The House of African Worlds (Maison des Mondes Africains, MansA) has officially opened in Paris, heralding a new chapter in Europe’s engagement with African and Afro-diasporic creativity.
In the 10th arrondissement, close to the Canal Saint-Martin, the new cultural institution turns a once-high-end fashion workshop into an 800-square-meter building devoted to art, discussion, and imagination. At its core, since its inception, MansA hopes to connect Africa and the diaspora communities around the globe through art, performance, and conversation. Founded by journalist and producer Liz Gomis, the organization sees itself as a “living laboratory,” where ideas, memory, and identity intersect. Under her directorship, MansA aims to offer a space that is both open and accessible for young artists and intellectuals to explore the richness and diversity of African cultures.
Roxane Mbanga‘s first performance, “Noires,” illustrates that energy to perfection. By employing photography, installation, and narrative, Mbanga, whose heritage ranges from Cameroon to Guadeloupe, examines concepts of Black womanhood, memory, and home.The show makes the space an experiential one of color, texture, and sound that forces observers to consider common as well as individual histories.
Since 2022, Mbanga has been working on Noires as a roving project based on her Guadeloupean, Cameroonian, and Ivorian heritage and on testimonies collected throughout Africa and the Caribbean. In MansA, the project takes a new shape, centered around the Grand Salon, an installation-a-bedroom filled with voices, silences, and memories. Painting, textiles, furniture, and symbolic objects combine to render a hospitable space where all can find connection and signification.
Door sculptures, in reference to African and Caribbean architecture, represent gateways of passage between heritages and identities, reminding one that one never needs to compromise to belong. Notably, MansA’s work is a follow-up to a 2021 initiative by Cameroonian scholar Achille Mbembe, who had conceptualized a space in France to further solidify cultural affinity with Africa. Supported by the French Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs, the project was funded €9 million.
Aside from its debut, MansA marks a turning point for France’s artistic future. For many years, African and Afro-descendant artists have influenced world art but remained outside of institutional acknowledgment in France. MansA finally provides them with a hub for exhibitions, performances, and discussion.
As its open rooms are toured by visitors, MansA is not just a house of art but also a home of exchange, memory, and imagination.
