Where will the House of African Worlds, called MansA, desired by Emmanuel Macron, land and with what means? The question turns into a governmental headache and makes the historic site of the Monnaie de Paris shudder where this new cultural place could be established.
Despite an interministerial meeting at the beginning of October, the greatest uncertainty still reigns over the future address of MansA, which aims to be a “QG permanent” promoting contemporary African creation against the backdrop of France's loss of influence on the continent. “The idea was to give France a chance at a time when it is being disrupted in Africa and paying for the mistakes of successive governments,” explains to AFP Cameroonian academic Achille Mbembe, who initiated the project alongside President Macron at the end of 2021.
The new multidisciplinary institution already has its logo, its director (the journalist and director Liz Gomis), around ten employees and part of its budget but is feverishly awaiting arbitration on its base, which will also condition its field of activity. action. Contacted by AFP, the Ministry of Culture, which oversees the site with Foreign Affairs, did not comment.
Before the deputies, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon indicated at the end of October that MansA was “the subject of consultations, both on its scope and on its timetable”, adding that the head of state would decide on the location. Contacted by AFP, the Elysée did not comment. According to several people close to the matter, the Ministry of Culture is pleading for MansA to find a place at the Monnaie de Paris, an institution created in the 9th century which has a museum, exhibition rooms and a factory which produces coins collectible and made the Olympic medals.
In these buildings located on the banks of the Seine, MansA could hope to recover at best 1000 m2far from the ambitions of the initial project of a large agora with atrium, exhibition hall… By comparison, the Institute of the Arab World extends over some 17,000 m2 in Paris. According to this source, the MansA budget could also suffer. Culture plans to allocate 2.1 million euros to it in 2025, according to the finance bill, and five million were to come from Foreign Affairs. But “we are dependent on budgetary negotiations and it will be revised downwards”she predicts.
At La Monnaie, the hypothesis, launched without consultation, of seeing the MansA land also provokes an outcry. “We wonder who had this idea and why”tells AFP Rodolphe Krempp, CFE-CGC union delegate. “There is no synergy between the two institutions.” Many point out that the Mint, an entirely self-financed place, risks being deprived of rooms that it rents and which allow it to operate without state aid.
The controversy has rebounded on the political side. The National Rally denounces a “cultural destruction” and accuses the government of giving in to “mermaids of repentance” towards Africa. In Paris, the communist group believes that an installation of MansA at La Monnaie would “deeply call into question the coherence of the cultural, industrial and commercial spaces and activities” of the historic site, according to a draft municipal wish obtained by the AFP.
Contacted by AFP, Liz Gomis defends the project tooth and nail. “It is essential to have a place in Paris to talk about African worlds in the broad sense, particularly via the diasporas, and to counter the blind spot that currently exists in France on contemporary African creation, which abounds everywhere else in the world”she says.
