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OMEK: Building A Global Cultural Ecosystem For The African Diaspora

Founded in 2019, OMEK is a platform creating programmes and events to connect bicultural people of the African diaspora and their businesses with one another. The goal is to amplify the talent, voices and energy of bicultural people of African descent. Or as Sandra Roberts, the Events Lead, puts it: “To become Black Google, in the sense that if you are looking for anything that relates to Black people, you will think, ‘let me check OMEK.’” 

This is not the first attempt at building global Black communities. The Black Twitter space and social networking site BlackPlanet (created in 1999) are examples, though they consist of mainly US-based Black people.

In the past three years, OMEK has built a global community of 600 members on their online platform and over 3000 subscribers. Using digital and physical events, activations and partnerships, OMEK has partnered with the likes of Netflix, the UN's IOM, and Nike to create impact for its growing community.

The majority of its current members and leadership team are based in Europe, Amsterdam especially. OMEK is building a reputation across Europe and the UK as the place to go if you are looking for a diverse community of Black people. Sandra, whose parents are from the Caribbean, was looking to start her own project to promote African cultures through events when she found an OMEK event on social network, Meet-up.