In June, Jeremiah Heaton planted a flag in small region between Egypt and Sudan in a bid to make his daughter a princess. Now he hopes it will improve global food security

When Jeremiah Heaton’s seven-year-old daughter Emily turned to him one night last winter and asked him if she would ever be a real princess, he was faced with a dilemma.

“I didn’t want to break her spirits, so I said ‘yes, absolutely,’ he told the Guardian by phone from his home in Abingdon, Virginia, this week. “At that point I had no idea how to make it happen, but I couldn’t let her down. She had such a serious tone. I knew it meant a lot to her.”

The 38-year-old American took to Google to begin researching disputed regions across the world. He figured that to make his daughter a princess, he would have to make himself a king.

“I looked at Antarctica, and there is unclaimed land there, but there is a treaty that means people can’t claim it. So I kept researching, and I found Bir Tawil”.

Sandwiched between Egypt and Sudan, Bir Tawil is an area of around 800 square miles not far from the Red Sea, and is a geographical anomaly known as a ‘terra nullius’ - a land that belongs to no-one. Following a decades-old land dispute, neither Egypt or Sudan have laid claim to it.

Heaton had found what he was looking for. In June, he flew to Egypt and made a 14-hour journey through the desert to plant a flag (designed and made by his three children over the course of “a few dinners”) in the earth at Bir Tawil, laying claim to it on behalf of him and his family.

“It has been unclaimed for around 100 years,” Heaton explained. “I just followed the same process as many others have done over hundreds of years, planted our flag, and claimed it.”

Heaton, who works in the mining industry and ran for Congress in 2012, said he, his wife Kelly, and his three children have decided to rename the territory the Kingdom of North Sudan, and plan to launch a website to spell out their vision for the new country.

This vision includes using the land as a “testbed” for scientific advancement to help improve global food security.

He says the country’s initial development would be based on “four pillars”; innovative agricultural production, renewable energy, digital freedom and digital currency. The first two are particularly important to his children, Emily, 12 year-old Justin and 10 year-old Caleb, who know there are “a lot of hungry people in the world” and “would like to help”.

Heaton says the country’s initial development would be based on “four pillars”; innovative agricultural production, renewable energy, digital freedom and digital currency.

The second two are areas that Heaton is particularly interested in. He says he would like to establish a server farm in the kingdom that would allow “freedom to exchange information without any government interference”, and would like to establish a digital currency like Bitcoin, though he feels Bitcoin itself is too elitist.

Heaton says he has opened the project up to bids from the scientific community, and is looking forward to seeing the ideas he is presented with. But for now, he'll have his hands full working towards having his claim to Bir Tawil recognised by Egypt, Sudan, and the international community, for it to be validated.

“I know these are lofty goals, and it seems like a grand feat to accomplish them, but I believe we can,” he says.

What about the African people he encountered on his trip, and the Bedouin who roam Bir Tawal - what do they make of Heaton’s scheme?

“I didn’t encounter any hostility at all,” Heaton insists. He says his guide thought “it was a neat idea, like a lot of other people do”. He argues that the Bedouin don’t travel into Bir Tawil because it is too dry, and that the area therefore has no population. He said the Egyptian authorities, who approved his travel to Bir Tawil, appeared positive about his scheme, and that the Bedouins he spoke to “welcomed” his ideas, though admits he only spoke to a handful of people.

“One of our key principles would be to share the food and resources that we develop with other people in the region, so I think they understand that this project would be beneficial for everyone,” Heaton says.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jeremiah Heaton and his seven year-old daughter Emily, with the flag their family designed. Photograph: David Crigger/AP

He says critics have accused him of being a racist who is trying to colonise Bir Tawil. He insists that is not the case.

“What I am doing is the exact opposite of colonialism,” he says. “The dictionary defines colonialism as one country taking control of another to exploit its resources or people. Bir Tawil is not a country, it does not have a population, and I don’t represent the United States or a corporation. I’m an individual, and I'm not going to dig for diamonds or drill for oil or build a pipeline. What we’re doing is designed to improve people’s lives.”

"I don't see race, colour or creed, and neither do my children," he added.

Though the project began as a means to make his daughter a princess, he also rejects the suggestion that it was a materialistic pursuit, and insists it was only ever intended to be altruistic.

"That [lesson against materialism] is the real gift I will be giving my kids,” he says. “I’m not trying to entitle them. I’m trying to teach them about how to help others, and work in the service of others. If anything, I believe it will help them to be more humble.”