Akumaa Mama Zimbi (known in private life as Dr. Joyce Akumaa Dongotey-Padi) is a Ghanaian women’s rights leader, television and radio talk show host, actress, philanthropist, sex educator, relationship expert and marriage counsellor.
She is committed to enhancing the status of underprivileged women in Ghana and reviving broken marriages.
She is also the Founder and Executive Director of Mama Zimbi Foundation (MZF), a non-governmental organization which seeks to empower and support widows through its Widows Alliance Network (WANE) project.
And also involved in the issues of adolescents (Adolescents Sexual Reproductive Health).
She is the host of Ghana’s number one radio and television talk show on Marriage, Love and Sex called “Odo Ahomaso” on Adom 106.3 FM and Multi-TV respectively (Adom TV).
Though, she used to host the superb TV talk show ‘Akumaa Mama Zimbi Show’, she is also a blogger on love, relationship, marriage and sex education.
She has been a relationship and marriage counselor for 14 years and many couples turn to her for solutions to problems in their relationships.
But Akumaa Mama Zimbi aka Joyce Akumaa Dongotey-Padi has revealed in an interview that contrary to what many of her clients think, she has her own share of problems in her marriage.
Perhaps the difference between her case and those she counsels is that when she needs advice, she doesn’t counsel herself; instead, she turns to her mother.
“People assume that because I am a marriage counselor and because of the way I advise people on my Odo Ahomaso talk show on Adom FM, I do not have problems in my marriage.
The truth is my marriage is not perfect, I am also as human as my clients are and definitely I have issues with my husband but any time I do, I turn to my mom for help”,
she said in an interview with Showbiz in November 2014.
“The relationship between my mom and I is so close that I don’t see myself going anywhere else” ,she said.
Giving an example of some the challenges that she faces in her marriage, she said;
“sometimes my husband does not come home early and once in a while, I hear reports about him hanging out with another woman and it is just normal that a wife would want to protect her territory so when I’m unable to get a satisfactory explanation, I run to my mom for advice if it begins to take the better part of me.”
In an answer to why she would not advice her clients to go to their mothers for help just as she does, she said;
“It is my job to give solutions to other people’s problems but that does not make it mandatory that I also go to a counselor for help when I know I have someone who can help me.
I am sure, the people who bring their issues to me think of me as someone they can talk to just as I also see my mom as someone I can talk to.”
“Most people are not patient when it comes to dealing with issues especially in relationships.
I will advise that, instead of you wishing to have what someone has, be patient and allow God’s will be done in your life.
If you do not have patience, you invite other negative attributes like jealousy, greed, uncontrolled anger into your life which if not handled well, will destroy you,” she said.
In 1999, she received the ACRAG Talent Award for Discovery, for her acting role in Cantata which is shown on GTV.
She was also awarded the most coveted ACRAG Best Female Radio Personality Award in 2008.
Other awards she has also won are Miss Yilo Krobo in 1992 and 1996, a Ghana Social Marketing Foundation (GSMF) Best Journalist Award for Adolescent and Reproductive Health in 2001 and Miss Obaapa in 2007 .
As an actress, she has played in movies like The Lost Hope, Accra Killings, Two Troubles, One God and I Want To Be A Woman.
Sources : Graphic.com and African-research.com
