Marrakech – The Moroccan American Network has announced the 10th anniversary edition of “Morocco Day,” scheduled for Friday, October 30, and broadcast live from AVActions studios in Alexandria, Virginia.
The organizers describe the occasion as the start of the initiative’s second decade and as a transatlantic platform positioning Morocco as a strategic economic gateway to Africa under the Morocco 2030 vision.
Morocco Day began as a self-funded civic initiative of the Moroccan American Network, founded by US-based Moroccan journalist Mohamed El Hajjam and former US official and attorney LaRuby May.
Over the years, the initiative has grown into an economic and cultural program built around business networking, media diplomacy, and cultural exchange between Moroccan and American communities.
The 2026 edition broadens that scope. Organizers plan to build a global “network of networks” across African diaspora communities, with particular attention to the Ethiopian American community.
That community numbers more than 300,000 members across the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia region, which the organizers present as a model for diaspora engagement.
The program itself centers on leadership, media, and cultural exchange. Its main feature is the global launch of Finkoma.com, a digital platform connecting Moroccan and African talent, entrepreneurs, and investors across North America and beyond.
A business panel titled “Shaping Africa’s Future,” moderated by El Hajjam, brings together Tefera Alemayehu, Tatek Eshete, Prof. Abdeslem El Idrissi, and Abderrahid Aboubacar.
The evening also includes a Transatlantic Media and Diplomacy Forum featuring journalist and academic Hassan Nader. It closes with a keynote and book signing by El Idrissi, a neuroscientist, who will present Estevanico, his book on Mustapha El Azemmouri, the first African and Moroccan explorer of North America.
As part of the event, the Global Passport Connect program will honor Henok Tesfaye, CEO of USP Holdings / U Street Parking. He immigrated to the United States at 16 and worked in parking while attending college, before building one of the region’s largest facility management and real estate operations.
A decade of transatlantic networking
The network’s documented activity stretches back well before the current anniversary. A June 2013 record from the Moroccan American Trade and Investment Center (MATIC) places its establishment in early 2013 and documents its first CEO Summit on May 31, 2013, at a Virginia hotel.
Roughly 150 business owners, community representatives, and public officials attended, including Congressman Jim Moran and representatives of the US Small Business Administration.
In a November 2013 interview, El Hajjam described the network as a nonprofit supporting economic ties between small businesses in Morocco and the United States.
The organization expanded in the following years. A June 2014 announcement documented an international media forum, and Morocco’s Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad (CCME) reported that the network organized Moroccan Days in Alexandria in April 2015, in partnership with the city’s mayor and Moroccan government departments.
Morocco was later featured at Alexandria’s International Waterfront Festival in October 2016, with a cultural presentation of Gnawa music and fashion.
Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson proclaimed July 15, 2023, Morocco Day. A public celebration followed at Market Square on July 16, featuring Moroccan food, artisans, music, and cultural activities.
Morocco World News (MWN) has accompanied the initiative since its early editions, covering the first named Morocco Day in Washington in 2019 and successive editions since.
El Hajjam’s profile extends across journalism and audiovisual production. He founded and leads AVActions, an Alexandria-based production company that has supported Moroccan-American events for years.
An October 26 release states that he received the Key to the City of Alexandria from former Mayor William D. Euille, a distinction confirmed by local reporting as a 2014 recognition. The release also describes him as the first Moroccan-American to receive it and cites a letter of gratitude from King Mohammed VI.
The network’s engagement with US institutions is also on record. The US Black Chambers documents cooperation with the Moroccan American Network, including a 2022 delegation to Morocco led by its president, Ron Busby, which met government and business representatives across several cities.
Looking ahead, organizers announced the Morocco Day 2027 Summit, scheduled for April 16 to 18, 2027, in Casablanca. Under the theme “A Decade of Bridge-Building… The Next Decade of Opportunities,” the summit is set to address artificial intelligence, trade, and infrastructure alongside US-African chambers of commerce, academic leaders, and institutional investors.
The release names Bertram C. Johnson, former Michigan state senator, as the summit’s keynote speaker.
For now, Morocco Day enters its second decade as a self-funded diaspora initiative, with a documented record of connecting Moroccan entrepreneurs, American business organizations, and diaspora communities, and a stated ambition to extend those connections across the wider African diaspora.
