The family of a missing Texas woman found living with a lost “African” tribe in the Scottish Highlands fear she has been manipulated by the “king and queen” and are growing concerned over her well-being.
Kaura Taylor, who now goes by Asnat, Lady Safi, of Atehene, has been living in the Kingdom of Kubala, a claimed section of forest in Jedburgh, Scotland, with husband and wife duo, King Atehene and Queen Nandi.
Taylor, a single mother to a one-year-old, left Texas on May 25 and entered the UK on a six-month tourist visa, keeping her connection with the “tribe” hidden from her relatives.
“She went missing in May. But she wasn’t missing at all, she left to go live with these people,” Taylor’s aunt Vandora Skinner told The Independent.
“It is very stressful, and difficult. It breaks our heart. We’re overly concerned about Kaura, but she doesn’t think anyone is concerned about her,” her other aunt Teri Allen told the outlet.
Distraught relatives discovered the 21-year-old’s secret life only after she disappeared and left them a cryptic message saying she and her daughter “had to get out and explore a little bit.”
Allen revealed her niece’s childhood was “very sheltered and protected.”
“She was brought up in church, but not their religion. Not this thing that they got going. It’s a bunch of hogwash,” Allen told the outlet.
Taylor was living with Skinner when she connected with the “kingdom” in 2023, allegedly discovering the Facebook group of the “Kingdom of Kubala” through a high school classmate.
The single mother began talking with King Atehene, whose real name is Kofi Offeh – an opera singer from Ghana and his wife and mother of seven Jean Gasho, now known as Queen Nandi.
Taylor, who serves as Queen Nandi’s handmaiden, claimed she escaped Texas because of her abusive family.
“Yes I’m very happy with my King and Queen, I was never missing, I fled a very abusive, toxic family who abused me sexually since I was a child! So you don’t go ‘missing’ to your abusers,” Taylor said in a Facebook post on Aug. 20.
The “kingdom” claims to be a part of a lost Hebrew Tribe who returned to Scotland to reclaim the land their ancestors had stolen from them over 400 years ago, when Queen Elizabeth I “deported all black people from Scotland and England,” Queen Nandi, whose real name is Jean Gasho, said.
Taylor attempted to relocate to the land 40 miles south of Edinburgh with her then boyfriend, but he was scared off by the couple’s “ungodly rituals,” according to The Independent.
After disappearing, Taylor relayed a message to her family
She kept the secret hidden from her family back home up until she disappeared.
“She said she would have to call me when she got connected to wifi, but then I never heard from her again,” Skinner said.
The tribe claims to live a simple life by bathing in a nearby stream, living in tents and connecting with nature, also has a prominent presence on social media, sharing multiple online and print news articles of their group to their accounts.
Taylor’s social media posts allowed her family to investigate the “king and queen,” revealing Offeh and Gasho had set up a living situation with another American woman, Skinner told the outlet.
The young woman, who isn’t legally married to Offeh, calls herself his second wife and allows the “king” to have “as many wives as he wants.”
Scottish Borders Council said it had been “working with Police Scotland” to manage Taylor and the tribe’s ongoing situation, according to SWNS.
“This has included the provision of advice and information about housing options and other support services,” a spokesperson said.
Taylor’s family hopes she returns to Texas when her six-month visa expires in November.
with Post wires
