I’m lounging by the swimming pool and basking in the warm Marrakech sunshine at Jnane Tamsna. On the other side is a stage where Patricia J. Williams, the American legal scholar, is talking about Critical Race Theory, the school of legal thought that emphasises race as a fundamental determinant of the US legal system. Listening to her alongside me are entrepreneurs, bankers, AI engineers, authors, historians, journalists, a Hollywood actor, singers, lawyers, professors and a former Olympic sprint hurdler. There are trees, sunshine, people dressed in resplendent African fabrics; it’s a gorgeous setting for what could be described as an al fresco TED talk.
We’re at the second edition of The Diaspora Salon, an annual three-day event that has brought together a stellar gathering of people from Africa and its diaspora to listen and participate in a series of moderated talks about our cultural and economic futures. We cover far-ranging topics including literature, technology, politics, law, entrepreneurship, art history and identity. The salon’s organiser, and owner of Jnane Tamsna, Meryanne Loum-Martin, is a former Parisian lawyer who was born in Côte d’Ivoire to a Senegalese diplomat father and Guadeloupean mother, and has lived in Ghana, New York City, London, Paris and Moscow. She decided to hold this salon to create “a transformative experience for active change and connecting people”. Her hotel has always transcended mere bed-and-food hospitality, she tells me; it’s more a space for connection and learning, “with rooms attached”.
