Legacy House, founded by Adjoa Michelle Saahene, is a unique network accelerator for changemakers to support one another in work and wellness. It is not just a luxury travel experience, but a transformative journey for changemakers seeking to make a lasting impact on the world.
We caught up with Adjoa to get her perspective on the current state of social impact work and the goals Legacy House strives to accomplish.
What inspired you to create Legacy House?
I needed to find a way to may an impact from a place of joy. I thought about all the amazing activists, advocates, and educators I was meeting online. I was having conversations that often ended with, “I hope we can meet in person someday.” Support still makes a difference from afar, but there is no better way to solidify a connection than being in the same physical space together.
I wanted to create a space for changemakers to be together, to focus on themselves, and build community across networks, and I wanted to do it in style and luxury because we deserve that. I also wanted to find a way to combine the things I am most passionate about in a way that still promotes social impact. Luxury travel, Africa, and progress. Legacy House covers all three.
What are the goals of Legacy House:
- To gather changemakers in a safe space to support one another in work and wellness.
- To create an international network of people who want to leave a positive and impactful legacy.
- To reimagine what luxury feels and looks like, and amplify Black-owned luxury resorts in Africa and beyond.
What are your thoughts on the current state of social impact work?
It’s more challenging now than it has been over the last five or six years to make an impact because the public burnt is real. People felt pressure to keep up with many different causes and advocacies, so they latched on to the easiest, most digestible content without being knowledgeable of the source, and without much context.
Those trying to create social impact don’t have as much engagement as they did in prior years, and it’s also causing burnout on our end as well. As Myisha T. Hill stated in a recent Instagram post, “The social justice industrial complex is rooted in transactional relationships, antiBlackness, and power, and I can no longer participate.”
Many like myself are trying to find ways to continue the work in a way that isn’t self-exploitative, still creates real and lasting change, and find our authentic audiences who want to do the work alongside us. It’s an uphill battle. Legacy House will be a safe haven to allow to us network across industries and get the support we all need.
What do you hope participants will get out of their experience at Legacy House?
I hope our guests will leave motivated to continue making wellness a bigger priority in their lives so they create their best work from a place of healing. I hope they will make genuine connections that could help advance their careers, or personal friendships that may last a lifetime. I want our guests to leave wholly inspired in one way or another. I hope, if this is their first trip to Africa, it creates a love for the continent, and they return to Africa over and over again.
Jnana Tamsna, the esteemed boutique luxury hotel, proudly stands as Legacy House’s inaugural partner. Owned by Meryanne Loum-Martin, Morocco’s sole Black woman hotelier, the establishment exudes a rich cultural essence.
Leveraging her profound expertise and extensive network in Marrakech, Loum-Martin has played an instrumental role in crafting a program that seamlessly blends opulence and transformative experiences.
