Community mapping in Sub-saharan African villages: from traditional forms to new cartographic frontiers in development cooperation The article has the aim to illustrate the diffusion of participatory mapping systems in Sub-Saharan Africa within a wider evolution of cartographic representations among African communities. By considering the different societies who realized a process of territorialization in the African continent, we can notice that each one is characterized by forms of spatial representation where traditional societies have covered an important role. The article adopts an approach based on cartographic semiosis which relates map interpretation with the analysis of territory and it analyzes the evolution of cartographic forms realized with the contribution of local communities in Sub-saharan Africa, considering the processes of territorialization. Finally, the SIGAP methodology is presented in order to recover traditional local knowledge within projects of environmental cooperation. This methodology assumes community mapping as a central component for a deep social and territorial analysis of villages located around some protected areas of Western Africa. Keywords: Traditional societies, Subsaharan Africa, development cooperation, community mapping.