Malunga is a global network that brings together a diversity of actors: activists, intellectuals, educators, artists, people in public service, and strategic allies with a common agenda of fighting against anti-Black racism and demanding anti-racist policies as a primary resource for achieving global justice.
The Network adopts the expression Malunga, a Congo-Bantu word that emits a profound message through four interrelated meanings:
- First, a large ship: symbol of the shared journey.
- Second, collective suffering: in memory of the wounds of the past.
- Third, black solidarity: a force that unites and sustains.
- Fourth, as travel companions: representation of mutual support and co-responsibility.
The Malunga Network was born as a collective response to structural racism and its historical consequences: from the transatlantic slave trade to the multiple forms of violence that still persist. It is also a space for celebrating black values, knowledge, and cultural expressions, which promotes the construction of more equitable societies through an intersectional agenda of racial, ethnic, social, gender, and ecological justice.
Malunga promotes the construction of diverse and equitable societies and a commitment to ethnic-racial justice as a pillar for forging a more just world.
Inspired by the urgency to contribute to global struggles against the dehumanisation and structural exclusion of Afro-descendant peoples, its mission articulates movements, knowledge, and strategies from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, and other territories, recognising that anti-Black racism is a systemic phenomenon that manifests itself in policies, practices, and narratives, both historical and contemporary.
This commitment is expressed in:
- Global advocacy, aimed at transforming regulatory frameworks and public policies.
- Action-research, rooted in the experiences of Black communities.
- Education and memory, which dignify Afro-descendant lives, histories, and spiritualities.
- And the celebration of Black creativity, resilience, aesthetics, knowledge, and cultures, recognizing their profound and transformative value.
The Network members represent a range of countries in the Northern and Latin Americas and Africa. Mónica Moreno Figueroa was invited as an expert and active participant in founding the network