A powerful new publication emerging from the DECONFINING Project and On the Move is challenging the way we think about cultural mobility, diaspora, identity, and artistic exchange between Africa and Europe. Movements of Translation and Return: Art, Mobility and the Diaspora brings together artists, researchers, cultural workers, and policymakers in an urgent and deeply human conversation about movement, belonging, and power in today’s interconnected world.

Rather than offering a conventional academic report, the publication unfolds as a living dialogue — one rooted in lived experience, critical reflection, and collective imagination. It explores how artists and cultural professionals from African diasporas navigate systems of mobility that are often shaped by inequality, bureaucracy, colonial histories, and uneven access to opportunity.

At the heart of the publication lies a simple but profound question:

Who gets to move freely, and under what conditions?

Beyond Borders: Mobility as More Than Travel

The publication reveals that mobility is never just about travel. It is about power, identity, language, funding, citizenship, memory, and access. Contributors reflect on how movement between continents can be enriching and transformative, while also exposing deep structural imbalances between institutions in Europe and Africa.

Writers and cultural practitioners such as Laura Ganza, Patrick Mudekereza, Yvette Mutumba, Joseph Gaylard, and Jasper Walgrave share deeply personal insights into what it means to exist “between worlds” — navigating both the privileges and the tensions that come with diaspora identities.

The publication also challenges rigid definitions of diaspora itself. Some contributors describe diaspora as a political identity rooted in shared histories of migration, racism, and resilience, while others emphasise the fluidity of belonging and self-definition.

The Numbers Behind the Conversation

Alongside these reflections, the report presents important research into international cultural mobility programmes. Between January 2020 and April 2025, only 13 out of 3,262 international cultural mobility calls published by On the Move specifically targeted African diaspora artists and cultural professionals in Europe.

The findings reveal both growing recognition and continued marginalisation of African diaspora communities within international cultural funding structures. Most of the identified opportunities focused on residencies, fellowships, and visual arts, while areas such as performing arts, music, architecture, and cultural heritage remained notably underrepresented.

The publication highlights initiatives such as:

• The Goethe-Institut’s African Feminisms funding programme
• Akademie Schloss Solitude’s Namibia residency exchange
• The Camargo Foundation’s Cultural Diaspora residency
• La Maison Baldwin’s fellowships for Black writers
• Southnord’s call for Afro-Nordic visual artists

Together, these programmes point toward new possibilities for exchange, collaboration, and rethinking how international arts ecosystems can become more equitable and inclusive.

The Politics of Return

One of the publication’s most moving themes is the idea of “return” — not only as physical travel back to ancestral lands, but as an emotional, cultural, and political act. Contributors discuss the complexities of reconnecting with places that may feel both deeply familiar and strangely distant.

For many artists in the diaspora, journeys to the African continent are shaped by contradictions: a search for belonging intertwined with questions of privilege, identity, and responsibility. The publication does not offer easy answers. Instead, it opens space for difficult but necessary conversations about solidarity, collaboration, and ethical cultural exchange.

Rethinking Cultural Cooperation

Ultimately, Movements of Translation and Return calls for a new approach to artistic and cultural mobility — one grounded in care, reciprocity, humility, and long-term relationship building. It urges funders, policymakers, and cultural institutions to move beyond symbolic inclusion and toward structures that genuinely support mutual exchange and shared agency.

As global conversations around migration, identity, decolonisation, and cultural cooperation continue to evolve, this publication stands as an important contribution to imagining more just and meaningful forms of international collaboration.

The full publication was produced through the collaboration of On the Move, DECONFINING, and Africalia, bringing together voices from across Europe and Africa to reflect on the realities — and possibilities — of movement in the contemporary cultural landscape.

Access full publication here