By Akua Oforiwaa Darko
‘The Mansa World’, an ambitious storytelling project by Ghanaian poet and playwright Chief Moomen, was launched at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) headquarters in Paris on October 18, 2023.
The launch featured a highlight performance of the epic theatrical production Mansa Musa and the Trail of Lost Gold (Chapter One), the first of the major productions being developed under The Mansa World. The performance involved an ensemble of 60 actors, singers, dancers, and instrumentalists.
The ensemble also took to the streets of Paris to deliver an exciting African cultural performance which engaged tourists and the general public at the Place du Trocadero near the Eiffel Tower.
The Mansa World is an initiative that is curating African history and heritage through a variety of exciting content across theatre, film, and other derivatives for global audiences. The launch is part of an engagement process between producers of The World, Bambu Heritage Productions, and UNESCO towards a major partnership for the promotion of African history and heritage.
By engaging interactively with Africa’s past and the prospects of its future, the partnership is aimed at promoting the teaching, learning, and dissemination of UNESCO’s General History of Africa (GHA) volumes through different means to learners of all ages while highlighting the role of African youth and the creative industry in Africa in this process. It fulfills an important mandate of UNESCO’s Flagship Programme 2 of the Operational Strategy for ‘Priority Africa 2022–29′.
Bambu Heritage Productions and UNESCO will now work to take The Mansa World on a global tour to promote their shared objectives.
Present at the launch were Assistant Director General of UNESCO for Education, Stefania Giannini, senior UNESCO directors and officials, ambassadors and permanent delegations, and members of the public.
The Mansa World team in Paris was supported by patrons from Ghana through Masala Corporate Ltd., with institutional support also from the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) and the Development Bank of Ghana (DBG).
