Amidst the ochre-hued, palm-studded oasis of Jnane Tamsna, the inaugural edition of The Diaspora Salon unfolded in Marrakech. Meryanne Loum-Martin, the Salon’s founder and the visionary owner of this serene hotel, orchestrated a gathering of extraordinary figures from across Africa and the Diaspora – a glamorous assembly as dynamic and multidimensional as herself.

Born in Côte d’Ivoire to a Senegalese father and a Guadeloupean mother, Loum-Martin’s peripatetic upbringing spanned countless cultures, and l’art de vivre is in her DNA. She is an award-winning Parisian lawyer, architect and interior designer who has called Paris, Moscow, Accra, London and New York home. She is Marrakech’s first Black woman hotelier, an author, and, as The Diaspora Salon demonstrated, a consummate convenor. The brilliant organising team mirrored her Afropolitan credentials and pulled together a uniquely eclectic crowd.

We’re talking poets, producers, activists, entrepreneurs, musicians, librarians, linguists, designers and professors; leaders of tech, marketing, media and finance; all sharing space, swapping ideas and breaking bread together throughout a stellar programme of cultural moments shaped around three themes – Anywhere & Everywhere (navigating niche spaces where Black people are underrepresented), Power of Positivity (reparations and restitution) and Black Entrepreneurship of all kinds.

Marrakech was already buzzing, having freshly hosted the latest 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair, which unfailingly attracts thousands of creative minds to the city each year. This energy continued with the multigenerational group gathered in the gardens of Jnane Tamsna, who had as much in common as they had differences to relate. “People create stories create people; or rather stories create people create stories.” Once said Chinua Achebe, whose niece was in attendance, and the stories flowed freely. In a sense, the intimate ‘petit comité’ atmosphere made it possible to speak with everyone present, a rare opportunity at such an exclusive event.

The Salon kicked off with a sumptuous pan-African welcome, tinged with Senegalese teranga, and traditional Marrakshi hospitality. Invigorating gwoka music from Guadeloupe was our soundtrack and a dramatic sunset was our backdrop. Dinner and festivities were followed by a screening of Chevalier, celebrating the Black genius of Chevalier de Saint George, a musical prodigy of 18th-century France. The next day, discourse dawned, moving seamlessly from music and literature to tech, finance and environmental justice. The morning’s panel, led by ethnomusicologist Dr. Fredara Hadley, featured Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tyehimba Jess, historian and attorney Jacques Cook and scholar Dr. Christy Pichichero. The afternoon brought Claude Grunitzky, media entrepreneur and venture capitalist, into dialogue with asset management expert Marcus Gibbs, cultural geographer Dr. Carolyn Finney, marketing executive Trevor McNeal and tech innovator Ovetta Sampson.

A fireside chat with the Salon’s creative director, Veronika Châtelain, and Edna Dumas, founder of UN Tokyo, explored the bridge between African and Japanese cultures. The evening closed with an opulent dinner, gnawa musicians greeting guests at the door, the candle laden-tables host to a steady stream of steaming tajines, and contented customers from Haiti, Martinique, Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, Rwanda and beyond. A minor argument about who makes the best rice may or may not have erupted, but all in good spirits, and afterwards a DJ supplied the tunes for all to dance the night away at Palais Soleiman. Axel Shanga, of Black Moon Films, succinctly described the event as feeling like “being in the right place at the right time.”

The following day brought an unflinching interrogation of art restitution, economic reparations, cultural identity and heritage, featuring journalist and filmmaker Rokhaya Diallo, author and ‘multilocal’ entrepreneur Taiye Selasi, activist Nova Reid, Financial Times cultural critic Enuma Okoro and art lawyer Gert-Jan van den Bergh. Later there was unscripted time to wander in the medina, absorbing Marrakech’s treasures, spices and rhythms before reconvening for a screening of No Chains No Masters by Franco-Beninois director Simon Moutaïrou.

On the final day, the Salon welcomed voices of groundbreaking entrepreneurs and role models of reinvention: Chi Achebe (Achebe Capital), travel entrepreneur Morgan Ramsey (Tela Travels), natural beauty pioneers Keeshagaye Whitter (My Emollient) and Ruqayya Tofa-Basheer (Raw Beauty Africa), former NBA player and artist Badara Ndiaye, writer Joséphine Tassy and Fabienne Toback, executive producer of High on the Hog. Ramsey reflected that it was the first time she felt she could be entirely herself at a conference, and resonated with the discussions around working in white-dominated spaces, like classical music, and the challenges that presents. A moment of meditation on Black futures preceded the closing bash (led by somatic coach, Jae Gibbs) where the abundant, joyful connections solidified into something more lasting (and DeeDee Bridgewater was the inimitable life and soul of the party.)

Loum-Martin and her team, with a blacksmith’s precision and a weaver’s grace, forged an unparalleled get-together – one that spanned generations, industries and lived experiences. Guests and speakers alike described it as emotional, healing and profoundly inspiring. The Salon cultivated a space for Afro-Diasporic changemakers to engage, sparking friendships and serendipitous reconnections. Senghor’s musings on “the unstable equilibrium between the call of the Ancestors and the call of Europe, between the exigencies of Black-African culture and those of modern life” was a recurring theme that many noted.

Folks also drew parallels to Black salons past. A’Lelia Walker (Madame CJ Walker’s daughter, christened a “joy goddess” by Langston Hughes) hosted legendary Harlem Renaissance shindigs at ‘The Dark Tower’, which were incubators for intellectual and creative revolutions. On a larger scale, there was a series of Pan-African Congresses, convened 125 years ago by W.E.B. Du Bois and others, in the UK, Paris and Dar es Salaam. The Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s cultivated voices like Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez. Today, virtual salons thrive on social platforms, with digital griots curating portals to recharge and nourish, like Archive Africa and Culture Art Society.

In the same way, The Diaspora Salon blended unity, shoreline thinking and the fiction of borders through plentiful conversations. It bridged the pain of temporary disconnection with the possibility of return, offering a poignant reminder that our interiority, our collective imagination, can transform the world. Frantz Fanon once said “what matters is not to know the world but to change it.” The Diaspora Salon suggests that we can.