Who and What is Mektoub?
Kenzi and Jenpa are two American artists united by our love of Moroccan henna. We founded Mektoub Henna in 2019 to bring you a first-of-its-kind heritage trip to study Moroccan henna at the source.
Mektoub is an Arabic word meaning “it is written.” Many think of it as fate, destiny, or what is meant to be. After years of collaboration, we had the idea to create a Moroccan henna workshop, in Morocco, with all Moroccan teachers. After a rocky start during a global pandemic, fate intervened, and we were able to launch our first trip in March of 2022. The project and workshop were aptly named, as so many fortuitous events and chance encounters helped us along, and the spirit of Mektoub provided us with unexpected treasures. Such is the power of Mektoub!
Who we are
Mektoub Values and Mission Statement
Mektoub Henna was created out of our 20+ year mission to learn everything we could about Moroccan henna. We spent years hungry for knowledge, doing all we could to get to the source through visits to Morocco, in-person conversations with Moroccan henna artists, and constant research through popular and academic sources. When it came time to share our passion more widely with the world, we knew we had to honor the artists, their culture, and the origin point for all aspects of Moroccan henna– this is baked into our mission.
Moroccans to the front. After some years learning what we could and teaching to students around the world, we realized we could do better– we could bring the students to the teachers, in Morocco. We opened the invitation to all who are curious to join us on our exploration– to come with us to Morocco, to meet the women who have held and nurtured these traditions for generations. We are lucky to have been able to bring together a network of artists and historians who are willing to share their work and their culture, and we could not be more grateful for their willingness to open their doors to us.
Support Moroccan artists– financially. From day one, we pledged that instructors at our events would be paid. Many henna conferences in the US and abroad do not pay their instructors, instead asking them to work as volunteers or for trade. Our team will always be paid generously in cash for their efforts. Henna is their job and their work and energy is their property, and we will always ensure they are compensated. We also work with our instructors on book projects to bring in more income for them, marketed to our student base, and for which they receive 90% of proceeds.
Respect Moroccan perspectives. Henna artists all over the world work in unique ways, and Morocco is no exception. We are aware of the tendency of American and European henna artists to re-teach the “right” ways of doing henna, based on the misheld belief in Western scientific and intellectual superiority. We at Mektoub reject this tendency and belief, remind ourselves and our students that there is no “right” or “wrong” way to use henna, and that a true commitment to respect means respecting perspectives we may not always personally understand. We believe that learning is wholistic, a belief which invites us to attempt to understand the how and why behind that which we do not yet comprehend.
We do all this for two reasons: to try, in our small way, to bring awareness of the richness of authentic Moroccan henna culture to the world, and to bring international support to these traditions so that they do not fade away. There was a time when Moroccan henna was little known outside Morocco, and what was known was watered down, orientalized, and sensationalized. We are thankful that Morocco is now being recognized in the greater narrative of worldwide henna traditions. We are also heartened to see the renaissance that has occurred as Moroccan artists become known internationally for their work, and gain the respect they have always deserved. We are thankful that they are working to preserve the history of their traditions while also creating new ones, all while bringing their work into the international spotlight, and affirm our mission to support these efforts.