Kélenya Athens

Kélenya is an intercultural collective of artists and researchers founded in 2024 by social anthropologist Vasiliki Mavridou and musician Toumany Diawara. Its name means ‘equality’ in Bamanakan and expresses a commitment to collaboration, mutuality, and resistance against all forms of oppression. Since its founding, it has carried out initiatives and partnerships with African diaspora communities, co-organizing festivals such as ‘African Voices’ at Panteion University and ‘Djoko Urban Sounds of Africa.’ It also organizes annual cultural exchange trips to Mali and helps run the SAYON Mali Cultural Centre, a music school for children from vulnerable social groups. Kélenya operates with political awareness and a radical critique of cultural appropriation, neocolonialism, and hierarchical power relations.