Aahana Swrup
HBO Max’s ‘Coming From America’ presents the viewers with the riveting stories of four different families: the Kellys, the Smileys, the Davises, and the Joneses. All four families hail from America and leave their old homes behind to find a fresh start on the African continent. Among them, the Davises, guided by their matriarch, Julia Jovone-Davis, a single mother to four, dreamed of opening her own wellness center in Ghana. Consequently, she finds herself in Aburi, which houses a strong wellness and spirituality-centered community. Within the same area, she met with an eco-activist, Joshua Kwaku Asiedu, who lives entirely off-grid in a self-made village. After glimpsing into the young man’s unusual lifestyle, viewers must be intrigued to learn more about him.
Joshua Kwaku Asiedu Advocates for Radical Social Change
Joshua Kwaku Asiedu started his journey of sustainable, off-grid living a little over five years ago when he traveled to the tropical forests of Aburi, Ghana, to start his life anew. Since then, the young eco-activist has accomplished a lot, including an eco-village populated with mud houses and other structures built entirely from hand. Simultaneously, he continued sharing his journey on social media, where he promoted his nature-reliant lifestyle. Over the years, he has managed to build a substantial following for himself, spreading awareness about off-grid living.
Today, Asiedu continues to educate people through his social media content, sharing knowledge about how to create things like shampoo, soaps, sponges, beers—and even tattoos, from scratch. Some of his other content includes food recipes and “a day in the life of” style videos that help him advocate for a greener, anti-consumerist lifestyle. Fans can find a deeper, in-depth look into his fascinating ten-year-long journey on his YouTube channel.
Recently, in 2023, Asiedu also collaborated with another content creator, Abena Offeh-Gyimah, who promotes an ancestral lifestyle, to create a retreat program, Taste of Ghana. Through classes, workshops, and such retreats, the eco-activist hopes to inspire others to opt for sustainable living by showing them how to farm the Earth for natural resources. In June 2024, he also recently appeared on the Tiny Farm Friends Podcast to discuss his story. Likewise, he also appeared at the 2024 BIPOC Herbalism Conference in August, where he spoke about healing and herbalism.
Joshua Kwaku Asiedu is in the Himalayas Recovering From a Surgery
After years of dedicating himself to sustaining his lifestyle through self-reliance in nature, Joshua Kwaku Asiedu recently underwent some health-related issues, namely, a bad lower back and frequent dislocation of his shoulders. As a result, he had to take a break from his off-grid lifestyle and undergo surgery on one of his shoulders—with another surgery planned for the future. As of May, the eco-activist began his healing journey, attending physiotherapy to regain mobility and bounce back to his healthy self. Therefore, Asiedu will prioritize the rest of his agenda for the coming months.
For the same reason, Asiedu recently left Ghana and moved to the Himalayas over the summer. Even so, he still continues to make content and has found a new way to educate people on the benefits of an eco-lifestyle. Throughout August, Asiedu has been collaborating with various other individuals like him who have opted to build their own farmsteads and mudhouses in the Himalayas. Some of his collaborators include Raghav Kumar and the Lilac Farm’s Aunty Anitha. Therefore, even in his time of rest, the sustainability content creator continues to expand his community and educate his audience through his global platform.
Joshua Kwaku Asiedu Plans on Returning to Ghana for His Retreats
Joshua Kwaku Asiedu’s Natural Retreats in Ghana proved to be a roaring success in 2023 as he hosted five different programs. As a group of people spent a week in the Ghanian forest under Asiedu’s leadership and guidance, the latter helped them reconnect with nature by showcasing the reality of the off-grid lifestyle. The retreats were held in his own eco-village that he built himself by late 2023. He also received some help in this endeavor from Ollè and Owura, two local teenagers who would occasionally visit him during the fall of 2022.
As such, despite Asiedu’s plans to dedicate 2024 to relaxation and rest, he’s looking forward to rehosting his Ghanian Natural Retreats by the end of the year. Therefore, while he has plans to stay in the Himalayas for the coming few months, he’s hoping to return to Ghana eventually. In the meantime, he’s also working on various other projects, mainly focused on building a reliable community with whom he can efficiently promote his ideas of radical social change. Consequently, fans of the eco-activist can look forward to an exciting year!
Read More: The Kelly Family: Where Are They Now?
