Oheneyere Gifty Anti: Woman With 'Super Crazy Faith In God'
It’s difficult to meet Oheneyere Gifty Anti, the female television host of one of the most-watched shows in Ghana and not compare her to the other well-known talk-show host, Oprah Winfrey. The similarities are striking, Gifty Anti, as she is affectionately called, was born into poverty and raised by her father before going on to become a journalist and on-air host for the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). She then launched her own show The StandPoint on GTV, to discuss social, political, cultural, traditional, health, and leadership issues affecting women, including female genital mutilation, widowhood rights, and breast cancer, among others. But there is so much more to Gifty Anti’s story and we had the opportunity to sit down with her in Accra, Ghana to learn how she juggles her career, family life, and two charities. Here’s what she had to say in her own words.
Yolande: Tell us a little bit about your upbringing.
Gifty Anti: I was the one they used to call the pension baby because I was born to my father in his old age. I was the last of eight children and I was actually born in the Eastern region of Ghana but grew up in Tema. I went to primary school there, middle school, all government schools. I worked for seven years at GBC and then I went to do my master’s degree in International Journalism in London and came back and have been working ever since.
Yolande: Did you always want to be a journalist?
Gifty Anti: Growing up in Tema wasn't easy, as I said, I was a pension baby and my father didn’t have much. All of my friends growing up went to preparatory school and I was the only one who went to a government school but I was ok because I had my father’s love. My father was very strong on love and showed us that this is not the end of your life, you can do something with your life so keep striving. I never even owned a watch but my father was very strong in love and would explain why I couldn’t have this or that.
So after school, my ultimate goal was to make my father proud and I did so with everything I had to do legitimately, legally to make him proud. I just stayed the course, worked hard and even though people were calling me names and said Gifty Anti is doing everything, but yes, I was single, I didn’t have a child and didn’t have any responsibilities – why not work hard with all my heart and build a reputation. Now all those years of working hard and building a reputation, that is what has brought me this far.
Yolande: Tell us about “The StandPoint” and how you got here.
Gifty Anti: People have seen me go through the process, they've seen what I have done, they've seen what I can do, so it is easy for them to call me and rely on me to do this or that for them. And that includes starting my own program. It has been ten years since I started the Standpoint TV show and it’s successful because I worked hard when I didn’t have much responsibility. Now I have many responsibilities, I am married to a chief, I have a daughter, I have my own business and I am running two charities, you see I came to work with my daughter, I can manage and I can afford to take time off work and remain relevant because I have built a reputation.
And I have been through the process. I married at the age of 45. So from the age of 22, when you are expected to get married, up to the age of 45, I was on TV, I was doing my own thing being called names but I was single. I was being an achiever. I mean, I was 38 when I started the Standpoint and so for seven years, I was talking on a woman’s program, advising, encouraging, motivating but I wasn’t married and didn’t have a child. I got married at 45 and had a child at 47 years old.
Yolande: Wow. Tell us a little more about that and how you met your husband.
Gifty Anti: Many years ago, about 15 years ago, a newspaper interviewed me and I told them that I wasn’t looking for marriage, I am on the move and getting on with my work. If marriage catches up with me then that is fine. Do you know how I met my husband? I was going to promote the fourth anniversary of my TV program and he was the station manager. That is how I met my husband. So if I was sitting at home I wouldn’t have met him. He had lived in London for a long time and he had seen me on TV but he didn’t know that I was the Gifty Anti. The first thing he said to me when he met me was, “You look prettier in person than on TV.” That was his pick-up line. When we started going out, some of his friends said to him, “Are you sure you can date this woman? Do you know who she is?”
We went out for three years and then got married and have been married for three years and of course, there is a lot of added responsibility but what I am saying is don’t let anybody discourage you. Once you have faith in God – I call myself a woman with super crazy faith in God – because I have seen God do it over and over and over again. The fact that it didn’t happen for somebody else doesn’t mean that it won’t happen for you. No one knows your destiny, we all have individual destinies so even if we are twins we still have individual destinies, so don’t look at anybody else just work with what God has given you. Do God’s business and He will do your business. Do your best and surrender the rest to God. I am so sure that I have a daughter now because of the sacrifices I have made for other people’s children.
Yolande: The Bible says, “Many are the children of a barren woman” and even though you counsel and mentor so many young women did you ever think you would have a child of your own?
Gifty Anti: When you avail yourself to God and give Him your all, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have issues, but when you open your heart and reach out to people and follow your ministry, God has a way of taking care of you. I was told by doctors that I couldn’t carry a baby. I went for an ordinary examination with a doctor I met through my TV show. I went to him because of painful fibroids and menstrual cramps and he took a look at it and told me that the fibroid was sitting on my hip and that’s what was causing the problem. So he recommended surgery to take it out and so we did the surgery and then he said your womb is fine, you can carry a baby – let’s start treatment. And I’m here with a baby.
Yolande: That’s amazing that you had a baby naturally at 47 years old. So many women give up at 40 because we’ve been told that it’s impossible to conceive a child naturally beyond a certain age.
Gifty Anti: I had a conversation with my husband and told him, you are a chief, people will be asking you for a child and I can’t give you a baby – not I may not but I can’t because that is the point that I reached. I had three different doctors tell me that I couldn’t bear children. I tried IVF four times, it didn’t happen but with treatment when it was time, God gave it to me. And guess what, at the time God gave it to me – I called my daughter Nyame Animuonyam, which means “for the glory of God.” The number of women whose hope has been rekindled, who say God is faithful, who know that God did it for me. There’s a young lady who is pregnant now who said when she heard that I had given birth, she said Lord, if you did it for Auntie Gifty, you can do it for me. Now she’s pregnant.
Yolande: Your story speaks to me on so many levels especially as a single woman without children who also started her own magazine to tell stories about women.
Gifty Anti: Just remember that everything that we go through is not just for us, but for the benefit of others. It’s for the generations yet to come. So that one day someone will come to you and tell you about how she is struggling because she is not married but then you can say – here is my story. It wasn’t easy as well but I kept the faith and didn't give up. Every good motivational speaker has a story. We go through these things so that God can be glorified. God created women to be a helpmate and if men could do it all, we would not be here but we were there from the beginning because we have a function and a role to play. My role as the wife of a chief is not easy. I organize shoe donations and many other projects for the kids in the village. If I wasn’t doing what I was doing, my husband wouldn’t benefit from being married to “the Gifty Anti.” If you don’t have anything to offer, how can you be a helpmate? If you don’t have anything to offer, what can you do?
Yolande: I believe that all women have superpowers. What would you say is your superpower?
Gifty Anti: My superpower is my faith in God. I have friends in my age group who are grandparents and I had a child at 47. But the glory it has brought to God, the number of people whose faith has been rekindled because of my testimony – that is all I have ever wanted in life, that my life would be a testimony. So I talk about myself and tell my story freely. The Bible says, “They overcame by the power of their testimony. My pregnancy started with a bad flu when I was going through treatment but when I called my doctor and he said to come in, I said no. I had a Gathering of Daughters, my annual conference for women, that day so I told him I couldn’t come. That day I danced and gave praises to the Lord at the Gathering of Daughters and then I went to see the doctor the next day and he told me I was pregnant. In all things, give thanks to God because praise and worship does amazing things. Sometimes we are so down we think we can’t praise but in the midst of your tears give praise to God. And it just worked miracles. If only we could understand the timing of God, the waiting period is not easy. It’s tough and it’s okay to ask God questions like “what is this?” “what does this mean?” but keep holding on. The fact that this program that I host has been on TV for ten years, even through all of the challenges I have faced, is a miracle.
Yolande: How did you overcome the challenges?
Gifty Anti: Like David, I always encouraged myself, especially after my dad died, he was my everything. My mom is gone as well and I am now an orphan but what I have is a voice. It’s the talent that God has given me and I’m not letting anybody take it away from me. Somehow I convinced myself that if I die today and I go to heaven and God asks me, “What did you do with what I gave you? The opportunities and doors I opened for you?” What am I going to say? Oh Lord because you didn’t give me a husband or because you didn’t give me a child so I didn’t work? I consistently told myself that I need to have something to give an account for. There is more to life than just to struggle and then perish, you have to win somehow. So I kept going and doing my best, helping and encouraging people, working hard, and telling people’s story and what I have is a voice and a platform. The little that I have, I share it.
Yolande: You are very generous and regularly raise money for women who are struggling. Tell us how you started your foundation, Girls In Need.
Gifty Anti: When I was born, I was told that I was called Nancy but then my father said, “no I am too generous,” so he changed my name to Gifty or “gift of God.” I have always tried to be generous even as a child with my friends – so people always come to me for support – but it came to a point when it became too much and I realized that they are coming to me because there is a need not just because they want to have my food or get something from me but because there is a need. So I just decided that I needed to do something, I needed to raise funds. It came to my mind that we are 26 million Ghanaians and if just one million people gave me one cedi, I can send so many girls to school and then they can make better choices about their future. So that’s how we started Girls in Need Foundation. If there is just one person who can benefit – then I will keep doing it.
Learn more about Gifty Anti. The Standpoint TV Show and The Girl In Need Foundation by visiting her website: www.thestandpoint.com/gh
