Queen Mother Sêmévo 1st Dr. Dòwòti Désir
Her Royal Majesty Queen Mother Dr. Dòwòti Désir (Sêmévo I) is Queen Mother of the African Diaspora in the Republic of Benin, where she was enthroned at the Royal Palace of Agonlin in and admitted to the Haut Conseil des Rois du Bénin (High Council of Kings of Benin). A Queen Mother since 2020, she serves as Ambassador-at-Large of the High Council and is internationally recognized for advancing Pan-African diplomacy, cultural sovereignty, traditional African leadership, and the rights of African descendant communities worldwide.
Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to Haitian and Cuban parents, Queen Mother Désir is the Founder of The Royal Palace of the African Diaspora Bureau & Advocacy Society, an organization dedicated to supporting Africans of the Diaspora pursuing repatriation, transnational citizenship, cultural renewal, and institution building throughout Africa. At the center of this work is the Imperial Corps Agoodjié of the African Diaspora, an international women’s leadership initiative inspired by the historic women warriors of the Kingdom of Dahomey. Through educational programs, cultural exchanges, and pilgrimages to Benin and Colombia, the initiative strengthens relationships between African women on the continent and throughout the Diaspora.
A respected scholar, curator, and international policy advocate, Queen Mother Désir currently serves as a UNESCO expert advising the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ghana on reparations for the African Diaspora and is a member of the God Box Talks Steering Committee in Ghana. She divides her time between Cotonou, Benin, and New York State, where she teaches underserved youth and adult learners at Dutchess Community College. She also serves on the Executive Committee and as Gala Chairperson for the Hip Hop Institute for Peace’s #KickRacism International Decade for People of African Descent Gala, is Guest Co-Curator of the 2027 exhibition Flip It & Reverse It at the Pérez Art Museum of Miami and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Lucie Foundation.
An internationally respected interfaith leader, Queen Mother Désir is a Manbo Asogwe, the highest priestly rank in Haitian Vodou. In 2017 she founded the AfroAtlantic Theologies & Treaties Institute to advance scholarship and dialogue on African and Afro-Atlantic sacred traditions. She previously served as Ambassador-at-Large (Gwètòdé de Outre-Mer) for the National Confederation of Haitian Vodou Practitioners, representing the late Ati Nasyonal Max G. Beauvoir throughout the African Diaspora. Throughout her career she has helped expand recognition of Haitian Vodou within civic and interfaith institutions, becoming the first Vodou priest licensed to solemnize marriages in New York State, the first Vodou priest to complete the Prophetic Leadership School of Faith’s social justice clergy cohort, and the first Vodou officiant selected as a Fellow of the Interfaith Center of New York’s Civic Leadership Academy.
Her leadership has been recognized with numerous honors, including the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award on Chieftaincy from the International Clergy Association, the Oni Award from the International Black Women’s Congress, and the Black Divas Award for her advocacy of Black maternal health. She was also the inaugural Scholar-in-Residence of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute and serves on the Academic Council of the Pan African Heritage World Museum in Ghana.
For more than three decades Queen Mother Désir has worked at the intersection of human rights, cultural diplomacy, museums, education, and public policy. She is the former Executive Director
of the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center at the historic Audubon Ballroom in New York City and has held senior positions at the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Arts International, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Arts for Transit program. She also served for more than fifteen years as a consultant and policy advisor to the African Burial Ground National Monument in New York City.
Her international public service includes leadership roles with the United Nations, UNESCO, the International Labour Organization, the African Union’s ECOSOCC consultations, the International Movement for Reparations, the DDPA Watch Group, the NGO Committee for the Elimination of Racism, Afrophobia and Colorism at the United Nations, and numerous civil society initiatives advancing implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action. Since 2001 she has participated as an advisor, expert, or delegate to major international conferences addressing racism, sustainable development, reparations, and human rights.
As an author, journalist, curator, and photographer, Queen Mother Désir’s scholarship examines memory, monuments, reparations, Afro-Atlantic religions, spatial justice, and the cultural consequences of the transatlantic slave trade. Her publications include Essays in Human Rights: A Vodou Priest’s Perspective; Réparations: Une exigence urgente pour l’Humanité (co-author); Personal Visions: Photographs of Adger W. Cowans (co-author); Wòch Kase Wòch: Redlining a Holocaust, Memorials, and the People of the AfroAtlantic; Goud Kase Goud: Conjuring Memory in Spaces of the AfroAtlantic; Wanga: Haitian Hoodoo and Waging Peace (co-author).
A sought-after lecturer, Queen Mother Désir has presented at institutions including the United Nations, Harvard Divinity School, Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University, New York University, the City University of New York, the Museum of the African Diaspora, the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and universities and cultural institutions throughout Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and the Americas.
Her work has been featured by Bénin Intelligence, Reuters, The New York Times, Der Spiegel, Atlanta Black Star, and numerous international media outlets. She is a consultant on African and Afro-Atlantic religions for film, television, and theatre, including projects for CBS, the Discovery Channel, and the Roundabout Theatre Company. She appears in the documentaries Dahomey, directed by Mati Diop; a film based on she scholarship, Vodou: Theology of Liberation; Sa Majesté des Mers et Océans; Malcolm’s Echo; Ancestral Voices II; and Awake Zion.
Queen Mother Désir is a graduate of Barnard College, earned a Master of Arts from the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, and received the Doctor of Ministry degree in Interfaith Studies from The New Seminary. She is the mother of composer, writer, and photographer His Royal Highness Prince Martial Davis.
The Royal Palace of the African Diaspora Bureau & Advocacy Society was established in 2025 by Her Royal Majesty Queen Mother Dr. Dòwòti Désir, the Kpodjito (“She Who Birthed the Leopard”) of the African Diaspora for Bénin Republic. A private not-for-private registered in the United States, the organization fosters community development, cultural preservation, education, and civic engagement regarding the history, heritage, and ongoing issues facing the African Diaspora. The organization engages in community advocacy, social welfare initiatives, and public education to advance the civic and social well-being of the community.
Under the leadership of the Kpodjito Dr. Désir, The Royal Palace Society has organized webinars and participated in international discussions concerning legal pathways to citizenship to Bénin and other African countries. We advocate for the droit de retour (right to return), reparations, better transnational policies, bilateral agreements, or dual-citizenship frameworks that protect African descendants. We are developing a toolkit for community integration in Bénin Republic and partnering with academic and grassroots organizations in other African countries to help transnationals successfully integrate into their new host communities.
