The Institut des mondes africains -IMAF /African Worlds Institute, was created in 2014 and is the result of the fusion of three research laboratories:

• Centre d'études des mondes africains (CEMAf);
• Centre d'études africaines (CEAf);
• Centre d'histoire sociale de l'Islam méditerranéen (CHSIM).

It combines interdisciplinary research in History, Anthropology, Political Science and Archeology and covers the following research areas:

• Creation and Circulation of Knowledge;
• African Globalisation during the longue durée and Globalisation;
• Power, Space, Memory;
• Religious Dynamics, Representations, Experiences;
• Art of the Political, Politics of Art;
• Gender, Bodies, Subjectivities.

IMAF is managed by six institutions:

• Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS - UMR 8171);
• Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD - UMR 243);
• Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS);
• Ecole pratique des hautes études (EPHE);
• Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and, Université d'Aix-Marseille (AMU).