Ken Browne has been living off the grid (OTG) for the past two decades. The 42-year-old wood sculptor and naturopathic practitioner met with EASY magazine at Brandons Beach and explained how he had spent the last two decades perfecting the art of being one with nature.
Browne has lived OTG since he was a teen, but when the Scotland District resident tells people about his lifestyle, he says people respond by saying, “He live in the bush!”
“But I’ve actually been living an off grid life – solar panels, natural water source coming to the home, and providing my own food from the gardens. I also provide my own medicines and I create my own furniture.”
Born in England and moving to Barbados at a very early age, Ken began his naturalistic sojourn in his teenage years.
“[I] started around 17 or 18. I was very impressed by the Rastafarian knowledge of plants and after about two years of absorbing knowledge, interacting and learning their ways, I moved down to the various islands of St Vincent, St Lucia and Dominica, where I lived for a few years,” he explained.
The trip to the neighbouring eastern Caribbean countries proved to be another eye-opener for him as he was surprised by the amount of knowledge people there retained from their African ancestors.
“After the Caribbean, I went to Africa.
I spent about three years in the general area of Egypt, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda.
“Since then I’ve just developed. [I] travel, meet with people, always enquiring about herbs, plants, alternative medicines; being able to do things for ourselves basically, from a medicinal perspective.”
This inquisitive nature about natural healing methods is what led to his ability to self-medicate. Having brought several of his homemade natural remedies to the interview, Browne explained their uses and benefits over commercial medicines.
Resting on top of a yard of African wax print were quinine cups, wild bee honey, beeswax soap, dried reishi mushroom, jatoba pods, moringa seeds, noni extract, cream and powder, cold-pressed coconut oil and a variety of tinctures.
Next to these natural products were two books, Wild Plants Of Barbados and Caribbean Wild Plants & Their Uses, and during his explanations, almost as an ode to these books, Browne paused and said, “I must say, the Caribbean is a wealth of medicinal knowledge!”
“I would like sometime to be able to document it. More so connect the plants to the people because the people are who have maintained the knowledge of the plants.”
Being OTG has meant that not only did he have to grow his own food and make his own medicine, but “I also built my own home and create my own furniture,” exclaimed Browne, who also brought two tables he had made.
“I’m very good with my hands. If I can do it myself, I do for self before finding an alternative out there. My eyes and my hands are able to replicate what I see with wood, into any material, any medium.”
As he pointed to the two tables he created, he continued, “Some of this stuff I’m bringing out is an extension to what I’ve created for myself that I keep at my place. It’s created an interest out there and people have started to order particular works.”
For Browne, the OTG way of life needs to be more widely embraced. “Eventually we will all be faced with the question whether the way we are living is beneficial to the earth and our future. So eventually, the off-grid life is going to come to the forefront for Barbados,” he said.
He continued, “For years I was discriminated against, [as well as] most other Rastafarians who tried to live in harmony with nature . . . . The off-grid life has been fought against.”
Ken says society has to take a closer look at how they label that lifestyle.
“This is the guy that hasn’t been producing much pollution,” Browne added. “This is the guy that has been planting and using organic methods. This is the guy that has been using natural herbs and medicines and roots from the earth to heal him and his family.”