They are the self-proclaimed king and queen of an African royal dynasty who set out on a mission to reclaim land ‘stolen’ from their ancestors.
Kofi Offeh, 36, from Ghana and Jean Gasho, 43, from Zimbabwe shocked locals after setting up camp in a Scottish wood claiming it was territory belonging to their ‘lost tribe’ and now part of the northern Kingdom of Kubala.
They live there as King Atehene and Queen Nandi along with their handmaiden Asnat – who is really an American named Kaura Taylor, 21, who vanished from her home in Texas with her one-year-old child three months ago.
The group – who were evicted earlier this month from their original base on land belonging to Scottish Borders council which they renamed Mount Shungu – adopt African tribal robes and face paint as they go about living their unconventional lives in the wilderness.
Dozens of photographs and videos posted on social media show the group performing rituals, dancing around a fire and worshipping as well as carrying out everyday chores at their off-grid tented settlement in the forest outside Jedburgh.
But it wasn’t always like that for the couple who appear to have adopted their mythical identities after a bitter long-running battle with the authorities which led to Ms Gasho losing custody of her eight children.
Images dating back to earlier times show the couple leading an apparently ordinary suburban lifestyle celebrating family occasions and recording everyday events.
Yet as early as 2019, the unconventional nature of their relationship emerged when Ms Gasho wrote an article for a Ghanaian news website entitled: ‘Why my husband is looking for a second wife and I am excited about it.’
Kofi Offeh, right, and Jean Gasho, left. They are the self-proclaimed king and queen of an African royal dynasty who set out on a mission to reclaim land ‘stolen’ from their ancestors
They live in a Scottish wood as King Atehene and Queen Nandi along with their handmaiden Asnat – an American named Kaura Taylor, 21, who vanished from her home in Texas with her one-year-old child three months ago (pictured: Ms Gasho)
In the article, Ms Gasho set out a list of criteria a successful candidate would need to bring to the table, along with conditions spelling out how the relationship should be conducted – and how much it would cost them.
She wrote: ‘If you are a single mother you pay £500 to be considered for a date with him and spend a weekend with him (no intimacy).
‘If you have no children you pay £350 to be considered for a date with him and spend a weekend with him (no intimacy).
‘If you are a virgin you do not pay anything, however your virginity will have to be medically tested and proven (no intimacy).
‘The reason why women have to pay is because my husband is the one doing a service and sacrificing for single black women.’
Hopeful second wives were urged to email applications, including a biography and photograph.
Ms Gasho continued: ‘The successful candidate will become my husband’s wife and have a private marriage ceremony but will not hold a legal marriage certificate.
‘Am I threatened or nervous, of course not. I am a very confident woman in my own right. I don’t mind sharing, my husband has more than enough love in him. I am actually super excited because it means I will have a companion and helper.’
Images dating back to earlier times show the couple leading an apparently ordinary suburban lifestyle celebrating family occasions and recording everyday events
The couple appear to have adopted their mythical identities after a bitter long-running battle with the authorities which led to Ms Gasho losing custody of her eight children
Giving more details to potential recruits she added: ‘Women interested in joining our family will have to pay their way. We are not in a position to feed or look after a woman who wants to be his second wife.
‘You have to be between 25 years and 35 years of age. If you are a single mother, you have to have a minimum of two children. You have to be able to provide for yourself financially.
‘He will take care of your emotional, social and conjugal needs.
‘My husband will hold interviews, and the women who will be selected will go on a date with him, and out of the successful candidates he will select his wife, with my help, but it will be his choice.
‘I will treat the successful candidate as my sister, but she has to know her place that she will be a second wife, she has to be submissive to him, but she will be loved and cherished deeply by her husband, and she will never lack affection or his attention.’
She would later go on and say of her relationship: ‘Yes we do believe in polygamy, hence my Lord Husband does have other wives.’
Ms Gasho, who claims to be an author and artist and has written numerous rambling blogs, told how she was already a mother of four children when she met Mr Offeh in 2015.
She claimed that she had previously married a Zimbabwean man against the wishes of her father, who she said was a wealthy and powerful man back in her home country.
Ms Gasho, pictured left, Kofi Offeh, centre, and Kaura Taylor, right, shocked locals after setting up camp in a Scottish wood claiming it was territory belonging to their ‘lost tribe’
The group – evicted earlier this month from their original base on land belonging to Scottish Borders council which they renamed Mount Shungu – adopt African tribal robes and face paint
Dozens of photographs and videos posted on social media show the group performing rituals, dancing around a fire and worshipping
In one blog posting, Ms Gasho told how her father sent her to the UK when she was 17 and used his political influence to prevent her from being deported.
After arriving in the UK in 2000 she is thought to have gone on to graduate as a psychiatric nurse after studying at Edge Hill University in Lancashire.
She claimed to be in a previous marriage for 12 years before filing for divorce. She claims to have had three children with her first husband and another child with a second man.
Meanwhile her husband who was born Agyemang Kofi Offeh – and was nicknamed Nino – is believed to have studied at the private Valley View University in his hometown of Kumasi.
With his powerful tenor voice he began making a name for himself in his homeland and travelled to London in the hope of becoming an opera singer.
He is said to have had a short-lived marketing career after setting up a firm called Black British Entertainment before setting up a property business in the north east.
Ms Gasho boasted her husband had a portfolio of ‘almost 20 properties’ that included luxury serviced apartments as well as Airbnbs.
Shocked friends told how Ms Gasho had been a loving mother who had helped run the business before her lifestyle changed.
Ms Gasho, who claims to be an author and artist and has written numerous rambling blogs, told how she was already a mother of four children when she met Mr Offeh in 2015
Her husband, who was born Agyemang Kofi Offeh – and was nicknamed Nino – is believed to have studied at the private Valley View University in his hometown of Kumasi
Ms Gasho claimed that she had previously married a Zimbabwean man against the wishes of her father, who she said was a wealthy and powerful man back in her home country
One African video blogger who followed the case said: ‘Friends have classed her as a very hard working woman. She was very classy.
‘What happened to this woman who was running a property business here in the United Kingdom. She would share on her Facebook the properties that she would acquire and would do a makeover.
‘Jean suddenly changed from who she was, a mother that was buying pets for her children – having special gatherings.
‘Jean would always take care of her children, go out to the park, share happy moments, birthdays on her Facebook page. She would go out for meals with her children.
‘How could a young woman who was ambitious, with dreams, renovating properties with her husband suddenly desire power to be worshipped by other human beings?’
Companies House records show the couple’s debt-ridden firm was dissolved through a compulsory strike-off notice in 2023.
By then the couple – who lived at a series of addresses in Stockton-on-Tees and Seaham, County Durham – were already engaged in their battle with social services.
In one blog in 2022 Ms Gasho describes the ‘most painful year’ of her life after having all her seven children ‘taken into captivity’. She gave birth to her eighth child last year.
Ms Gasho boasted her husband had a portfolio of ‘almost 20 properties’ that included luxury serviced apartments as well as Airbnbs
Shocked friends told how Ms Gasho had been a loving mother who had helped run the business before her lifestyle changed
In one blog, Ms Gasho accused social services of ‘abducting’ her children in November 2021.
She complained that one of her children had been placed with a ‘Gay White Couple to teach me a lesson for teaching my son that black is beautiful’.
In one blog she wrote: ‘We were told that the reason for the children’s removal was because our dishes were not washed, there were no clean plates, there was no bedding, there were clothes in the living room and spiritual symbols on their faces and walls.’
At one point Ms Gasho announced the couple had split up during the drama and she apparently moved into a comfortable apartment in Newcastle to recover.
In August last year the couple appeared before Teesside Crown Court accused of child cruelty.
They were due to stand trial in January but prosecutors decided not to present any evidence against them.
The couple later claimed to have ended up sleeping rough in a park in Newcastle before later remerging in Scotland to lay claim to their new kingdom.
The group believe the biblical land of Zion was not in the Middle East, as traditionally thought, but in Scotland.
Records show the couple’s debt-ridden firm was dissolved in 2023. By then the couple were already engaged in their battle with social services
In one blog, Ms Gasho accused social services of ‘abducting’ her children in November 2021
They claim their kingdom is taking back land stolen after asserting that Queen Elizabeth I expelled ‘black Jacobites’ from her realm in 1596.
The group claims Mr Offeh is the messiah and a descendant of King David and that a prophecy foretold that he would tell his people to reclaim their land after 400 years.
In one video on her Facebook page, Ms Gasho is seen fanning Mr Offeh with a peacock feather while he appears to be in a trance.
She says: ‘All hail the King of the North, all hail the Messiah… the Holy seed of David.
‘You are the chosen one. The one to usher us to the Promised Land, here in the holy land of Scotland.’
He replies: ‘The time has come to bring the captives home.
‘The time has come for black power in Kubala.’
In another video shot in the woods, Ms Gasho said: ‘If you do not live in a tabernacle today, if this is alien to you… then you are not called, and you’re not going to make it into the new world we’re right now literally stepping into.
She complained that one of her children had been placed with a ‘Gay White Couple to teach me a lesson for teaching my son that black is beautiful’
After arriving in the UK in 2000 she is thought to have gone on to graduate as a psychiatric nurse after studying at Edge Hill University in Lancashire
‘The old world has gone. It’s now all about eating pasta in the wilderness, Kubala, Kubala.’
Their venture has not gone entirely smoothly.
They claim their first camp was razed to the ground. Ms Gasho said: ‘Everything was burned to ashes. We lost everything apart from the clothes on our back.’
Yet they have also been relying on locals who have provided food and provisions while Mr Offeh has reportedly spent much of his time standing outside the local Co-op supermarket, making use of its free wi-fi.
In their most recent video posting Ms Gasho told how she had just taken delivery of new pillows made of Egyptian cotton which are now in the couple’s bedchamber.
She said: ‘We are on 100 per cent benefits from Jehovah. We bypass the system and just go straight to the creator.’
Ms Gasho was joined by the king who said: ‘Anyone who wants to experience the power of the God of Kubala, this is the place for you.
‘All the chosen ones, all the black people who were deported from Great Britain, from Scotland, it’s time to come home to enjoy the benefits of the creator and dwell in the tents.’
The group claims Mr Offeh is the messiah and a descendant of King David and that a prophecy foretold that he would tell his people to reclaim their land after 400 years
As Ms Gasho began speaking, she pointed out Ms Taylor who was sweeping and tidying up the tent.
The Daily Mail told how concerned relatives reported Ms Taylor missing along with her one year old daughter in May after they vanished.
Her aunt Vandora Skinner told the Daily Mail her niece and the child were living with her in Cedar Hill, south of Dallas before they suddenly left around May 23.
She said the former fast food restaurant worker and high school graduate met the couple online and began acting strangely before leaving America with her baby daughter.
The child is now in the care of the UK authorities after officials found her and Ms Taylor living on a makeshift campsite, she said.
Ms Taylor has insisted she is ‘very happy with my King and Queen’, is ‘not being abused’ and was ‘never missing’.
Addressing the UK authorities, she said: ‘Leave me alone. I am an adult, not a helpless child.’
She is thought to have entered the UK on a six-month visa due to expire in November.
