Uncrowned Community Builders

On January 19, 1922, Lucille Williamson Asenso Davis was born in Aiken, South Carolina to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Williamson. The family migrated to Niagara Falls, New York, where her father began working for Union Carbide in 1932.

Lucille, the oldest of eight siblings, was the only black student in her class throughout her school years. Lucille recalled never seeing black people, except her family members, until she went South to enter Spelman College in Atlanta. Though she had frequently questioned family, friends and teachers about Africa, the responses she received were negative or misleading. "I kept saying there must be something beyond this," she said.


During World War II, Lucille began working for the US Defense Department in Washington, DC and then went on to the University of California at Los Angeles to pursue further studies. Her interest in Africa persisted until she decided to do her own library research. She introduced herself to UCLA's African students, asking questions and seeking information about the Continent. In 1955, while living in Compton, California, Lucille bought a gas station. She also wrote occasional articles for Jet magazine and the Los Angeles Sentinel.


In the fall of 1956, Lucille spotted a newspaper notice about the Gold Coast getting its independence in 1957. "Gee, I sure would like to be able to go and congratulate a new African country,"
she recalled. Upon learning she needed certain documents to travel, she secured her passport and then learned a visa would have to be issued by the British High Commission. The British Consulate officer was stunned to hear she wanted to go to the Gold Coast. "Laughing, he asked me why I wanted to go there and how did I know they wanted me there. Then he said he didn't think he could give me one." Determined, Lucille went back to Compton, sat down at her typewriter on her kitchen table and wrote a long telex to Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president, telling him of her desire to come and what the British Consulate had said. Two weeks later, Lucille heard from the Consulate telling her to come and get her visa.


Lucille arrived in Ghana days before the March 7, 1957 Independence Day. She was one of Nkrumah's special guests at the Ambassador Hotel where she met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Thurgood Marshall, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes and many other notables. Her family was told of her travel plans on the eve of departure. "My mother said the family just knew something was wrong with me."


On her return to Ghana the next year, Lucille stopped in Liberia and met President Tubman on his birthday when the public ere free to drop in to give him greetings. He asked her if she would like to be a citizen of Liberia. "I can make you one overnight, and I'll give you forty acres of land in the interior," Lucille remembered.


In 1959, Lucille was invited by Sekou Toure, Guinea's first African president, to visit. She was President Toure's first African American guest and discovered they both shared the same birthday, 19th of January. He told her of how the French removed everything, including the telephones when they left the country.

Lucille began working for Albert Owusu Ansah Asenso, who owned Ghana Architectural & Civil Engineering, as his office manager. She set up his office on an American basis and "I think he was so impressed, he asked me to marry him." Their son, Kojo Melvin Asenso was born in 1961, two years later Albert died. Lucille returned to the States after Nkrumah died, and remained for several years working with the Internal Revenue Service.


On the return to the Continent with her son, Lucille stopped in Nigeria, went on to Tanzania, then spent three years in Mombasa, Kenya, working at the YWCA. Since the late 1970's, Lucille has resided in Ghana on a regular basis, interspersed with trips to India, France, Germany, USA and in 1987 arrived in Fiji the day after its coup. "I had already witnessed all the coups against Nkrumah," Lucille confided.


Lucille Davis has served as a Warden for the US Embassy for over a decade and was an active member of the African American Association of Ghana. She joined the Bahai faith in the mid 70's.


The Beachcomber Guest House was started in the 1980's, since then Lucille has added four apartments to her five chalet guest houses and completed the construction of two self-contained apartments.


Her determination, pioneering spirit and commitment has been an inspiration for us all and set an exemplary model of womanhood.