passengers in a trotro recognised her and asked why an actress was fighting for a seat like everyone else. She went home sad, and that moment pushed her to think seriously about leaving to find better opportunities abroad.
This matches what she told YEN.com.gh through her YouTube channel, Kyeiwaa Tutugyagu TV. She said she was paid about GH¢1,000 for movie roles and that the pay was a main reason she left for the United States.
In an earlier interview reported by MyJoyOnline in 2022, she described being blacklisted in the industry after rumours spread that she had insulted producers. She said the rumours were false and that nobody asked for her side. Her work dried up. She added that the job she found in America saved her and that she might have died of poverty had she stayed.
The Road Abroad
She settled in the United States, with reports placing the move in the mid-2010s, and stepped back from acting.
Adom Online and coverage summarised by Wikipedia reported that she worked in a Ghanaian restaurant, cooking and selling banku. She said the pay there was better than what she earned as a leading actress in Ghana.
When news of her job broke, some Ghanaians mocked her. She has also responded to critics who laughed at other work she did abroad, which she says included carrying salt and washing chicken coops.
Life there was not easy. She has spoken openly about the language barrier and how difficult it was to find work with little formal education. She has urged young Ghanaians to prioritise education and has advised those who cannot communicate in English not to travel abroad.
She later returned to Ghana and began making skits, according to MyJoyOnline.
My Opinion
I think the mockery of her honest choices tells us more about us than about her.
First, there is no shame in honest work. A woman who sold banku and washed chicken coops to survive, and who then told the story without hiding it, did nothing to be ashamed of. Those who laughed at her should ask themselves how they would have handled the same responsibilities and bills.
Second, her story exposes a business problem. If a lead actress in a film that Ghanaians still quote was paid about GH¢1,000, then the problem is not talent or audience. It is how the industry distributes money. Producers, distributors, and platforms profit when a character becomes famous, but the actors who create that fame often see little in return.
Contracts, royalties, residuals, and unions are not luxuries. They are mechanisms that help performers survive after the cameras stop rolling.
Third, the rumour that allegedly cost her work should concern all of us. By her account, an unproven story spread, and she was shut out without a hearing. A small industry that blacklists people based on gossip will continue to lose talent. Nobody is owed work, but everyone deserves a fair hearing.
Fourth, her warning about education is practical advice, not a lecture. She is sharing lessons from her own experience. Talent may open doors, but skills, language, and training help keep those doors open wherever one goes.
What Her Story Should Lead To
This is not a story of failure. She survived, she worked, and she returned home with a voice.
But her experience should encourage us to rethink how we treat creatives: pay them fairly, put contracts in writing, protect their reputations, and support them when the fame fades.
I write novels and make films, so I understand how little security this field can offer. The least we can do is ensure that the people who entertain us are not left to fend for themselves when the spotlight moves on.
Kyeiwaa made Ghana laugh and shiver for years. The question is whether Ghana will do something about the conditions that sent her abroad.



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