Matt Bowles: My guest today is Anita Moreau. She is an archaeologist, museum curator, world traveler, and the founder and CEO of Black Travel Summit. Born and raised in London to a Seychellois mother and a Haitian father. She has had an affinity for travel, history, and cultural heritage from a young age. Anita has made it her goal to encourage black travelers to travel outside their comfort zones safely and under budget, as well as to create opportunities for black entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and travel more, and to educate the public on the global Black diaspora.  Anita, welcome to the show.

Anita Moreau: Thank you so much, Matt, for having me. It’s such a pleasure to be here today.

Matt Bowles: I am so excited to have you here for so many reasons. First of all, I think we know like 50 people in common. Second of all, I am super excited this year to be attending my first Black Travel Summit. And we are going to get into exactly what people can expect from that, but let’s just start off by setting the scene and talking about where we are recording this from today. Unfortunately, we are not in person. I am actually in the Blue Ridge mountains of Asheville, North Carolina today. And where are you?

Anita Moreau: I am in downtown Miami in Florida.

Matt Bowles: Amazing. As you know, I grew up in South Florida for a number of years of my youth. So, I have a lot of fond memories and love for South Florida. I want to start off with your background. And before we even do your story, I would love if you could share a little bit about your parent’s story and maybe start with your mother’s experience growing up in the Seychelles and then talk about your father’s experience growing up in Haiti and what eventually led them to London and how that journey was for them.

Anita Moreau: So, my mother was born and raised part of her life in Victoria Mahe. That’s the main island, one of the largest islands in the Seychelles. Seychelles is made up of over 115 islands. It’s an archipelago. But her parents were from La Digue, which is one of the other main islands. She left at the age of seven, and in fact, her mother left before her. She was an Au pair. She spoke, I think, maybe four or five languages and traveled around Europe quite often. At the age of seven, my grandmother was in the process of bringing my uncle over. He was older than my mother and almost didn’t bring my mother. It was my great grandmother who was like, no, you need to keep your children together. Family is important. And so, then she ended up going over to London at the age of seven. Obviously going over, she didn’t know much English. She spoke more French than anything. But she made her way and would go back and forth to the Seychelles often. In her late teens, she ended up coming to the States to stay with her father.

Her father lives here, and that’s where she met my father. And my father was born in Haiti. But spent a lot of time in the Bahamas and that was common back then, you know, people would travel back and forth between Haiti and Bahamas. He spent a lot of time in Bahamas and then migrated to Miami, Florida as a young child as well. I believe he was around six or seven when he migrated here as well. So, he grew up in Miami. He’s a Miami guy. Fast forward, they meet, right? My father is in the army, and they meet at a family reunion. One of her close friends was my father’s sister and they hit it off from there. They moved to the Bahamas for a few months and then they ended up moving to London for some time.

They got married. They had me and then my father came back to Miami because he was just done with the cold and everything and wanted to pursue his career in modeling and some other things as well. And that’s just kind of how they got started.

Matt Bowles: Well, I want to talk about both London and Miami. I think those are two really interesting cities to start with. And maybe let’s start with London. For people that have not spent much time in London, can you share a little bit about the diversity of the Black diaspora dynamics in the city of London and just sort of explain that landscape for folks that haven’t spent much time in London?

Anita Moreau: It is super diverse. It’s so diverse. Some people may know about the Windrush generation, right? It’s during the 60s when a lot of people from the Caribbean, particularly Jamaica, parts of Trinidad and Tobago, etc. And other islands as well, migrated to the UK for work. And they would migrate, of course, to more metropolitan areas like London, Manchester, Birmingham, etc.

So, there’s that population, the Caribbean influence and that definitely influenced a lot of what British culture is today. There is also a large variety of West African, East African, South African, of course, Central and North African as well.

And I know sometimes when we think of North Africa, we think primarily of Egypt, Morocco, Libya, et cetera.  And I think it’s important to realize that there are also African individuals or people of African descent or indigenous folks that are in these areas. Like in Morocco, right, you have people of the Berber, you have people of the Tuareg that are based in Mali, but travel constantly, right? You have the Nubians in Egypt.

There’s so many different ethnicities and groups that just kind of come together in this place. And it’s the same thing with other places. Throughout Europe as well, we’re mentioned, we were talking about the Francophone population are heavily present in Paris as well. So, if you’ve been to Paris, then London is not far off.

Matt Bowles: Yeah, 100%. My last trip to Paris was amazing because I had just spent a whole bunch of time in Senegal, and I was going to Paris, and I was seeking out, this time on purpose, the Senegalese immigrant section of the city. And it was really amazing to go there right after having been in Senegal. It was just really lovely.

Can you share a little bit now about your experience? And when you think all the way back as a kid coming up in London and navigating your East African heritage, your Caribbean heritage, and then there you are as a kid in London, what was that experience like for you?

Anita Moreau: It’s interesting because in London, there’s a huge shared cultural heritage there in the UK, and it doesn’t matter if your parents are from China, or from Turkey, or from South Africa.  If you are born and raised in London, particularly certain parts of London, you will grow up, saying things like “Wagwan”, right? Even though wagwan is, we know where it’s from, right? Jamaica, the influence from the Windrush generation, but there’s a huge shared cultural heritage there. And that’s what I love so much about London.

However, through my experience, I can’t speak for anyone else because of that shared cultural heritage, and it’s such a beautiful thing. Sometimes it’s easy to really understand your identity if it’s not strong in the home. Now, because my mother had migrated to London very young and because my grandmother, her mother, passed away very young, it was hard for her to share some of those traits, those customs, those traditions, et cetera, with me.

It’s only when I became a little bit older, and I started to learn them for myself. that I grew a deeper connection with the Seychelles. But before then, in my mind, I was just a black person living in London, and I felt more connected to the Caribbean groups. Although I really didn’t know much about Haiti growing up because of being in London and my family being over here and not really flying over here until a little bit later. But it was still a great experience. It’s interesting because as I mentioned as well, racism exists everywhere. In London, in my experience, it was quite subtle until you went, of course, outside of the city. And it wasn’t until I moved here that I truly felt, and even just traveling here, I truly felt like my Blackness.

Matt Bowles: Can you talk a little bit more about that? And particularly when you think back to the age that you were when you started coming to the United States, what were your observations and reflections on the dynamics of blackness in the U.S. versus the U.K.?

Anita Moreau: Well, first of all, and this is me coming to Miami, no other part of the United States is, you know, of course, as I’ve aged, I’ve realized that different parts of the country operate differently. Like New York, for example, but this is coming to Miami, and knowing what I know now about Miami, some of the populations are quite separated.

So, the Black groups usually stay with the Black groups, particularly the African Americans, the Caribbean Americans kind of stay to themselves, like up in maybe Broward, Miramar.  The Cuban population tends to stay to themselves, and perhaps you might get some Venezuelans, Nicaraguans in there as well. And then, the white populations, you don’t really see in Miami, they’re more so up in places like Broward or they’re transplants from other parts of the country. So, my Blackness. was super transparent from a young age.

And as I mentioned, I’ve been coming to this country from the age of seven years old, but I didn’t really start paying attention to the differences around me until a little bit later in life, in my teens. So, seeing that separation, because in London, I had, you know, a friend from Egypt, a friend from Ireland, a friend from Nigeria, a friend from Jamaica, a friend from Turkey, and we all were just in the same group and now seeing this separation and the way that people would treat me because of my blackness. Like I would get comments like, “Oh, you’re pretty for a black girl”. So that’s when it really started hitting me like, “Oh, I’m black”. That’s it. I’m here in this place and I’m black. And it’s been a great experience living here in Miami because it has developed. It has evolved over the years.

It’s not all negative experiences. There are very positive experiences as well, but that’s definitely one of my first experiences in realizing how Blackness is treated differently here.

Matt Bowles: I also want to ask about some of your experiences traveling around Europe and also starting back in those teenage years. Can you talk about your trip to Mallorca and Spain? And share a little bit about the impact that that trip had on you.

Anita Moreau: So, my first trip to Palma de Mallorca, I was 16 years old. It was actually our first family holiday. My mother and my two younger brothers were together. And this was right before we went to Seychelles for my first time.

It was a great experience. We didn’t feel like it was much different from being in the UK because there were a lot of English folks, right? It’s a very common place for English people to vacate to or to holiday. Great weather, palm trees. A lot of East African and West African merchants walking up and down the streets, which is obviously something new for me.

The only Black people I think I remember seeing were those merchants. And then, of course, I happened upon, I think my first, and not direct, but more so indirect experience of being Black in Europe, when I came upon graffiti on a wall that said “White Europe”. Basically, everyone else too, kind of, F off. That was an experience for me, and that wasn’t, I recall a few years later, there was that incident with, I don’t remember, his name, but he was a race car driver. He was biracial, I think his father was black British. His mother was English. And he had an incident in Spain where they were throwing bananas at him. So, I was like, oh, okay, you know, this is just a thing that people who look different experience in certain parts of Europe.

And I’m a very understanding and compassionate individual. I’m also knowing and intelligent enough to know that one experience shouldn’t determine future experiences and shouldn’t deter me from going back to a place because of that. So, I have been to Spain since then. I haven’t had such experiences. I went to Tenerife. I went to Gran Canaria. This year I’m going to Ibiza. My uncle’s getting married there for God knows what reason, but we’re going to have a party, have a good time. But yeah, that was definitely one of the experiences that I had in Spain. And of course, I’ve had experiences all across Europe and in the United States and even in the UK, where you just know when you’re not welcome.

Matt Bowles: Well, I want to talk a little bit about your trajectory, your life, your career path. I think the place where I want to start is to ask you about the role of Egypt in your journey. We have had a number of conversations about Egypt. I have spent probably about a year in Egypt, mostly based in Cairo, but I’ve traveled around the country. So, it has a super special place in my heart and my journey as well. But can you start maybe all the way back and think about some of your earliest interest in Egypt and then maybe take us on that journey in terms of how that impacted your life trajectory?

Anita Moreau: So, my love for Egypt started when I was about 16 years old. Being a young girl, I was interested in music and media. I’m just going to do what’s fun. So, I went on with the media. I ended up having to go through college with the same course, with the same area of study, and then into university. Now, while I was studying media in school, in secondary school, this is college, and then TV production at university.

At the age of 16, I came across some documentaries and I’m like, “Oh, you know what? I’m really going to be into this TV production thing”. Because I just love the way that these documentaries are made. And I’m just so engrossed every single time I watch them. But it’s not until halfway through university that I’m like, I don’t actually enjoy this.  What is going on?

And I’m looking at these documentaries and I’m like, you know what? I love the content. And I knew I loved the content before, but I thought I was super fascinated by the science behind creating this documentary as well. Turns out I was just interested in the content. And so, I had this love that had grown from that for ancient history, for prehistory as well outside of Egypt.

But that is what ignited my passion for Egypt, traveling, exploring and for learning. And so, when I reached the age of 18 and I could finally go out and solo travel, I took one of my friends who was half Egyptian and I was like, “You haven’t been anywhere. Let’s go”. We went, we stayed for two weeks, she decided to stay for a year, and so it gave me an opportunity to glide back and forth. I ended up staying for a month and a half with her at some point as well, the next year, but I fell in love with Egypt. I fell in love with the people, with the culture, with the language, with the history, just with the idea, with, what it means to be Egyptian.

And that’s something you only really learn when you’re there. The same way that you know that there’s certain things you can say in Arabic that just cannot be translated into English. So that started my love for Egypt and that grew to bring me where I am today.

Matt Bowles: Well, let’s talk about where you are today. Can you share a little bit about that love for Egypt and how increasingly important Egypt has become in your life, including getting married in Egypt? Can you share a little bit about that?

Anita Moreau: Oh yeah. It’s a really great story because as we talked about as well, it inspired my desire to learn more about archaeology. Anthropology was a super interesting field of study for me, but I went into archaeology because I like to do things with my hands.

So, I went into archaeology and through that course, I found myself falling deeper and deeper in love with particularly, and this is obviously something personal, right, African diaspora stories. So, I would do more research on the origins of certain groups. And a lot of this was done independently as well and I found out about Afro Indigenous groups in Thailand still exist. There’s only about 600 of them in Thailand. They’re related to the Batek in Malaysia. And I think there are like tens of thousands in Malaysia. They’re related to the Agta people in Philippines, and these are groups that a lot of people just do not know about, but they are the Afro indigenous folks of these lands.

They’ve been there for tens of thousands of years. They descend from this out-of-Africa migration that started and really just kind of had people landing in Southeast Asia and South Asia, in Australasia, et cetera. Sixty-fifty thousand years ago and those people, a lot of them are still alive today. So that is also what got me really interested in the Nubians in Egypt.

When my husband and I got engaged, we were like, okay, we want to do something that is just so unique because it’s just who we are as individuals. People often look at us and say, “You’re Black and an archeologist? Hmm. Interesting”. And then they’ll look at him and say, “Filmmaker, what are you guys doing? Are you guys crazy?”

But we’re making it work and we’re really just following our passions. So, we said, okay. We did our DNA tests. I had mine from a while ago, but it updates every now and then he did his DNA test, and we found a place that kind of met in the middle and Egypt was just one of those places. And I said, “You know what? Let’s go to Aswan. Let’s get married in Aswan”. In the south of Egypt, the last time I went to Aswan, we didn’t get an opportunity, and this was, oh my gosh, almost 15 years ago now, because I had fell sick, we couldn’t go to Abu Simbel. I said, we’re going to Aswan, the day before we get married, we’re going to go to Abu Simbel, and then we’re going to get married, we’re going to have Nubians drumming around us, and we’re going to have a good time.  Aand then we’re going to go on honeymoon in Sri Lanka, and it’s going to be a great experience. So that’s what happened.

Matt Bowles: That is amazing. And a huge shout out to the Nubians. They might be the kindest, most hospitable, most loving humans on the planet of this earth that I have ever encountered. I mean, unbelievable.

Anita Moreau: Yes, absolutely. And it’s crazy because even when you speak to Egyptians in Cairo and Alexandria. I’ve heard so many people say the same thing, the Nubians are the best Egyptians. And I never really understood until I met Nubians. And I was like, “Oh my gosh, is this real?”

Matt Bowles: It was totally amazing. I mean, I can remember going to Nubia and staying along the Nile there, you know, where they have all the blue-painted houses and stuff. And they welcomed me into the place where I was staying. I was like, wow, that was a remarkably warm welcome. And then they came back, and they said, and now I’m going to invite you into my personal home. So that you can meet my entire family and then spend time with us. And then they were going to give you more tea and food and stuff like that.

And, it was so much love, and it was so much warmth, and it was so much hospitality. I was like, I don’t know that I’ve seen this level anywhere in the world. I mean, it was unbelievable. And to this day has a permanent place in my heart. So special.

Anita Moreau: I agree. I’m right there with you, Matt.

Matt Bowles: Well, I want to also ask you about your experience going back to Haiti as an adult and reconnecting with that part of your heritage. Can you talk about that experience?

Anita Moreau: It was about eight years ago. I had just had this conversation and sat down with my father and this was almost immediately after I had moved here, probably a year or two after, because I moved here at the end of 2014. So, I was 25 in 2015. And I said to my father, when was the last time you went to Haiti? And he was like, I think I was 12. Bearing in mind, my father is just over 20 years older than me. And I’m like, that’s not good. We need to go back to Haiti. And the look on his face, he just never considered going back or what it would be like for him to go back. And so, I said, let’s just do it.

And I was that person that I was just so bold that I started looking up tickets on Spirit Airlines. And I was like, let’s do it. We’re going to fly to Port-au-Prince, and we know your family is from the north in Port Au Pair. We’re going to figure out how to get there and we’re going to have a good time. And we went, we visited, it was almost a culture shock for me because although I’ve been around my family, in Miami and they’re Haitian to the bone. They’re true Zoles. This was just all encompassing and just feeling the amount of love and just seeing the hustle and seeing the way of life and how it differs to when you’re in a place like Miami. It’s almost similar to like being in Jamaica and being in London around people of Jamaican descent. It’s a different mentality you have to adopt when you migrate somewhere else.

So, I had a great time. It was such a beautiful experience. I met family members that I didn’t know I had. And that’s quite a common thing if you’re a Haitian or if you’re Caribbean, you’re always meeting some family member, but this was definitely one of those experiences where I just came across so many people and even people that would recognize my father.

It was a trip that was full of love, memories, and crying. Of course, memories from my father, but it was a great experience eating the food, smelling the air, visiting different parts as well, and seeing Haiti that you don’t usually see on TV. That was a great experience.

Matt Bowles: Well, I also want to ask about your experiences going back to the Seychelles and spending time there. Can you share a little bit about that? Maybe starting with your first trip to the Seychelles and from there on how your connection has been with the Seychelles?

Anita Moreau: The first time I went to the Seychelles was a similar situation where I was questioning my mother, why have we never gone to the Seychelles? I always question things growing up. I’m like, what are we doing? Like, why are we not here? Why did we go back? It kind of happened the same way where we need to get there. It’s been a long time since you’ve been there. I think the last time she was in the Seychelles was probably when she was 16 years old. Right before she migrated here to the U.S. It was great. I mean, we went for two weeks. We were there for Christmas. I met family members I hadn’t met before. I was able to establish relationships with those family members that are still strong today and just learn a little bit more and I’m going to be honest with you. I think because my mother is from Seychelles and because I had relationships with some cousins and family members who also migrated to London as well, I was a little familiar, but I felt disconnected at the same time.

And I think it goes back to that feeling, that sense of kind of what is my identity? How should I identify, especially when you’re not super-raised in that culture? So, I almost felt like an outcast. I didn’t speak the language at the time. I knew a little bit about the music, and the songs, but I didn’t know many of them.  It was a humbling experience.  As excited as I was to go, I also felt out of place. I challenged that. What I did was, and it was a while later, of course, I was 21 years old, I went back with my friend, and I had a ball, and I just went out there, made friends with people around my age, and really tried to immerse myself in that culture.

I went again, actually just before completing my master’s in Archaeology, because I was doing my dissertation, I called it, I called it L’Origine Expression, which means the origin of expressions, and based it on the tangible and intangible heritages, and their similarities between other African diaspora nations.

That time I stayed for about six weeks, and that is when I truly devoted myself to learning more about my heritage, to learning my language, to learning about the foods, the customs, et cetera. And so, I dug in deep. I joined a Sega dance troupe. The Sega is the traditional dance of Seychelles.

When I got back to London, I made friends and I found some people who had a party in London and ended up finding some cousins. It’s insane, but that kind of set me on my journey to truly love being from this place or being able to call this one of my homes.

Matt Bowles: So, I have never been to the Seychelles. It is super high on my list. I’ve spent probably about two and a half years on the continent, but the Seychelles, I have not yet been there. For me, and other people who have not yet been to the Seychelles, what are some of the highlights or recommendations that you might put people onto who would like to visit and experience the Seychelles?

Anita Moreau: I am biased because I love the Seychelles. But, as I mentioned before, my family hails from La Digue, so I am always going to recommend visiting La Digue. You will land from the jetty on the Cat Cocos, which is the ferry that takes you between islands. You will get off and just the smell of manure will let you know that you are somewhere that is largely untouched and undeveloped in a good way. There are not many cars on the island. Everyone gets around, a majority of people get around on foot or by bicycle. It’s such a beautiful Island. The amount of foliage is amazing. I love it. You can literally ride around the island in 45 minutes. Although when I was younger, that probably would have been a bit too simple for me. Oh my gosh, it’s paradise. So, I always recommend people to visit La Digue, obviously

Mahe is beautiful as well. There’s a lot more people there, there’s a lot more jobs there. So, there’s going to be more opportunities to kind of immerse yourself through visiting the museums, visiting the archives. You can definitely visit the botanical gardens where the coco de mer is, and just be able to immerse yourself in the culture and the market as well. And the market in Victoria, that’s one of the best ways.

Matt Bowles: I want to ask you also, if you can share a little bit more about your passion for telling stories of Afro-Indigenous people and the global Black diaspora. And if you can share a little bit about some of the research projects and exhibits that you have been involved with.

Anita Moreau: Going back to what I mentioned about the Afro-Indigenous populations, particularly in Southeast Asia, South Asia, in parts of the Middle East, even in South America. It’s obviously Afro-Indigenous, but then obviously African diaspora, those who have migrated expats, et cetera, just the global black diaspora in general. I have solo curated an exhibit that exists and has existed in some locations called Hidden Residents. And what Hidden Residence does is it intends to uncover some of the least known communities and groups of Afro Indigenous and African Diaspora peoples across the globe. The first installation was of the Maniq people, and they are indigenous to Thailand or what is currently known as Thailand today.

They are closely related to the Batek of Malaysia. In fact, they, before the borders, would cross often, and even with the borders, they cross them often. So, they’re definitely closely related to that group as well. And they’re also often called Orang Asli as well. So Maniq means human or man. Batek is the same. And Orang Asli also means original human as well. So original human or original man.

I think this really intrigued me because, growing up, I despised history. But I think later on in life I realized that it wasn’t that I despised history, it’s that I didn’t connect with the way I was taught history and the individuals that had taught me history. It wasn’t done in a way that I could connect with.  One of my teachers for Black History Month, every year I recall, would just throw in an episode of Roots. So, I didn’t really have a good relationship in the beginning with history. It was not until I did my own independent research that I realized there’s a whole world out there that is just not talked about, and particularly indigenous communities and Black communities as well. And it’s for many reasons, of course, but just being able to uncover those groups and doing so is difficulty, just because of the lack of studies that exist on some of these groups as well was a challenge. For some reason, I just like to challenge myself.

Matt Bowles: Well, I also want to ask about the story of how all of this background eventually led to you founding the Black Travel Summit. Can you give us a little bit of the backstory of that?

Anita Moreau: I had recently joined Instagram back in 2016 and was 26 years old. I was traveling around a lot and obviously learning how to use the platform and learning about hashtags, et cetera.

And then I came upon some hashtags like #BlackTravel,  #BlackTravelMovement, etc. And they intrigued me. I was like, “Oh, interesting. What’s this?” You know, there’s like a whole group of us out here just traveling and doing things and sharing experiences and words of wisdom and neat tips and tricks for people who do end up traveling thereafter to whatever destination they had visited. And I was just amazed.

And I would sometimes find myself just looking at some of the posts that have been posted with those hashtags. And just seeing so many amazing people traveling, and it didn’t reflect how I saw advertisements on television or advertisements on billboards, you know when you see promotions about the next cruise or fly to this country or that country, it didn’t reflect, it almost just made me think, okay, this is just something else that we kind of have to create our own thing, our own network, our own communities, and just allow word of mouth to be able to encourage people in our community to just take the step and travel.

So, in 2017, 2018, I actually founded a marketplace online where I had some listings of different groups that you can support and go to if you want to take a trip or a group trip, if you want to solo travel, etc.  And so, in 2019, it was actually early 2019 I started ideating Black Travel Summit, and then I incorporated it at the latter end of 2019 in October and just started from there. I actually started planning an event to take place in early 2020. And then obviously we all know what happened. So, we pivoted to virtual instead.

We hosted our first webinar on Facebook for free, and we had almost 6,000 people tune in. And it was just like, Wow. This is something we continued when we had another virtual event, and we would have a biweekly virtual life on Instagram as well. And with that virtual event, in fact, before the next major one-day virtual event, we had heard from Hyatt and then we also heard from Royal Caribbean. And in that moment, I was like, oh, this is something, you know, I was just doing this for community. But okay, this is where we’re going. This is the direction we’re going in and I just got to be ready for it. Bearing in mind, I didn’t know that Nomadness was already around. I had no clue, but then I found out about it through my journey, of course, because people would come to me and say, so have you been to Nomadness? At the time I think it was called Audacity Fest. And I was like, wait, what is this? I was like “Oh snap, I need to research more about this. Make sure I’m not stepping on any toes.”

And it was great because it turned out that what I wanted to do eventually was to create this space for Black travel professionals, more to speak, whereas Audacity kind of took the turn for just travelers of color. And even then, just kind of coming into this country and learning how people refer to Black people, trying to fit this into our language and our branding message as well. So, it’s really been a journey. It’s been amazing. It’s definitely been an experience.

Matt Bowles: Let’s talk about the upcoming Black Travel Summit 2024. I am going to be there. You are going to be there. Other Maverick Show guests are going to be there. When is it? Where is it? And what can people expect from the event this year?

Anita Moreau: It is going to be taking place from October 10th through the 13th this year at the Hyatt Centric Las Olas. Visit Lauderdale it’s our host sponsor. We’re really excited to be in Fort Lauderdale this year. We’ve been trying to explore our options with where we’re going to, and obviously being a travel conference, it’s our goal to travel.

So excited to be in Fort Lauderdale this year. We’re excited to be able to showcase some of the black owned businesses and entrepreneurs that are local as well. And there’s going to be a lot of activities going on. We’re starting the weekend off with a give back in partnership with Steven Tullock and his foundation.

We’re then moving into Wavelength by Black Travel Alliance. Black Travel Alliance is now an official partner of ours. We formed a strategic alliance that we’re extremely excited and proud about this year. And for the years to come, they will be hosting Wavelength for Creators that day, which will include learning sessions, which will include speed networking with brands as well.  It’s going to be awesome. And if you’re a content creator, that is the place to be that evening.

We’re going to be doing our first Black Travel Film Festival. Very excited about that. I think it’s something that just kind of came to mind actually from our Victor Awards in previous years. The Victor Awards, one of the categories was Best Travel Short.  And that is an idea from my husband, of course, being a filmmaker and seeing all of this amazing content out there. We just thought, you know what, it makes sense because there’s so much amazing content out there made for different reasons. Some for leisure, some for-marketing campaigns, some for partners, et cetera. Why not create a space where we can recognize, appreciate, and just kind of showcase all of this talent. So really excited about that.

We move into the Friday and we’re also partnering with the Future of Black Tourism powered by Culture Heritage Economic Alliance. They will be hosting their summit on Friday. It’s called Future of Black Tourism E3 Leadership Conclave. Excited about that. That’s definitely going to be an amazing space for the leaders, for the black leaders, and industry professionals and allies as well.

Then we open up, and we have our speaker series on Saturday, which everyone is always excited about. We’re really excited about it. Going to be sharing some data this year that I think a lot of folks will be really interested in hearing. We’re going to have our Black Travel Awards Gala that same night. Which is going to be awesome. And obviously breakouts in between the speaker series and the Black Travel Awards Gala. The gala is always very well attended. In fact, we always sell out. So, get your tickets now.

And then the Sunday we’re also doing something new, a pitch competition. We’ve been wanting to do it for some years and we’re finally doing it this year. Really excited. One of the top prizes is $5,000. So, we’re going to share that with a very well-deserving entrepreneur this year, really excited about that.

And then we end off with our expo, which we’ve had since the beginning, showcasing Black-owned brands and brands that cater to black travelers, but more so to just to get the word out there and be able to promote those Black travel professionals, those businesses and those startups. So, we’ve got a lot of tour operators that’s going to be in the building this year as well.

And then we close up with our yacht brunch, our yacht brunch and our closing reception. Our yacht branch is always well attended as well. I mean, who doesn’t want to, when coming to Florida, close out on the water, eating good food and maybe having a drink, so it’s going to be a good experience.

Matt Bowles: Amazing. I’m going to be there. You are going to be there. It’s going to be an incredible crowd for listeners who are hearing about this, maybe for the first time, who is Black Travel Summit for? Who should attend? And if any listeners of The Maverick Show would like to attend, is there a way that they can get a special discount?

Anita Moreau: Absolutely. So, the Black Travel Summit is for everyone. We’re not exclusive. Our goal is to support, empower, and create opportunities with and for the black travel community, which is inclusive of all groups who want to work with Black travel professionals. It is our goal to highlight those Black travel professionals to showcase the work they’re doing and to recognize them for their achievements, which is why we have such events as the Black Travel Awards Gala.

So, if you are interested in coming and supporting, or maybe just building relationships with Black travel professionals, creators, industry professionals, advisors, et cetera, you name it, that is the place to be. And all you have to do is be a loyalist to Matt Bowles and you will get a discount and then you can join us there. You are going to be welcome and treated like royalty.

Matt Bowles: All right. We are going to put a link in the show notes for where you can get your tickets as well as the discount code MAVERICK, and you type that in and it is going to give you a special discount just for being a listener of The Maverick Show, which we greatly appreciate.

And then you can come and hang out with us in person. It is going to be an amazing time. Anita, when you think back about all the travel that you have done up to this point, how would you say that all that travel has impacted you as a person?

Anita Moreau: My traveling experiences over the years have allowed me to be able to explore what it means to have grace, to have compassion, to have understanding as a human being in this life, what it means to have shared lived experiences as well. And just to be open, I’m expecting to expect the unexpected because I know that everyone has a completely different walk-in life and traveling to me, that’s what it’s about.

It’s about learning about those experiences, meeting people from all walks of life, and hearing their stories. It’s learning about how they move and how they navigate through this journey in life and learning from it as well. Because I believe that you can always learn from your conversations. And I also believe that wisdom, true wisdom can also be gained as well.  So, I think traveling has acted as the biggest school in my life and has allowed me to mature in ways that I’m not sure I would have if it weren’t for those experiences.

Matt Bowles: Anita, what tips would you give to black travelers who might be at the earlier part of their travel journey?

Anita Moreau: Go with an open mind. Do not expect people to behave as you behave or to think how you think. It’s almost like that saying when they say ‘When in Rome, Do as the Romans Do’. Go with the intention to learn and to immerse yourself in a particular culture, to be respectful of that culture as well. And to give, because a lot of the times when people travel, it may feel like there’s no give, it’s only taken, they’re going to take this experience and have a good time and not pay attention to the people perhaps down the road outside of the resort that could be not living a great life, right? When you travel, it’s important to give back to the communities that you are around, that you’re experiencing. Although a lot of the time we don’t like to think of it in this way that we’re taking from as well. I think that’s important for any traveler, having an open mind and removing any form of privilege that you have, any form of entitlement that you may feel. Even if you don’t know you have it, just be aware, particularly for those coming from the Western world.

Matt Bowles: All right, Anita. I think that is a great place to end the main portion of this interview. And at this point, are you ready to move into the lightning round?

Anita Moreau: So, let’s do it.

Matt Bowles: Let’s do it.

All right. What is one book maybe that has significantly impacted you over the years? You’d most recommend that people should read.

Anita Moreau: It’s called Scrambled Eggs. And it is for people, not necessarily just for entrepreneurs, but for people who want to organize and take control of their lives. It has taught me, and it took me a while to read it as well, but it was something that was gifted to me during one of my fellowships. And it’s taught me a lot.

It’s taught me that my mind is truly scrambled. And sometimes we as entrepreneurs, we as business owners, we as people who want to just manifest and manipulate our life in the way that we want to. Sometimes it’s hard to maintain, just be linear, we’re always like here and there and everywhere, my husband says my mind is like spaghetti. One minute I’m here, the next minute I’m down the road. And that book has just kind of helped me to keep it together a little bit better and to just be able to navigate. Not only my business, but my life a little bit better, and definitely in a more calm and mellow manner.

Matt Bowles: Alright, who is one person currently alive today that you’ve never met that you would most love to have dinner with? Just you and that person for an evening of dinner and conversation.

Anita Moreau: Neil deGrasse Tyson. He is just mind blowing to me. And when I’ve sat down and actually watched documentaries and just listened and learning and trying to digest everything. I think he’s an interesting individual. I would definitely love to sit down with him and have a chat and just learn as much as I can from him about what he knows of the universe.

Matt Bowles: That would be an amazing conversation.  Anita, what is one travel hack that you use that you can recommend to people?

Anita Moreau: So, Google Flights, Skyscanner, there’s another tool I used to use quite a bit called Travel Pirates, if you have no goal or destination in mind and you’re just really kind of open, Travel Pirates is definitely a great hack as well to be able to find something affordable as long as you are ready to just pick it up and go. Those are definitely some things.

And then I’ve also started using and patronizing this brand called The Essentials. It’s a black owned brand and it’s travel covers for toilet seats, and bed coverings as well, like disposable bed coverings. It’s good for super hypochondriac people like me who don’t want to just be bringing all the Lysol wipes and the sprays and stuff. So that’s definitely a great travel hack as well. So, there’s a couple.

Matt Bowles: Alright, Anita, knowing everything that you know now if you could go back in time and give one piece of advice to your 18-year-old self, what would you say to 18-year-old Anita?

Anita Moreau: Patience, have patience. I think sometimes, especially myself and I’m speaking to myself, I think sometimes we try to move so quickly and get ahead and speed up. And we think that we’re missing out on something when it’s best to just let it flow and come to you because what is meant for you is meant for you and nobody can take that away from you.

Matt Bowles: Of all the places that you have now traveled, what are three of your favorite destinations you would most recommend other people should definitely check out?

Anita Moreau: So, I’m not going to include the Seychelles, even though I would, because I feel like that’s me being biased. So, I’m going to include some other destinations. So, Columbia is one of them. Love Medellin. I had a great experience there.

Cambodia is definitely just one of those places as well.

And Doha, I feel like I still can’t say Egypt either, just because of my relationship with the country, but yeah. Doha. I love Doha. Egypt and Seychelles to me are up there. Always going to be up there. But those three places outside of those two countries.

Matt Bowles: And what are your top three bucket list destinations? These are places you have not yet been. Currently the highest on your list that you would most love to see.

Anita Moreau: I want to go to Papua New Guinea, definitely up there for me. I would like to visit Sudan when the time is right, of course. And I would like to visit Singapore.

Matt Bowles: All right. We’re going to close this out with some musical discussions. I, first of all, want to ask you about Afrobeat. You and I are both big Afrobeat fans. I want to ask if you can name your top five Afrobeat Artists that you want to put people on to. But before you do that, can you share a little bit just about what Afrobeats means to you? Maybe share a little bit about the scene in London and what you love about the art form, just for people that may not be super familiar with it.

Anita Moreau: Oh my gosh. Afrobeats to me is just, I don’t want to say it’s everything, but it’s near enough. And I remember my first Interaction, I guess, with somebody who was playing Afrobeats, who was one of my close friends at the age of 13 in London, and she’s Nigerian, right? So, just being introduced to, and I cannot remember the name of the song, but I always remember the beat, and I’m playing it in my head right now.  And I’m not going to hum it out loud, but if I did, you would recognize it as well if you’re a big Afrobeats fan. But it’s one of those things that almost kind of helped me lean more into recognizing myself as being half African. Because there are a lot of people who may not connect the Seychelles to the mainland, even some people from the Seychelles as well. So, it definitely allowed me to lean more into my heritage a bit more.

The Afrobeats are just there. It’s in the English-speaking countries. It’s in the Francophone countries. It’s even in the Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa. It’s present. I mean, even in the Seychelles, there’s Afrobeats and in Creole and it’s, oh my gosh, it’s just, I don’t know, it’s just a different type of energy. I don’t know how to explain it. You don’t even have to be from Africa. It just moves through you, and you feel just this energy coming over you. I don’t know, I love it.

Matt Bowles: Yeah. It’s amazing. I was in Ghana about a year and a half ago for a Detty December when they do the big Afrobeat festivals in Accra. And it was absolutely magical. But you and I have been, of course, exchanging playlists and all of this kind of stuff already and talking about some of our favorite artists. But so, I’m curious, and I would love for you to put my audience on, who are five of your favorite Afrobeat artists?

Anita Moreau: Got to give it up to Fela Kuti. If you know, you know.

Tems. She’s commercial now, but the talent that she possesses is definitely worth noting.

Burna Boy, of course, again, commercial, but like I mentioned, that connection between the UK and parts of Africa as well, because a lot of those folks are either born in London or raised in London or have some sort of connection with London that just kind of always helps me to feel a little bit closer to it as well.

Wizkid.

And then this last one that I’m going to recommend, he essentially created his own genre and not his own genre because others have adopted it now as well from Afrobeats, right? Where it’s called Afro swing, where it has elements of Afro beats, but then some Caribbean elements as well:  J Hus. I don’t know if you’re familiar with J Hus, but he’s from the UK, from London, actually around the corner from where I was born and raised. And he’s just, Oh my gosh, he’s amazing. Like if you know him, then you know what he’s created, the genre he’s created, and you can hear the Afrobeat influences as well. So yeah. Those are my recommendations. Those are some of my favas.

Matt Bowles: Amazing. Well, I appreciate the old school throwback to Fela Kuti as well. For folks who might be more familiar with the newer stuff, it’s really amazing to go back and listen to some of the precursors. Fela is also, it’s amazing just, when you go to Lagos in Nigeria, just, how enshrined that is. Have you been to Nigeria?

Anita Moreau: I have not.

Matt Bowles: Yeah, it’s amazing. A super special place. And for anybody that’s into Afrobeats, obviously Lagos is definitely the spot.

Alright, Anita, we’re going to close this out by asking you to name your top five. Hip hop Emcees of all time. But before you do that, can you share a little bit about what hip-hop music means to you and why you love hip-hop?

Anita Moreau: I grew up listening to, of course, what my mother decided to play in the house. So oftentimes when she was cleaning the house and when I started cleaning the house, we would put on hip hop, RnB, and soul music. Oftentimes it stemmed from the eighties, the nineties, sometimes from the seventies. So, I grew up with old school hip hop in particular. So, it definitely holds a special place in my heart.

And it’s something that my husband and I share in common. Although I will bow down to him because he’s a definitely a much bigger hip hop head than I am. I’m more of a generalist. I love, you know, many musical genres, but I love hip hop. It’s definitely influenced me. And because it’s had such an influence on the music scene in London, it’s influenced me in other ways as well.

Matt Bowles: Well, are we going to break an exclusive here on The Maverick Show? Like, do your friends and your audience and your fans and your team at the black travel summit, do they know your top five or are we breaking an exclusive here on the show?

Anita Moreau: They have not a clue. This is exclusive.

Matt Bowles: Exclusive. You heard it first here on The Maverick Show. Anita Moreau, who your top five?

Anita Moreau: Biggie, Tupac, Bizzy Bone, Q-Tip, and Snoop. And this is just from the nineties. And I have to say, even though it’s the late nineties, early 2000s, I have to say Eminem, he was my guy. And then I would do such an injustice if I wasn’t to mention anyone from the UK, Kano.

Matt Bowles: All right. So, we give you a couple of honorable mentions and I greatly appreciate that your top five are all from the nineties. As you know, I was a hip-hop DJ. In the nineties. And so that is all very near and dear to my heart. That is an amazing list.

We are going to link all of that up in the show notes, along with everything else that we have discussed on this episode.  Anita, at this point, I want you to let folks know how they can find you, how they can follow you, how they can learn more about black travel summit. How would you like people to come into your world?

Anita Moreau: Absolutely. You can find us on Instagram @BlackTravelSummit. You can find us on Twitter at @BLKTravelSummit. You can find us on Facebook @TheBlackTravelSummit. You can find us on LinkedIn @BlackTravelSummit as well. Pretty much anywhere @BlackTravelSummit.  Google search us. You’ll find our website www.blacktravelsummit.com. You can even shoot us an email at info@blacktravelsummit.com. And we’re around, we’re pretty easy to find.

Matt Bowles: Well, folks, I want to encourage you once again, come through, Anita and I are going to be there. You can hang out with us in person and meet a whole bunch of other amazing people.

We’ve got a discount code for you. It’s going to be in the show notes. Just go to themaverickshow.com. Go to the show notes for this episode. You’re going to find direct links to everything that we have discussed in this episode, including how to get your discounted tickets for The Black Travel Summit.

Anita, this was amazing. Thank you so much for coming to the show.

Anita Moreau: Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed myself. Thanks, Matt.

Matt Bowles: All right. Good night, everybody.