Alfred C. "Chief" Sam inspired hundreds of African American Oklahomans to follow him back to their "ancestral home," Africa. Expounding the virtues of Africa's Gold Coast with tales of diamonds lying on the ground after a rain, trees that produced bread, and sugar cane as large as stove pipes, Sam, who claimed to be an African chief, sold passage to Africa in large, camp-style meetings throughout Oklahoma in 1913. By purchasing twenty-five dollars worth of stock from Sam's Akim Trading Company, an African American could retain passage for the whole family to the Gold Coast of Africa. Sam claimed he had access to land that the group could colonize.
Oklahoma Historical Society
