# Maps and cartographies  
One of the first moves towards decolonizing history and culture has been to redraw the maps carved out by Europeans, who imposed an ethnocentric view of the world, drew lines based on colour and imprinted a hierarchical approach to peoples, especially African peoples. A cartography of the Indian Ocean as a diasporic field raises difficult challenges. The first is the sheer intensity of circulation of goods, cultures, plants, animals, ideas, beliefs and peoples across this body of water. The second is the diversity of languages and of local and regional histories and memories, and the third, the presence of imperial powers and the conflicts around the riches involved. Finally, we must add the new competition over control of the ocean, the new regulations on migration and the forms of globalization from below.