Curiosity is immediately aroused… From what strange land does this beautiful and enigmatic first name originate? What feminine singularity does it herald?
Jean-Louis Floch
We begin to understand (“understand” is the word that shapes her life) when we discover that Ekaley was born in France, but that Tuareg blood runs in her veins and that she lived as a child in Agadez, in central Niger. We dream of the desert, of nomadic life, of those wonderful matriarchal societies where women decide their own destiny. We dream, but in a way, Ekaley’s real life reflects these roots, even if the interconnected global world has turned Tuareg society upside down.
She was already a nomad when she pursued her early education via distance learning, accompanying her parents as they organized trips for tourists in search of the desert and the absolute. She was still a nomad when, at the age of 14, she went to boarding school at King’s School in Canterbury, England. She remained a nomad for many years: baccalaureate at Sophia Antipolis in France, a degree in sociology, a Bachelor in Liberal Arts in the Netherlands, a few months’ escapade in Peru to learn Spanish… Oh, and she’s also a polyglot (a form of intellectual nomadism, don’t you think?): she speaks the Tamashek of her ancestors, Haussa from Niger, Spanish, Italian, French, English and, today, Mauritian Creole!
Armed with all her diplomas, she set off on a mission on behalf of NGOs. For a year, she worked in Niger for an American program on migration. She then headed off to Côte d’Ivoire to work for Enko Education, where a revelation dawned on her (is nomadism also a quest for meaning?): she would dedicate herself to the noble cause of education!
A Fulbright scholarship took her to New York State for a year, where she completed a Master’s degree in Public Administration at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Two years earlier, in 2014, she had met her Mauritian husband in Niamey. The implacable logic of Ekaley’s destiny therefore led her to settle in Mauritius, where the Medine group, busy building its Uniciti educational hub and seeking international partners, hired her to develop the Paris-Panthéon-Assas project. In October 2020, she became the first employee of the Assas branch in Mauritius!
Appointed Executive Directorof Paris-Panthéon-Assas on site, she works on accreditation, recruitment, communications and marketing for the branch, in tandem with Anthony Mergey, Professor of History of Law at Assas and President ofthe Mauritius campus, responsible for law degree programs.
Her beautiful, young vocation for the expansion of knowledge seems to be blossoming, and no doubt foreshadows many other astonishing adventures. And we’d love to stroll through her inner landscapes, meet the little girl who used to run carefree through the streets of Agadez and ask her what she thinks of Ekaley Joulia’s career!
