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Topics: US News, Lifestyle, Community, Social Media, UK News
Joshua Nair
The family of a Texan woman who fled to the Scottish woodlands to join a tribe has spoken out about the ordeal.
Asnat, Lady Safi, real name Kaura Taylor, was reported missing by her family back in the US several months ago, before her recent discovery. It turns out that she has now joined a lost 'African' tribe, who live in a forest by the town of Jedburgh, Scotland.
They claim that they're there to reclaim land which was stolen from their ancestors around 400 years ago, as they explained that Queen Elizabeth I deported native black Jacobites from the UK.
The Kingdom of Kubala consists of just three members: group leader King Atehene, 36, his wife, Queen Nandi, 43, and Taylor.
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Atehene, once named Kofi Offeh, was previously an opera singer but has now claimed he is 'following the ancestral call and the call of the gods'.
Despite the 21-year-old sending a message to British authorities, Taylor's family has commented on the situation and her character.
Taylor, a mother to a one-year-old whom she took to Scotland, wrote online: "I’m very happy with my King and Queen, I was never missing, I fled a very abusive, toxic family."
She further said in a video message: "To the UK authorities, obviously, I am not missing. Leave me alone. I’m an adult, not a helpless child."
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The small community have continued to defy local laws, having been given eviction notices and claiming they are following laws set by their God, Yahowah.
Speaking to The Independent, Taylor's aunt Teri Allen said: “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.”
Following Taylor's claims that she was in an abusive family, the aunt said her younger years were 'very sheltered and protected', pointing out she was 'brought up in church, but not their religion', calling the tribe 'hogwash'.
Taylor kept the move hidden from her family, as Allen claims that she discovered the tribe online through a high school classmate, quickly cutting herself off from the family.
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The tribe aims to increase its population before bringing other lost tribes back to their 'ancestral homeland'.
When she went missing, Taylor was living with her Allen's sister and her aunt, Vandora Skinner.
Speaking to the publication, Skinner noted: “She went missing in May. But she wasn't missing at all, she left to go live with these people.”
Describing her as a teen who could be 'very disrespectful', she even rued: “[Taylor] lived in a four-bedroom house, with her own room, and maybe I shouldn't have been as light on her as I was.
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"I allowed her boyfriends to come over, but maybe I shouldn't have. But I did get her to graduate high school.”
According to the aunt, Taylor even tried to get her boyfriend to move to Scotland with her, but he was put off by the 'rituals' practised by the tribe.
The young adult then broke the relationship off and left the country with her then-eight-month-old daughter, with the father no longer in the picture.
“We had to get out and explore a little bit,” was the message Skinner got from her niece two days after her disappearance.
Skinner claimed she was promised a call when she got wifi, but that was the last time the aunt would hear from Taylor.
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The 21-year-old's best friend spoke to Skinner, though, and she claimed that she didn't know anything about 'these people' her friend was going to live with.
A quick Facebook search told the aunt that Taylor was going to the UK to join the 'Kingdom of Kubala' and she noted that the King and Queen of the tribe had previously welcomed a different young American woman.
Skinner was more upset when she found out that Taylor considered herself King Atehene's second wife, despite not being married.
The aunt pointed out: “Now she’s talking about, she’s married to this man and he can have as many wives as he wants?”
At the advice of a local resident, she reached out to Scottish police, and while her niece is no closer to coming home, the belief that Taylor is on a six-month tourist visa means that she may be forced to return home at the end of November.