On October 4, 2025, Paris will officially add a new landmark to its vibrant cultural map — the House of African Worlds, known in French as Maison des Mondes Africains (MansA). Nestled in the 10th arrondissement, close to Canal Saint-Martin, this new institution is more than just another gallery. It is a deliberate effort to carve out space for African voices, histories, and imaginations within the European capital.
Backed by the French presidency and supported by both the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, MansA is launching with a clear mandate: to create a home for African creativity, entrepreneurship, and dialogue in France. With an initial budget of €9 million, the project reflects how seriously France is treating this cultural mission.
Unlike other institutions that open with fireworks and celebrity performances, MansA is beginning with a quieter, more community-driven approach. Its first month is designed not for spectacle, but for grounding: highlighting a young artist, inviting everyday people, and making the space feel accessible and human.
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A Hybrid Space for Art, Dialogue and Innovation — Paris
The House of African Worlds Paris is designed as a hybrid institution. It is part museum, part cultural centre, part incubator. Its planners want to ensure it is not just about displaying artefacts or artworks but about sparking conversations and empowering future generations.
Visitors can expect exhibitions, debates, and forums, alongside workshops for young creatives and entrepreneurial programmes for those working in African-inspired industries. In short, MansA seeks to be as much about ideas and futures as it is about history and heritage.
The name MansA carries deliberate symbolism. On one level, it refers to “mansio,” the Latin root for “house.” On another, it recalls Mansa Musa, the legendary ruler of the Mali Empire and one of the most powerful figures in African history. This play on language reflects the institution’s ambition: a “house” of hospitality, but also a proud nod to Africa’s global legacy.
For now, MansA is housed in a temporary venue near the Canal. However, there are plans to move into a larger, permanent home once the project matures. This transitional phase allows it to build an audience organically, experiment with formats, and evolve without being weighed down by expectations of grandeur.
Opening with Noires — A Dream Home for the Underrepresented
The first exhibition at MansA is by Roxane Mbanga, a 29-year-old French artist of Cameroonian and Guadeloupean descent. Her show, titled “Noires,” is not just an art display but a living, breathing environment she calls a “dream home.”
Since 2019, Mbanga has been working on this project across different cities and spaces. At MansA, she presents it as a welcoming, colourful refuge for people who often feel excluded from mainstream cultural institutions. “This home is for people who look like me, who have felt unseen or unrepresented in the city,” she explained.
Visitors are greeted with a passageway decorated in fluorescent wallpaper that fuses elements of Guadeloupe, Benin, Congo, and urban French life. From there, they enter a cosy lounge where Mbanga herself will be present to welcome them. It is less about grandiosity and more about intimacy — an invitation to feel rather than just observe.
The show blends voices, silences, memories, and fragments in a way that creates atmosphere rather than spectacle. For many, it will be a refreshing alternative to the often impersonal feel of big museum spaces. Noires will run until October 26, 2025, giving the Paris public nearly a month to immerse themselves in its layered warmth.
For MansA’s director, Liz Gomis, the choice of Mbanga was deliberate. “Roxane is gentle, graceful, soothing,” she said. “That is the kind of welcome we want MansA to embody.”
Challenges and Future Aspirations
While the opening has been warmly received, the House of African Worlds Paris faces important challenges ahead. First is the matter of permanence. A temporary venue is a start, but a permanent home will be crucial for establishing credibility and stability. Finding the right building in Paris’s competitive real estate market will not be easy.
Second is the challenge of balance. MansA must manage expectations from African communities, the diaspora, and French society at large. Each group will come with its own demands, whether for representation, critical debate, or cultural diplomacy. Meeting all those needs without diluting its mission will be a delicate act.
Third is sustainability. Cultural institutions in Europe often struggle with relevance once the novelty fades. MansA will need to ensure it is not seen as a symbolic gesture but as a living, evolving space that genuinely empowers and amplifies African voices.
Still, the vision is clear and ambitious. If it succeeds, MansA could become a model for how African heritage and creativity are represented in Europe — moving beyond colonial collections and stereotypical narratives, into something dynamic, inclusive, and future-facing.
For Nigerians, Africans, and diasporans, MansA’s opening is more than a Parisian cultural event. It is a reminder of how African worlds are not confined to the continent. They exist wherever Africans and their descendants create, gather, and imagine. By offering a “house” for those worlds in Paris, MansA provides a platform not only to showcase art but also to negotiate identity, belonging, and global futures.
In the coming years, whether it thrives or falters will depend not only on funding or politics but on how well it can serve as a genuine meeting place — a home in every sense of the word.
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