In this essay, I try to view the Mediterranean not only as a sea but also as an excess space of signification, a site of accumulation of discourses centred on Italy/Europe. In particular, it is the Black Mediterranean that interests me: the physical and symbolic realms of memory of several diasporas in Europe. Some scholars have shown the simultaneous presence of different Mediterraneans, some of which are located outside its basin. Others have grasped its function as a “middle sea”, a connection space between cultures, societies and economies, so that even a desert can be a Mediterranean. This essay will analyse the Black Mediterranean – the realms of memory of part of the diasporas from the Horn of Africa: those who have followed the Sahara–Sudan–Libya–Lampedusa route.