Lavon Washington<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI would meet other people in my age group, but not my demographic,\u201d she said. \u201cI was going places and people would stop me and be like: \u2018Beyonc\u00e9!\u2019 They would automatically assume I was in the entertainment industry and not taking a holiday, because people of color weren\u2019t really traveling like that.\u201d <\/p>\n
Years later, once D\u2019Kiya had left home, Johnson took a DNA test that determined that she had Nigerian and Ghanaian heritage. For the first time, her travels took her to West Africa. Her arrival there \u2014 which she describes as a \u201creturn\u201d \u2014 \u201cfelt like a huge sigh of relief,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Soon after her first journey, Johnson founded Green Book Travel in 2018, a company that organizes trips to West Africa for members of the diaspora. Named after the annual travel guide that provided Black people with information to keep them safe in Jim Crow America, Green Book Travel takes people to historically significant locations including sites of deportation in the transatlantic slave trade. <\/p>\n
The trips immediately attracted hundreds of people, Johnson said, and her travels to West Africa became more frequent. On one trip, she found herself physically compelled \u2014 her \u201cbody was on fire\u201d \u2014 to visit northern Ghana. <\/p>\n
On her second day in the region, she was asked to pay a customary visit to the Dakpema and his elders in Tamale. She quickly realized that this was no ordinary meeting. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey started consulting amongst each other,\u201d she said, \u201cand then they said \u2018we want you to go to prepare to be the Queen.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
Initially, Johnson did not understand the significance of the offer. But when she recounted the meeting to a village elder, he nearly crashed his car. <\/p>\n
Four months later, with her daughter and best friend alongside her, Johnson was \u201censkinned\u201d in Tamale \u2014 officially recognized as Friendship <\/strong>Queen \u2014 before being introduced to the community in a parade at the annual Damba festival, in which she rode on a horse to cheers from the crowd. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was overwhelming because the crowd was so big,\u201d said Kendall Jones, Johnson\u2019s best friend who was by her side at the event. \u201cIt was my first time ever experiencing having people chase your car down as you\u2019re driving away.\u201d <\/p>\n
The role of Friendship Queen comes with an elevated status and practical responsibilities to the community. Johnson works together with elders of the Dagbon Kingdom, which dates back to the 14th century and comprises around five million people, to run positive initiatives in Tamale, where she now lives. So far, together with her charitable foundation Kith and Kin, she has worked to provide clean water, sanitary products, and shoes to the community, and is working on a scheme to support orphans. Locally, she is revered. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou are put on a pedestal,\u201d she said, \u201cThere are all the formalities \u2014 the bowing, the \u2018Her Royal Majesty,\u2019 making sure that you\u2019re taken care of.\u201d <\/p>\n
It\u2019s a difficult adjustment for someone unfamiliar with celebrity. But to Johnson, the role comes naturally. \u201cShe represents peace, unity, hope and the connection of our past to the future,\u201d said the Dakpema, who was instantly impressed by Johnson upon her first visit to his palace. \u201cShe is very popular within Dagbon and highly respected. The people admire her.\u201d <\/p>\n