Live to Learn, Learn to Live: A world traveler plants roots on his ancestral homelands in Ghana
- Urban Exodus
- Mar 22, 2024
- 3 min read
JOSHUA KWAKU ASIEDU
World traveler, educator, and entrepreneur
Milan, Italy (& various cities) to rural Ghana
I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Joshua Kwaku Asiedu. Born and raised in Milan, Italy, Joshua didn’t feel like he could thrive within the modern, European culture he found himself in. At 20, he decided to leave home in order to explore the world and see what it would teach him. With 50 euros in his pocket and a one-way ticket, he left without knowing where this new chapter would lead.
“The best thing we can do to create a collective change is to truthfully work on ourselves. Really doing our own part…As Nelson Mandela used to say: don’t be afraid to be the light in a dark room, because once you start to shine, other people will see you shining and might feel themselves start to shine as well. So the only thing we need to take care of is our personal choice and never wait for other people.”
Joshua worked a myriad of jobs - an electrician, mason, model, retailer, waiter, chef, farmer, etc. He lived for periods in cities all over the globe London, Sydney, Auckland, Cape Town, Los Angeles and more. Then he ventured to rural awe-inspiring landscapes. Midway through his travels Joshua started to leave behind hostels, guests houses and rental rooms, in order to find rest in tents, caves, beaches, temples, and forests.
After seven years of life altering experiences exploring remote regions of the world and learning from the places and people he encountered, Joshua came to the conclusion that our modern Western world, is rooted in materialism, consumerism and superficialities. This is leading us away from Mother Nature - the source of independence, freedom and inner expansion.
Willing to leave those said societal structures once and for all, he started to look for a native piece of land where to move. After a demanding, dedicated search, he discovered that his father’s ancestors left plots of lands in heritage - in Ghana. This brought him back to his Motherland to track down and reclaim his inherited land. He moved into the jungle, a dense overgrown uninhabited forest, with only a mosquito net and a beach bed.
His home that he has lived in for the past 3 years, he built himself out of cow dung, mud, clay, and bamboo. After digging a well, planting fruit trees, Joshua has been working on growing his eco-village by building more huts on the land.
In 2019, Joshua began sharing his journey on social media and launched Asaase - Live to Learn. Learn to Live and started a series of online and in person courses centered around relearning Indigenous practices, organic farming, decolonization and natural building methods. Joshua has amassed a large online following who are inspired by his journey and want to learn from him. It has become Joshua's life mission to inspire others to embark down a path of more earth centric living.
“I think we all know our purpose, it’s just society keeps us too distracted to understand ourselves. We don’t know ourselves so much because we don’t spend enough time with ourselves.”
In our conversation we speak about Joshua’s paradigm shift, the challenges he has faced while building his new community, how to find and follow your purpose, working through fear-based narratives, and rediscovering ancestral knowledge.
This is a story about the transformative power of travel, choosing earth centric living, and the value of persevering through fears and obstacles in order to live your purpose.
LINKS
Very well-written and easy to understand. Thanks for sharing! Please write an article about how to grow beetroot.
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