The project stands as a revolutionary action in a global context marked by the resurgence of racist discourse, the commodification of diversity, and the persistence of colonial stereotypes in educational systems.

Havana, Dec. 31 - In the courtyard of the Museum House of Africa, in the heart of Old Havana, the African Diaspora Project was presented. This innovative teaching material, funded by the UNESCO Regional Office, bets on play as a tool for knowledge, memory, and social transformation.

The setting was not coincidental. This museum, founded in 1986 under the intellectual impetus of Miguel Barnet, has been one of the principal centers for legitimizing the African legacy in Cuban culture.

The African heritage in Cuba has been, for centuries, either rendered invisible or reduced to folkloric expressions. In this sense, the act of playing with history acquires a profound political and cultural meaning. Slavery, marronage, religions of African origin, the struggles for freedom, and the formation of the nation have often been presented as fragmented content in educational curricula. This project proposes to integrate them through a narrative of play that connects past and present, Africa and the Caribbean, memory and daily life.

Over a hundred activists, researchers, educators, and cultural figures gathered to learn about a project that, in appearance, offers illustrated cards, a board, and creative dynamics, but which in essence questions traditional ways of teaching history and national identity.

The presence of Miguel Barnet at the presentation reinforced this thread of continuity between anthropological research, cultural creation, and pedagogical action. From works like Biography of a Runaway Slave, Barnet has defended orality and lived experience as legitimate sources of historical knowledge. The African Diaspora Project dialogues with this tradition because it does not impose a closed narrative, but rather invites discovery, questioning, and reinterpretation.

Educating with New Narratives
The central objective of the project is to link the history, tradition, and culture of Africa with the Cuban nation through play and fun, contributing to teaching free of prejudice and more in tune with current times.

"Integrating the general history of Africa with these new Caribbean narratives is a way to reappropriate African roots and share knowledge that was invisible for a long time," summarized Anne Lemaistre, Director of the UNESCO Regional Office in Cuba, during the presentation.

In the Cuban case, this invisibilization has taken specific forms. Although official discourse recognizes the African contribution to national identity, in practice, racial gaps persist in access to opportunities, symbolic representation, and the teaching of history.

Projects like the African Diaspora impact these structural inequalities from the early formation of social imaginaries.

The initiative responds to new pedagogical currents that recognize play as a space for socialization, negotiation of meaning, and construction of values. Instead of presenting Africa as a homogeneous continent or a distant past, the project aims to showcase its diversity, dynamism, and living presence in Cuban culture.

Initially, the material will be distributed in educational centers in the capital, aiming to articulate an inclusive national identity amid economic crises, migration, and inequalities.

Social Challenges in Contemporary Cuba
Since the 2010s, academic research and community activism have made racial gaps on the island more visible. Reports from the United Nations system itself have pointed out the need for more focused public policies to confront racial discrimination. In this scenario, the African Diaspora pedagogical proposal functions as a micro cultural intervention that, although limited in scope, can have multiplier effects.

The project also dialogues with a youth increasingly exposed to global narratives through social media, where discourses of identity vindication coexist with simplified stereotypes.

Proposing creative, contextualized, and critical teaching material is a way to dispute those imaginaries from both formal and non-formal education.

However, the real impact of the project will depend on its sustainability and on the training of the teachers who implement it, so that it does not remain an isolated or symbolic experience.

Integrating it organically into educational programs and evaluating it systematically will be key to measuring its transformative reach as a tool for dismantling prejudices and building a society more aware of its diversity and shared history.

Beyond its immediate results, the project represents a significant gesture in the Cuban cultural field, as it recognizes that African history is not an appendix, but a constitutive axis of the nation.

In times of uncertainty, betting on a pedagogy that combines memory, play, and critical thinking is also a way to imagine more inclusive futures.