MIA: Lisbon’s Afro-Lusophone Future Is Being Written in the Present

Lisbon is haunted.
Not by ghosts, but by silence.

Half a century after the fall of Portugal’s empire, its colonial past still lingers in street names, statues, and schoolbooks. But at Casa do Comum, a small cultural space in Bairro Alto, those silences are breaking.

The 4th edition of Mês da Identidade Africana (MIA) — African Identity Month — transforms the building into a sonic and visual protest. Curated by Ivanova Araújo, the exhibition “Ecos da Memória” (Echoes of Memory) brings together artists from Mozambique, Cabo Verde, France, and Portugal who treat the past less as a story than as raw material — something to be scratched, looped, and remixed.

“The past isn’t behind us,” says Araújo. “It’s vibrating under our feet.”

Memory as Frequency

Naia Sousa burns holes into capulana fabrics, turning Mozambican prints into scarred surfaces of beauty and loss. Sai Rodrigues traps old family photos in thick resin, floating between drowning and rebirth. Gigi Origo edits colonial propaganda films until they bleed into home videos, the images collapsing like a corrupted file.

It’s not nostalgia — it’s a glitch in the archive.

Performances and spoken-word pieces cut through the stillness: Sani Dubois’s body trembling to Chão que Vibra, Corpo que Responde (Ground that Vibrates, Body that Responds), Cynthia Perez’s Versos de Liberdade transforming trauma into sound. Each work feels like an act of recovery — or rebellion.

Lisbon in Reverb

MIA unfolds against a charged backdrop: 2025 marks fifty years since the independence of Portugal’s African colonies. Across the Lusophone world, the celebrations are bittersweet — the flags changed, but the hierarchies never fully did.

“MIA isn’t representation,” says journalist Marisa Mendes Rodrigues. “It’s occupation. We’re not guests in Lisbon’s culture; we’re rewriting its centre.”

That rewrite extends beyond the gallery: a screening of Medida Provisória by Lázaro Ramos, a Biblioteca Negra launch spotlighting Black Portuguese authors, and Sons de Independência — a closing DJ set spinning the sound of liberation movements into bass-heavy dancefloor release.

The vibe is both academic and street. You’ll find toddlers colouring at A Cor das Palavras workshops in the afternoon, and cultural workers, DJs, and poets swapping theories about decolonisation over ginginha by night.

The Language of the Wound

For the artists, language itself is suspect terrain. “Even Portuguese,” says Ricardo Parker, “is both a bridge and a scar.”

Araújo’s curatorial stance refuses purity — these are works built from fragments, from leftovers, from what empire tried to erase. “MIA refuses to romanticise decolonisation,” she says. “We’re not here to make the past pretty. We’re here to expose what still colonises us — in image, in institution, in silence.”

At Casa do Comum, the lighting is low, captions minimal. Visitors are asked to write reflections in a communal notebook. The gesture feels small but radical: handing the archive back to the public.

MIA runs on the energy of BANTUMEN, a platform for Afro-descendant culture that operates between journalism, activism, and party. Institutional support — from Casa do Comum, Natixis, and Portugal’s Direção-Geral das Artes — is new but crucial. Admission remains free.

“Being seen is one thing,” Araújo says. “Being understood is another.”

Event: 4th Edition of Mês da Identidade Africana (MIA)
Main Exhibition: Ecos da Memória – curated by Ivanova Araújo
Venue: Casa do Comum, Rua da Rosa 285, Bairro Alto, Lisbon
Dates: 5 – 15 November 2025
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday 14h – 20h, Saturday 11h – 19h,
Closed Sunday and Monday
Admission: Free entry (limited capacity – registration recommended)
Support: Casa do Comum, Direção-Geral das Artes, Natixis, Sogrape, Flint Group, República Portuguesa
Programme highlights: visual arts, cinema, literature, children’s activities, and music events including Sons de Independência closing DJ set

More info: casadocomum.org |  bantumen.com