Art & Culture

Oumayma Elboumeshouli Was the Creative Behind AFCON’s Most Thoughtful Spaces

BYKhaoula Ghanem

January 28, 2026

When Morocco stepped onto one of Africa’s biggest football stages, the spotlight stretched well beyond ninety minutes on the pitch. It moved through corridors, lounges, and thresholds, landing on how the country would be felt as much as how it would be seen. For Oumayma Elboumeshouli, appointed by Match Hospitality to lead the creative direction and cultural storytelling of the VIP spaces and private suites at the 2025 African Cup of Nations (AFCON), that responsibility began long before the first guest arrived. “For me it starts with who is involved,” she told MILLE. “If you’re telling a certain story, it should be shaped by people who actually live it. Someone who understands the culture from the inside not from references or trends.”

If her name already rings familiar, it is probably because Elboumeshouli has spent years building a visual world that feels instantly recognizable. With more than 263,000 followers on Instagram, she has quietly become a reference point for a certain kind of understated, culturally rooted aesthetic that favors warm, earthy tones, raw materials, and spaces that feel calm but intentional. Over time, that has turned into an unmistakable signature.

Much of that has been shaped through her ongoing relationship with Morocco. Although not raised there, Elboumeshouli returns frequently, drawing from architecture, landscapes, and everyday rituals rather than postcard imagery. Her bed and breakfast project in the south of Morocco became a kind of testing ground for these ideas, allowing her to think deeply about hospitality as an emotional experience rather than a checklist. It is no surprise, then, that Match Hospitality took notice. They were not just looking for someone who could make things look good, but someone who understood how space, culture, and feeling intersect. In that context, choosing Elboumeshouli to lead the project made perfect sense.

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A post shared by Oumayma Elboumeshouli (@oumaymaboumeshouli)

Moroccan and North African aesthetics are everywhere right now, but they are often flattened into quick references that circulate without context. The Amsterdam-bred Moroccan-Dutch creative was conscious of that from the start. “North African aesthetics are everywhere right now, but often in a very surface-level way,” she explains. “It’s usually the obvious references, repeated without much thought and that can quickly become tacky.” Instead of leaning into the expected, she went back to the source, spending time understanding where patterns, colors, and textures actually come from, and what they mean.

The weight of the moment was impossible to ignore. This was the first time a tournament of this scale was being hosted in Morocco, and that visibility came with pressure. “Yes, it did feel heavy,” she says. “All eyes are on the country and you’re very aware of that.” Still, the work never felt performative. As a Moroccan, she instinctively knew how to represent her culture without overexplaining it or packaging it for approval. It felt big, but it also felt familiar.

As a third-culture creative, Elboumeshouli experiences Morocco in layers. She understands it from within, but also sees how it is consumed from the outside, often as a destination or an aesthetic rather than a lived reality. That duality sharpened her awareness of what is missing, what is misunderstood, and what truly matters. It also shaped how the hospitality experience unfolded.

At the center of the project sat Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat, a venue that carries enormous symbolic weight for Moroccans. As the capital’s stadium and the home of the national team during the tournament, it made sense to treat it as the cultural anchor. From there, the experience was designed as a journey rather than a destination. Guests entered through corridors lined with emotional football photography, capturing real moments from the matches themselves and immediately setting the tone.

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A post shared by Oumayma Elboumeshouli (@oumaymaboumeshouli)

Meanwhile, hospitality unfolded in layers. Guests were greeted by staff, offered Moroccan tea, and encountered moments of entertainment even before stepping fully inside. As they moved closer to their seats, more details revealed themselves, from craftsmanship and textures to color, food, and service. The intention was simple but specific. The Dubai-based creative director wanted it to feel like being welcomed into Morocco, not just attending a football match.

Photography also played a central role in grounding that feeling. Working closely with Moroccan photographer Jinane Ennasri, Elboumeshouli integrated images directly into the architecture of the spaces rather than treating them as a separate exhibition. Shot during the matches, the photographs captured emotion, tension, and connection across generations. Alongside Ennasri, creatives like Selma Khamlichi and Zineb Koutten contributed to the project’s visual and cinematic layers, reinforcing the decision to center Moroccan women creatives.

Portrait of Oumayma Elboumeshouli

What ultimately made the project meaningful for Elboumeshouli was the trust behind it. Match Hospitality approached her despite her background being rooted primarily in fashion, drawn to how she thinks about space, atmosphere, and experience. That trust allowed her to operate at a much larger scale without compromising her vision. “That level of trust in people, in ideas, and in the process is what made this project meaningful for me,” she revealed.

Looking ahead, she hopes the project sets a precedent for how African countries are represented on global stages. Africa, in her view, does not need to be simplified to be understood. There is space for modern, confident, layered visual languages that remain deeply local. If people walk away remembering one thing about Morocco, she hopes it is the warmth, the intention, and the collective effort to make people feel genuinely welcome.

Oumayma Elboumeshouli Was the Creative Behind AFCON’s Most Thoughtful Spaces

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Oumayma Elboumeshouli Was the Creative Behind AFCON’s Most Thoughtful Spaces

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