Mapping involves organizing, naming, and drawing boundaries—but it also means imagining alternative geographies. On the weekend of April 25 and 26, MansA invites us to shift our perspectives: how can we represent African worlds through their histories, their ideas, and their cosmologies?
How can we map the African worlds? That is the challenge we posed to artist Élodie Rama. For MansA magazine, she created a map based on the schools of thought, political movements, cosmogonies, and fields of knowledge that have shaped the intellectual and cultural history of the African diasporas (Negritude, Pan-Africanism, Afrotopia, Black Studies…). From this reflection emerges a unique territory: a “home-island,” situated in the heart of the waters. Through this symbolic cartography, the artist transforms the map into a tool of resistance against representations of African worlds imposed from the outside.
As researcher Maboula Soumahoro points out in the article accompanying this map, cartography played a decisive role in colonial endeavors during the modern era. Through her writing, we discover that “mapping consists of organizing: cataloging, classifying, renaming—in other words, imposing one’s own vision of the world and space.” And that, to reinvent our reality, we must first reclaim our own geographies.
So, this weekend, we invite you to join us in exploring the importance of cartography and, together, to attempt to map the African world.
MAPPING THE AFRICAN WORLDS
Saturday, April 25, 2026
12:00 PM–7:00 PM: Open to the public
Access to the space, guided activities centered on the magazine, and free movement.
2:00 PM–4:00 PM: Creative Workshop – Strange Island
An art workshop open to everyone ages 7 and up. Participants design a unique map in the form of an island-world by assembling fragments of personal territories. Through cutting, layering, and collage, everyone contributes to a collective cartography blending individual stories and shared imaginations.
5:00–7:00 PM: Roundtable – How to Map African Worlds?
A discussion centered on the map created for MansA Magazine, blending artistic perspectives with critical reflections. How can cartography become a tool for reappropriation in the face of imposed representations? Which narratives and geographies should be made visible today?
Sunday, April 26, 2026
12:00 PM–5:00 PM: Open to the public
Guided tours, magazine viewing, free access.
2:00 PM–4:00 PM: Screening – BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions (screening in the original language without subtitles)
A film by Kahlil Joseph (2025), conceived as a hybrid work blending cinema, installation, and visual album. Through a montage combining archival footage, fiction, and contemporary images, the film explores the narratives and representations of Black diasporas spanning over two centuries.
SPEAKERS
Élodie Rama – Guest artist, designer of the map published in MansA Magazine, and workshop instructor.
Roundtable panelists – to be confirmed.
