Scottish authorities have cleared a self-styled African “Kobala Kingdom” from a woodland encampment near Jedburgh after a sheriff ordered an immediate eviction, local media reported.
Police detained the group’s leader, known as King Atheny (birth name Kofi Ofei), 36; his Zimbabwean wife, Jan Gasho, who calls herself Queen Nandi; and an American aide, Kaura Taylor, 21, nicknamed “Asenath,” according to the Guardian.
Taylor, from Dallas, had been reported missing in May. Her family later spotted her living with the group in Scotland. The eviction was livestreamed on Taylor’s TikTok account on Thursday morning, showing a man and a woman being escorted from the woods.
The landowner, David Palmer, complained that the encampment was on private property and was causing a disturbance, prompting legal action. After shifting to an adjacent plot owned by the Scottish Borders Council, the group was again served. On Wednesday, Sheriff Peter Paterson issued an order requiring them to vacate immediately; none of the group appeared in court.
The trio, who describe their project as reclaiming land taken from their ancestors 400 years ago, say they do not recognise state ownership. Ofei, a former opera singer who claims descent from the biblical King David, said the “Kobala Kingdom” endures “by the will of the Creator” and does not accept that the earth “belongs to any authority.”