To mark the launch of the first issue of MansA Magazine, guest editor-in-chief Sébastien Thème presents the table of contents and the magazine’s editorial focus. He discusses the project’s origins and offers a preview of the themes and contributions featured in this new magazine dedicated to African and Afro-diasporic cultures.
By Sébastien Thème, guest editor
Published on April 2, 2026
NOW AVAILABLE — IN STORES & ONLINE
MANSA MAGAZINE No. 1
April 2026
The first issue of MansA Magazine is now available. It opens the doors to a House of African Worlds, rooted in history and looking toward the boundless future.
Available now at newsstands and online.
Across 208 pages, artists, writers, and thinkers explore the connections between memory, diaspora, and contemporary creation. Photography, dance, storytelling, and Afrofuturism come together to form a living archive of African imaginations.
Following in the footsteps of *La Revue du Monde noir*, MansA shines a light on essential voices that are still underrepresented.
Guest Editor: Sébastien Thème
Art Director: Mariem Daou
Contributors:
Élodie Rama, Maboula Soumahoro, Badroudine Saïd Abdallah, Dach&Zephir, Hanayra Negreiros, Farah Keram, Victory Chikwadoro, Mariette Kouame, Brontez Purnell, Mélissa Dyminat, Sikou Niakate, Michael Roch, Christelle Murhula, Jeanne Autran-Edorh (studio neida), Fabiola Büchele (studio neida), Christelle Bakima Poundza, Joël Vacheron, Pascal Douglas, Nadia Yala Kisukidi
Specifications:
208 pages · Dimensions: 200 × 260 mm · Thickness: 14.9 mm · Weight: 0.8 kg · French / English
Photo credit: Delali Ayivi, 2026
Guillaume is wearing wings made from his demi-pointes from 2024–2026. Work created by Kevin Lanoy in collaboration with Louis Sanchez and Shelsy Audouard. He is wearing Brahim Djibrine pants.
To inhabit the world is to learn to name it, to draw it, to dream it. For too long, maps have been drawn by others, imposing distant lines upon our lands and our imaginations. Today, we are redrawing the map. This first issue of MansA Magazine is an invitation to cross the threshold of a new home, a House of African Worlds whose foundations are rooted in history and whose windows open onto the infinite possibilities of the future.
Here, the cartography—created by artist Élodie Rama—becomes an act of healing. Through the words of Maboula Soumahoro, we learn that to reinvent our reality, we must first reclaim our own geographies—those of hope and resistance. This quest for self-discovery reaches its peak in our exceptional encounter with principal dancer Guillaume Diop. Between France and Senegal, he shares with us how dance becomes an architecture of the soul, a bridge spanning his roots and the heights of the Opera, proving that the body is the first home we inhabit. Through the lens of Togolese-German photographer Delali Ayivi, whose talent elevates every movement, the images of the Paris Opera’s first Black principal dancer instantly become an archive for the future and a vibrant celebration of dignity.
To leaf through these 208 pages is to explore an archaeology of the sensory, of remembrance, and of sensations. Two parts, two movements. The first is titled “A House Woven from Us,” the second “Archaeology of the Future.” Two states where yesterday and tomorrow come together to attempt to create an archive of the present, in the unmistakable vein of the 1931 La Revue du Monde noir.
This issue celebrates a living memory brought to life by the Franco-Caribbean design duo Dach&Zephir, who blend sepia-toned archives with the present-day Caribbean. The journey continues through André Atangana’s perspective on voodoo, then to Victory Chikwadoro’s table, where cooking heals the wounds of exile. In Bahia, Dona Fulô’s ritual jewelry echoes Brontez Purnell’s tales of survival, spanning Alabama and California. The voices intertwine: Izudin Yusuf makes Marseille an extension of the Comoros, while Sikou Niakaté weaves a golden thread between the Mali Empire and the diaspora. The perspectives of Christelle Murhula, Badroudine Saïd Abdallah, and Christelle Bakima Poundza enrich this essential dialogue.
This house is also a laboratory of ideas. From the video game Relooted to Michael Roch’s Afrofuturism, we’re decolonizing the stars with Joël Vacheron. This future comes alive at the Yardland festival and is being shaped by women architects, the heirs to the Nana Benz. Finally, from the H Foundation in Madagascar to the reflections of philosopher Nadia Yala Kisukidi, we’re confronting the wait to better build tomorrow.
Welcome home.
¶ Sébastien Thème is the guest editor-in-chief of the first issue of MansA Magazine. A journalist and documentary filmmaker, he works with France Télévisions, ARTE, and Radio France. His notable works include *Who’s Afraid of Angela Davis?* (2023) and *La Vie en Noir.e* for LSD on France Culture.
