Marrakesh or Marrakech is the fourth largest city in Morocco. It is one of the four imperial cities of Morocco and the capital of the Marrakesh–Safi region. It is west of the foothills of the Atlas Mountains.
The culture of Morocco is a blend of Arab, Amazighs, Andalusian cultures, with African, Hebraic and Mediterranean influences. It represents and is shaped by a convergence of influences throughout history. This sphere may include, among others, the fields of personal or collective behaviors, language, customs, knowledge, beliefs, arts, legislation, gastronomy, music, poetry, architecture, etc. While Morocco started to be stably predominantly Sunni Muslim starting from 9th–10th century AD, in the Almoravids empire period, a very significant Andalusian culture was imported and contributed to the shaping of Moroccan culture. Another major influx of Andalusian culture was brought by Andalusians with them following their expulsion from Al-andalus to North Africa after the Reconquista. In antiquity, starting from the second century A.D and up to the seventh, a rural Donatist Christianity was present, along an urban still-in-the-making Roman Catholicism. All of the cultural super strata tend to rely on a multi-millennial aboriginal Berber substratum still strongly present and dating back to prehistoric times.
Thami El Glaoui was the Pasha of Marrakesh from 1912 to 1956. His family name was el Mezouari, from a title given an ancestor by Ismail Ibn Sharif in 1700, while El Glaoui refers to his chieftainship of the Glaoua (Glawa) tribe of the Berbers of southern Morocco, based at the Kasbah of Telouet in the High Atlas and at Marrakesh. El Glaoui became head of the Glaoua upon the death of his elder brother, Si el-Madani, and as an ally of the French protectorate in Morocco, conspired with them in the overthrow of Sultan Mohammed V.
Princess Lalla Latifa née: Amahzoune; is the widow of King Hassan II of Morocco, and the mother of King Mohammed VI, Princesses Lalla Meryem, Lalla Asma, Lalla Hasna, and Prince Moulay Rachid.
Fantasia is a traditional exhibition of horsemanship in the Maghreb performed during cultural festivals and for Maghrebi wedding celebrations. It is present in Algeria, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger and Tunisia. It is attested in the ancient Numidian times during which it was practiced by the Numidian cavalry. Historian Carlos Henriques Pereira stated that the North African fantasia also called barud is a modern watered down version of a Numidian military technique.
Simon Njami is a writer and an independent curator, lecturer, art critic and essayist.
Bisi Silva was a Nigerian contemporary art curator based in Lagos.
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem is a Moroccan-born French former politician and jurist. A member of the Socialist Party (PS), she served in a number of ministerial positions during the presidency of François Hollande. Vallaud-Belkacem was the first woman to serve as Minister of Education, Higher Education, and Research, holding the position from 2014 to 2017 under Prime Ministers Manuel Valls and Bernard Cazeneuve.
Owanto is a British Gabonese artist.
Sindika Dokolo was a Congolese businessman and art collector. Since 2002 he had been married to Isabel dos Santos, the eldest daughter of José Eduardo dos Santos, then President of Angola. As of January 2020, he and his wife were under investigation for large scale corruption. Dokolo owned one of the most important contemporary African art collections of more than 3,000 pieces. He died on 29 October 2020, in a free diving accident near Umm al-Hatab Island in Dubai, UAE, at the age of 48.
Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri is a Moroccan lawyer and politician of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), and currently the mayor of Marrakesh as well as the Minister of National Planning, Urban Planning, Housing and Urban Policy.
Oum El Ghaït Benessahraoui, better known as Oum, is a singer-songwriter of modern Moroccan popular music. Performing and recording both in North Africa and in Europe, she mixes hassani, jazz, gospel, soul, afrobeat and Sufi musical influences in her songs.
Hassan El Mezouari El Glaoui (1923–2018) was a Moroccan figurative painter best known for his depictions of fantasia horsemen.
Pélagie Gbaguidi (1965-) is a Beninese artist who lives and works in Brussels. She is most well-known for her series of paintings and drawings titled “le Code noir” which evokes the violence of the slave trade and its effected trauma on the following generations of Western African cultures.
Marie-Cécile Zinsou is a French-Beninese art historian and entrepreneur, She is president of the Fondation Zinsou, founded in 2005 in Cotonou, Republic of Benin, West Africa, which promotes contemporary art in Africa and leads cultural, educational and social initiatives. In 2014 she opened the first museum of contemporary art in Benin.
Miriem Bensalah-Chaqroun is a Moroccan businesswoman. She is CEO and vice-chair of Oulmes Mineral Water of Groupe Holmarcom. She is the president of Confédération générale des entreprises du Maroc from 2012 to 2018. She received the Wissam Al-Moukafa Al-Watania in 2013, the Order of Civil Merit in 2017 and the Legion of Honour in 2020.
Dar el Bacha is a palace located in the old medina of Marrakesh, Morocco. It currently houses the Museum of Confluences.
Safaa Erruas, born in 1976 in Tétouan, is a Moroccan artist.
1:54 is an annual contemporary African art fair held in London during the October Frieze Week since 2013. It was organized to improve the representation of contemporary African art in worldwide exhibitions, and is the foremost art fair dedicated to contemporary African art in the primary art market. By 2016, the show had become three times the size of the original exhibition with 130 artists represented. A spin-off, pop-up show, 1:54 NY, has been held annually in New York City during the May Frieze New York since 2015. A third location, in Marrakech, began in 2018. Critics have described 1:54 as a highlight of the Frieze event, and wrote that the show's publicity for contemporary African art outweighs the issues of lumping disparate geographic traditions together. The fair's representation from African galleries has improved as the international market for African art expands.
Tigui Camara, also Tiguidanké Camara, is a Guinean model and mining entrepreneur, who is chief executive officer of Tigui Mining Group and a member of the association International Women in Mining. She is one of the youngest mining entrepreneurs in Africa, and the only woman in Guinea to own a mining company. In 2017 Jeune Afrique listed her as one of Africa's 50 Most Influential Businesswomen and in 2021 Avance Media listed her as one if its Top 100 Most Influential Women in Africa.
