Aisha Med
Aisha Med, a Ghanaian international model who is currently signed to a Romanian-based modelling agency called MRA, has said Ghana’s modelling industry is not growing as compared to other modelling industries out there.
According to her, it is because “some Ghanaian models have been “selling themselves very cheap.”
She alleged that such models have been engaging themselves in unprofessional activities, exchanging sex for jobs and also offering free services just to be famous.
That, she told NEWS-ONE in an exclusive interview, is killing talents who do not want to indulge themselves in such acts.
“Sex for job exists in our industry. It does. It is everywhere. Because if you won’t do it, other girls will do it. It does exist in the modelling industry, not just some other industries.”
“Yes, I have had an encounter like that and I had to just go home because I didn’t want to do that and I was in a relationship as well. I didn’t do it not just because I was in a relationship but I don’t see myself sleeping with somebody because I wanted a modelling job,” she said.
“What I want to tell our Ghana industry is, the models should stop selling themselves cheap. That one, I will repeat it ten thousand times, because some models would just open their legs wide for anybody to sleep with them just to get a job and make it. But it is not done like that. Some will also do free jobs and it is not good,” she added.
Aisha is an international model of Nigeria and Ghanaian descent. She is signed to MRA for five years and hopes to help shape Ghana’s modelling industry. She is the first born of two sisters and two brothers. She grew up in Obuasi where she started elementary school and moved to Kumasi to continue high school education at the T. I. Ahmadiyya Secondary School. She later moved to Accra to continue her education at the Ghana School of Survey & Mapping. She is currently reading Business Finance at GIMPA.
Her modelling career kicked off in 2008 after a friend of hers called Wayo introduced her to TV presenter Yaw Sakyi of TV Africa who later put her on New Generations programme on TV Africa.
That helped her to build her confidence. Then in 2011, she went for Miss Malaika beauty pageant and made it to the semi-finals. She subsequently appeared in some TV commercials before going for Miss West Africa Ghana. She was the second runner-up, but never received her price packages. In 2015, she took part in Miss Universe Ghana pageant.
“I started modelling as fun and not as a passion, but as time went on, I met people who motivated me so I decided to give it a try… in as much as people liked it, I wanted to put more efforts into it by polishing it, but basically I wasn’t thinking of growing here in Ghana because models are not respected here in Ghana,” she disclosed.
“Somebody would want to book you for a job and he feels he is doing you a favour. Your face is going on their thing and it is going to be there and you ask for an amount and they don’t want to pay you. Sometimes, you do some jobs and you never get paid at all because they feel they are going to put you out there. They don’t get the fact that you are marketing their stuff for them. They just have to put some respect to our work. That’s all I want.”
“Some models want to be famous because they just wanted to be in the limelight. So they will do anything to be in the limelight because that is what they want. They are not doing it because they are working for it. They just want to be known and it ends there. For me, it is not just about being popular, it is about doing what I do best to get some credit for it. Once you are doing it and you are not getting credit for it how do you keep up?” she asked.
She is back in Ghana from Romania for school. She is also enjoying her career with MRA.
“…I am a fresh model for MRA, and basically the agency doesn’t have any black model so everybody wants to work with me. I have to come back home because I have to school,” she said.
By Francis Addo (Twitter: @fdee50 Email: fdee500@yahoo.com)