 Africa is with them. Redemption comes one day, like a storm. It will be here, Africa for Africans, but home and abroad, west of Black Moses, who propose for the return of all blacks in the diaspora back to Africa, back to Africa from the Black Star Line to effect this. Man, I'm really loving what I'm seeing in here. The repatriation is really happening. And I've been talking to people who have been in Africa, like in Africa, let me say Africa. I've been talking to people who have been in Africa for one year, two years, three years, but someone actually introduced me to someone that have lived in Africa for more than 30 years. She was not born here, but she feels like Africa is home. I don't want to talk too much, but I'd love to introduce her, but no, I'm not going to introduce her. She will introduce herself. And let's come with me. Let me... Grandma. Yes. Good to see you. It's good to see you. I know you don't shake hands, so let me get a hug. It's the year of high. Thank you so much, Grandma. Wow. Yes. It looks so beautiful, Grandma. But I see. Oh, wow. Grandma, you speak Yes, exactly. Grandma, a lot of people are talking about you. Do you know you're famous? I never thought about that. Famous. You're very famous. Yeah. Like on social media, everyone was saying, what am I? You cannot be talking about the diaspora without meeting grandma who has established one Africa in Cape Coast. I've been passing by it on from Takradi. I was passing by it. I never knew that. There is a hidden place called White Africa. It didn't even tell me your name. Oh, that's right. I didn't. Well, my name is Imaqus. That's I-M-A-H-K-U-S. All capital letters with two little dots over the U. Imaqus in Jenga, a Kofu, a Babio. Imaqus means I'm of Africa, queen of the earth. In Jenga was the name of the warrior queen from Angola. A Kofu means the mighty warrior, which I took that on when my husband was made chief. And Ababio or Ababiu means he or she who was away and has returned. So I am Imaqus or people just call me one Africa. How did you manage to settle in here? Let's talk about like you're born in America. Yes, I'm an African who was born in America, first and foremost. Come again. You're an African who was born in America. So don't call me an African American. I'm an African, first and foremost. I was born in America. Just like this person is an African who was born in Jamaica. You're an African who was born in Ghana. So we are one Africa. We're one African people. What brought you African born in America? What brought you back to the continent? Well, I have never, prior to 1987, I'd never been to the continent. Well, I backpacked through South America. I lived in Jamaica West Indies. I backpacked through other Caribbean islands. I didn't go to Europe. I went to Europe one time and I didn't like it at all. And the people in England were not friendly. So it was a quick visit to visit a friend that I had met while I was backpacking. And then, you know, I had a friend and she and I had talked about going to Africa. She had a shop that had a lot of African art and stuff. That was my first real introduction to art coming out of Africa. I had met some people from Africa, from Kenya and other places at a party or something. And I just kind of fell in love with the culture. I just loved the way the women looked, the way that they dressed. And I happened to say to one lady, oh, I like that. And she said, oh, you like it? I said, yes, it's beautiful. And they were having a fashion show and the lady went in the room and when she came back out, she gave me the dress. I was like, oh, no, it's okay. She said, no, I want you to have it. You are African. And that was my first introduction really to Africa. And so my friend, whose name was Margaret, we talked about this to a trip to Africa. We tried the first time nobody wanted to go. People are African. Why do you want to go there? I'm not going to Africa. That was the first attempt. Then we tried again. So we said, well, we're going to Egypt. Egypt is in Africa. Nobody wanted to go with us. I was like, what is wrong with this? And then, unfortunately, my friend got sick and she died. So when she died, her family moved away. And at that time, I was in a tourism transportation business with my husband, Kofu, who was then called Benjamin Robinson. He changed his name. Yeah. When we came home, we changed our name. I no longer wanted to carry the name. Not that it was bad. I loved my name. My father had meaning behind naming me, what he named me. But so I never wanted to be called Sequasia or Kandua or whatever the African names were, because I just felt like I needed to own it. So one day, a brother came into my travel agency, and it was one of those days where it was the 4th of July. It was hot as hell's bells. The air conditioner wasn't working. Some boys were standing out in front of my shop selling herb, marijuana, drugs, whatever they were selling, they were running my customers away. And some Italians had just been in and said to me, you got to pay us $100. And I'm like, for what? They said, for garbage pickup. I didn't make $100 worth of garbage in a month. So I wasn't paying them. So this guy comes in and he says, he's an African. He said, oh, no, he said, I'm a chief. And I was like, yeah, right. And my name is Pocahontas. Because at that time, I just wasn't feeling it in that kind of morning. He said, no, no, no, no, no, I'm really a chief. I'm going to be instilled in my country. And I said, yeah, and so is that. And I guess I was being kind of facetious. I was hot. I was tired. And he says, Ghana. So I said, oh, really? He said, if you give me $5,000, I can organize a trip for you going to Ghana. I was like, yeah, I don't think so, son. Okay, you just leave your paper. And he did, he went away. And so I told my husband about it when he came. And he said, well, you know, Vienna, it's not such a bad idea. Maybe you should go because you've been trying to get to Africa twice now. So try one more time. So I met the people who were having the tour. And I joined them. My thing was, let me go. I won't take anybody with me so that if things don't work out right, they won't be looking at me and demanding their money back. So I went. And the rest is history. Because I mean, I actually fell in love with Ghana. I fell in love with Africa. I mean, I went to Nigeria. And if my Nigerian experience, if I had used my Nigerian experience, then I never would have come back to Africa. But first time, but when I got to Ghana, I fell in love with Ghana. People were so friendly, the children were well mannered. And that's not to say we weren't having challenges because trust me, we were. But there was something, you know, I remember being stopped in the middle of the night. Dark night. And these big black men in black uniforms carrying AK-47s got on our bus. I was like, that's it. I'm dead. Now, everything negative that I'd heard about Africa came to my mind. It was, oh God, they told it. Then I thought about it. I said, you know, I'm not terrified. And I should be. And white folks, they come at me, you know, they're coming at us with guns. So these guys, these are my people. So I'm not going to be terrified like this. So they let us go. They just want to know where we were going. And then, you know, after that, things just kept going and going. And every day, I loved Africa more and more because everywhere I looked, people looked like me. People were black. I was, and if you saw a white person was like, oh my, there's a white person. What are you doing here? It was like little children. Can't I go anywhere without you all? Okay. So it was, you know, I met some young men and they came to my hotel staying down the road. I've always lived here. I've never lived in Africa. I lived in Cape Coast for a minute, but I've always lived here. And when I came, it was Bush. Grass was up to your hips. So these two young men, by the name of Matthew and John, came to my hotel and they asked me, they said, would you like to visit my village? Because you know how you all are. Here comes old Bruni. Do we call you old Bruni? They did, they did. They didn't call me old Bruni. They didn't call me sister. Old sister. You know, would you like to visit our village? So I said, sure, why not? I've never been to Africa before. So yes. So sure enough, we came down this road. There weren't a lot of houses or anything here. We went next door. That was an abandoned house and it was an elder there who was the caretaker and I couldn't understand why he was a caretaker. It was an empty house, vacant. But anyway, then we came over here at where we currently stand, one Africa. And I remember standing there and looking out at the ocean and looking to the west of me and seeing the Elmina Castle dungeons there. And I had already visited the dungeons. But it was something standing there between two major edifices that held our ancestors. Some people might say, oh, that's a coincidence. It's not a coincidence that the ancestors brought me back to where it began for us. So sure enough, I prayed. I asked the ancestors. I asked the universe. I said, whoever has the power, if you give me this, I will be an obedient servant. But I need to be here. This is where I want to spend the rest of my life. So we went to the village, had a really nice morning, met the people, played with the children. People were so nice. So I went back to my hotel. A few, maybe about 10 days later, we left going back to New York. I couldn't wait to get home so I could tell my king man, tell him what, I'm ready to go to Africa. I'm ready to move. And he was, and I say was cause he is transitioned. He was really, really such a cool guy and he supported everything that I wanted to do. He didn't think I was crazy. Everybody else thought I'd fallen out of a tree house, including my kids. But he didn't think that. So we came to Africa together in 80. He came in 87. I went home in September. He came back in December. I said, you need to go see what I saw. Then we could sit down and talk. You won't think I'm a mad woman. So he stayed a month. When he came back in January, he was like, baby, sit down so we can figure out how to make this happen. We go into Africa. Just like that. So we visited 88, 89, and we had been invited by the traditional rule of Cape Coast, Nanen Bra, who had been sitting on his stool 48 years when he transitioned. And he invited us. He said that we were Africa's children. You are our children and you should come home. So he invited 16 of us that were in our group. And every time we came, we visited with him. We brought him to the United States. But in 1989, my husband comes in that we were here in Ghana. And he says, I met these people and they want to make me a chief. Well, I said, what, a chief, an African chief? So what do you know about being a chief? He said, I don't. And I said, why would somebody want to make you a chief? What are you, a dollar bill with legs or something? So we laughed. He said, no, he thought they were having church because he was a practicing Hebrew. But when he joined them, he found that they were not having church. They were having a fundraiser. They were trying to raise money to put electricity in their village. So just being the kind of person he is, all you have to know, you need something, he would help. Okay. So that's what he said. Okay. I don't know how much it's going to cost, but you tell me how much it's going to cost and I'll tell you what I can do. So then he thought about it. He said, I'm going to take it. I'm going to be a chief. So I said, okay, when are you going to, when are they going to make you a chief? He said, it'll take about three weeks because you have to do this or I'm like, I can't stay in three weeks. I got to go back to America. We have a travel agency that's being manned by the clerk. We have our cars set apart because the drivers, me and him are here in Ghana. So I just told him, I said, look, before you leave, just make sure you find me some land on the ocean. Not in the mountains, but on the ocean. He said, okay, I got this. About three weeks when he came in, he had called me and told me I got land, baby. Wow. I was like, really? He said, got land. You like it? So true enough, we packed up bag and baggage for our final move and that was in 1990, around June. When we get here, you know, the custom is, you know, you're the chief, you've been away. You got to go to your village. So we went to the village and when we got to the village, you know, and behold, I knew all those people because those are the people that I met were in 1987. Okay? Matthew and John were still, they were there. John is still here. In fact, John lives in Elmina. Matthew lives in Kumasi. So after we had this reunion because nobody knew that we were like this, they didn't know we were partners. He said, I'm going to take you to the land that they gave me when they made me a chief. It's the same land that I stood on in 1987 and asked the ancestors and the universe to give me the exact same place, not down the road, but the same, same place. So it was, you know, we talk about miracles. Yeah. That was a miracle. And because my husband, I never talked about this spot, just that I wanted to live on the ocean. So for me, in coming to Ghana as a business woman, I couldn't very well say to my clients because I already had two disappointments. Nobody wanted to go. I couldn't say to them what to expect. So it meant that I needed to go. And so, you know, we have the proverb that says, you can't say that your mother's soup is the best until you visit someone else's kitchen. So I couldn't say Ghana was a great place until I came and tasted it. And I fell in love. And then I said, okay, I've got a great idea. I'm going to live in Africa in Ghana. And my clients, they can come here and fight me. I was done. So, I mean, so we moved and in keeping with the commitment that I made in 1987 that I would be an obedient servant if they gave me this. I couldn't be anything else but an obedient servant. How has that experience been like 32 years experience in Ghana? How has that experience like? It's been challenging. It's been good. It's been challenging from a standpoint that in making this journey, I've had to give up a lot of things in America. The most important thing that I'd given up was my family because for both of us, both my husband and I had children. We had six children between us. And nobody wanted to come to Africa but us. So, you know, even though even my mom and the rest of my family said, oh, you don't want to go to Africa, why do you want to do this? How can you leave us? I'm like, I gotta go. You know what? I want to know the reason why you think your family never wanted to move to Africa with you because Africa is just like anywhere else in the world. So, what was keeping them from coming? Well, the same thing that keeps or kept a lot of Africans born in America and other parts of the diaspora from coming to Africa. The media has always been so negative. All we hear about is war, famine, starving children, poverty. They never show us anything good. When we went to school, they didn't teach us about Africa. We had one page and only have a page and that was a black man sitting in a big pot with a fire under him. Yes. The other picture that we saw was Tarzan and Jane. Some white man swinging through the trees. Oh, okay, riding on an elephant. That was it. We saw African people that were naked. They don't wear clothes over there, don't wear shoes. But that is the picture that they painted for us. So they didn't make you want to come here. They didn't show you the beauty of Africa. They only showed us the worst of what was going on. It's just like, I've been in this business for a long time. I see Europeans that come. They will go find the worst village to go stand in front of so they can say, I'm in Africa. See the village is gone. Okay. But to say come in and see, and we've progressed since 1987. But even in 1987, we weren't barbaric and backwards the way that they told the world that we were. So until I came and saw for myself, then I would still have the same mind set. Then why would I want to go to Africa? Or when you say that a lot of Africans born in America, you call me, hey, African, don't call me no African. I'm like, what? Yeah, I remember my son and Lord told me that don't call me no African. I ain't no African. I said, really? What are you? He said, I'm Jamaican. Okay, but you're an African. But he didn't want to hear that. A lot of people, even today, I like that. Mommy, I'm sorry, Grandma. I want you to... You call me, Mommy. You know, I want you to send a message out there to the African diaspora, especially being an African born in America or being a Jamaican, African born in Jamaica. What is a message that you have for people with things that like, I'm not an African. Don't call me an African. You've been here from your experience in Africa so far. What are you going to tell people who don't see themselves as an African? Well, first of all, I have to give them an example and analogy. We have a almond tree and we have a coconut tree. When the nut falls to the ground on the almond tree and it germinates and it grows, is it an almond tree or is it a coconut tree? If the nut falls from the almond tree, you have an almond tree and you have a coconut tree. The almond tree nut germinates and grows. Does it grow into an almond tree or a coconut tree? Equals to almond tree. Equals to an almond tree. So if, not if, when they took our ancestors out of the castle dungeons and transported us across the waters to the Americas, when did we become American? Did we wash away or lose being African when we crossed the waters? So we're still Africans. So you talk about us being, people talk about us being separated. We're separated only because we've allowed ourselves to be separated. You're an African born in Ghana. He's an African. Born in Kenya. She's an African. Born in wherever she gets, but we're first and foremost Africans. So we have to set aside the stereotypes that have been set down for us. Just like we talk about, we have the power to define. We talk about our ancient history that most, I get students in here all the time, they know nothing about our history. So the thing is that I tell people, come and see you go to Europe. I'd be scared to go to Europe, okay, but not scared to come to Africa so that we should come. So my job, my, I'm not even going to call it a job. It's not a job. It's a blessing that the ancestors have chosen me as one of those to reach out and bring the family home. And I do that by example. One Africa has always had an open gate. Come and see what it is possible for us to do as African people. We could do it. I have a beautiful place here that was nothing except one great big yard with three trees in it, three coconut trees. That was it. So we'll take a walk and you'll see everything you see we've done. And we, I'm rich. Yes, there's always, she's rich. Got a lot of, no, I don't have a lot of money, but I am rich. And my husband and I were able to do this. One, my husband was a retired New York City firefighter. So as a retiree, he had a guaranteed monthly income. It wasn't big, it was small. So when people say my thing, cause I do pre-patriation counseling, which is how to prepare to escape. I call it an escape from the Americas. It is an escape. Didn't Bob Marley tell us? He told us, okay, it's an exodus. We need to get the hell out of there. So my thing is, if you're thinking about moving, you think that maybe I want to do this, then hop, start downsizing. You got four TVs, one in every room. Get rid of, sell those three, keep one. You have all of these, you know, you got sneakers up to the ceiling. Every year you buy a pair of sneakers, four, five, 600,000, one, maybe two. Okay. You can't wear but one at a time. So you start downsizing. I opened up my closet and I sold everything that was in there. Make me offer. I turned my things into money so that we have to begin to save, like the sister we'll talk to later. She completely downsized. If we do that and we come with an open mind, when some people come and say, well, they complain, this is not America. This is better. We just have to do a little bit less. We have to be able to humble our spirit and be able to get involved with our African family on this side. Like I'm really sorry for making you stand, but I feel like you're so strong and healthy. It used to have to take me around because you know what, I just want to tell people that they can't do everything here in Africa. Everything is possible. You moved all the way from America, came in, sat down here. You have a beautiful resort in here. I would love to tell people out there that whenever you come to Cape Coast, this is the place that you need to stay. Elmina, Cape Coast. Let me correct you. Okay. Whenever you come to Cape Coast, make sure you come to Elmina because that's where I'm in. I'm going to show you around and I'm going to do another video. So after this video, just go and check the next video about one Africa, how she brought up one Africa and everything that you need to know about one Africa, how to book it. And let's don't say she. Let's say how they, because it was myself and my partner. Wow. I had a partner. I had a brother that we brought from Jamaica West Indies, your daddy, Bongo and his wife, Mamadi. So it wasn't just me. Okay. I mean, me set the fire. Okay. But we brought. You're going to know all of that in the next video. It's your boy, Mr. Ghana, baby. And I hope you guys enjoy this amazing interview.