Picture taken during His Excellency Kofi Annan's visit to the Neko Tech Center , Ada in August 2000. Picture from Left: Nene Katey Ocansey (a.k.a Isaac Hayes), Mrs. Annan, H.E. Kofi Annan, Princess Asie Ocansey and Rev Alfreddie Johnson)

Isaac Hayes

Hayes' role as a humanitarian began to take sharper focus in late 1991, when he and Barry White traveled to the Ivory Coast in Africa to shoot a video for "Dark & Lovely (you over there)," the single from White's comeback album Put Me In Your Mix. The following year, Hayes and Dionne Warwick accepted an invitation by the Cultural Minister of Ghana ( Ivory Coast 's eastern neighbor) to visit the Cape Coast and Elmina slave castles. Walking through the dungeons, listening to the horrifying stories told by the guide, Hayes was overwhelmed with emotion.

Nene Katey Ocansey I and Princess Asie Ocansey with (R) Senator Bill Frist (MD) during a visit to the White House to discuss the Save a Million Lives Project.

"It was almost like I heard the voices of my ancestors saying, 'We've come back home through you. The circle is complete. Now, you know what you must do'," he later told a journalist. When the weeping was done, Hayes realized it was not enough to help finance the renovation of the castles, there was bigger work to be done in Africa : He asked how much it would cost to build a school. Returning to America , Hayes took his energy on the road, speaking to African-American community groups and Black expos around the country. He encouraged everyone he met to visit Africa if they could, to interact with the people, or at the very least to support economic development.

One speaking engagement in Queens , New York , was attended by Princess Naa Asie Ocansey of Ghana , who phoned a week later. "Mr. Hayes," she asked, "would you like to be a king?" She had told her father, Nene Kubi III, a 'king-maker,' of Hayes' commitment and he said, "We need to honor this man." The coronation rituals that usually took up to two weeks were condensed to two days in late December 1992. The spectacle was attended by Public Enemy who did concerts with Hayes at Cape Coast Castle and in Accra , Ghana 's capital city.

Hayes was given a royal name: Nene Katey Ocansey I. "Nene means king in the Ga Dialect," he explains. "Katey means brave warrior who can calm the wild beast in the elements. Ocansey is a family name, the most powerful of the ten clans in my region, Ada , which means I do as I say!" He was appointed King for Development over the region and given land on which to build a palace. But the palace would wait: "You need education over here," he told them, "you need literacy."

There is little to match Hayes' devotion to spreading the message that literacy and education are the keys to freedom and prosperity in this world. In 1993, he stumbled into Scientology and the study technology process it teaches. That same year he was named the international spokesman for Applied Scholastics' World Literacy Crusade, which currently has over 20 literacy programs in five countries with more than 1,800 people participating.

Soon after, he started The Isaac Hayes Foundation (IHF, based on Wall Street), whose mission is to enable people around the world to become whole by promoting literacy, music education, nutritional education, and innovative programs that raise self-esteem among the underprivileged and teach young people how to study.

Biography Of Naa Asie Ocansey

Princess Asie presents “Learning How to Learn” books to H.E. President Kufuor of Ghana when he attended an educational program in Ada.

Naa Asie Ocansey is the founder/president of the Channels of Blessings Global Minsitry, Royal Goldtech Consultancy with offices in the USA and Ghana , co-founder/ president of the Nekotech Center of Excellence in Ada with Mr. Isaac Hayes, and founder of the Save a Million Lives HIV/Aids program now in Ghana, UK and the USA.

Naa was born in Ghana to the late Nene Kubi III of Ada and Mrs. Millicent Ocansey. She attended Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast, and the Rutgers University College of Engineering where she received a bachelor of science degree in Ceramic Engineering, and a graduate certificate in Packaging Science and Engineering / specialsing in Plastics Engineering, as well as attaining a graduate certificate in International Trade and Finance from NYU New York. She is also a quality school graduate trained by the US Quality Control guru, the late Mr. Ed Deming.

She has held professional positions in engineering with USA Fortune 500 companies, Pepsico, Avon Products and Johnson & Johnson Products.

As an entrepreneur, she launched the first African centered boutique in a major USA mall, Dayton Hudson's, and later the first and longest running African TV shopping program on QVC TV in the USA , called "Destination Africa" creating several jobs for hundreds of artisans in Ghana with sales of over $4 million of African products over two years. This facilitated a multi million dollar afrocentric industry in Ghana leading to other major us stores like JC Penney and Pier One buying products from Ghana .

She has held consulting positions with the Ghana Investment Promotion Center, Ghana Export Promotion Council, UNDP And Ortho Mcneil Pharmaceutical, USA . She was recently selected by the secretary general of the UN to a 12 member expert task force under the UNEP - ICT/re division for rural development.

She has won awards including the presrigious USA Ron Brown award for international trade and good ethics, the GPA awards, UK , the MA Africa awards in South Africa , for her humanitarian work in HIV/Aids. She has been successful in mobilizing USA celebrities like Isaac Hayes, Denzel Washington, Steven Seagal and American medical doctors and students in the war against HIV/Aids in Ghana annually.

She initiated the development of a model international workers program for Ghanaian workers to work legally in the USA . After running successfully for three years the model is currently being rolled out internationally to Canada, UK and Australia under the Channels of Blessings Global Ministry in partnership with top international recruitment and placement agencies, such as Manpower, Worldwide and the Good Labour Company, UK.

She has appeared on several TV and radio programs, including CNN, NBC, Fox TV and BBC , UK , GTV, TV3 and Metro TV for her humantarian work against HIV/Aids. Her passion is to fight for the faceless and voiceless orphans, the HIV/Aids babies dying silently in Africa . She is a devout christian and mother of one child, Fumi-Serwa, and 752 orphans she has adopted in Ada.

Princess' Story: The Birth of Save a Million Lives