The illustrious Koyo Kouoh often said, “I am a fundamental Pan-Africanist – I belong to the entire continent, and the entire continent belongs to me.” [1] A win for Koyo was a win for all of us – and her untimely passing on May 10, 2025, was a devastating loss. Just months prior, Koyo had been invited to be artistic director of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2026. This appointment made her the first African woman to carry that role, an honor that was applauded by people from around the globe but perhaps most thunderously from the African world. Not surprisingly then, it now feels as though the epicenter of loss is in the African and Afro-diasporic art sphere, for it is for and from this Pan-African space that Koyo dedicated her life’s work. Yet at the same time, her reach went far beyond, contributing to pertinent discourse locally, regionally, and internationally. In Basel, Cape Town, and Dakar, the three cities that Koyo had resided in or worked from within the last few years of her life, the tremors of the seismic wave her death triggered were especially palpable. They transformed into an overwhelming flood of tributes by countless kin, collaborators, and colleagues.

Whether to young fellows huddled around a table or in auditoriums among her peers, Koyo loved to speak about institution-building as a curatorial practice. This type of work went beyond exhibition making and centered on what she called “a genealogy of practice,” for it insisted on acknowledging those who came before us and making room for the next generations. [2] It involved creating and occupying space, thinking with and equipping others, promoting self-reflective criticality, and constructing systems of care. Perhaps this is most evident in how Koyo developed RAW Material Company in Dakar, which she founded in 2008, or how, since 2019, she steered the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in Cape Town into a leading institution informed by what she described as “locality, immediacy, and agency.” [3]

Critical gatherings were a vital part of Koyo’s methodology: She called for convergence through “Condition Report” symposiums on topics such as “Building Art Institutions in Africa” (2012), “Artistic Education in Africa” (2014), “Art History in Africa” (2018), “Stepping Out of Line: Art Collectives and Translocal Parallelism” (2020), and “A Sense of Place/Displacement, Replacement, Non-Placement” (2024) through RAW. Similarly, she developed a structure of discursive congregations at Zeitz MOCAA. These gatherings were designed to complement the monographic exhibitions of artists such as Tracey Rose (2023), Johannes Phokela (2023), Mary Evans (2023), and Nolan Oswald Dennis (2025), to name a few. “Since my arrival at Zeitz MOCAA,” Koyo explained, “I have focused on prioritizing African solo monographic survey exhibitions that call for an in-depth appreciation of a single artist’s practice and resist the predicament of shallow reading of a diverse and complex art ecosystem.” [4]

Koyo encouraged others to “nurture spaces that enable contemplation, introspection, the imaginary, and everything else that speaks to humanity” to the extent that in recent times, when presented with drafts of event schedules, she often implored her team to lengthen mealtimes. [5] She knew that it was also in these in-between spaces of breaking bread where transformative ideas could be formulated. This same collective communal spirit existed outside of formal programs and extended to Koyo’s living spaces. If her dinner tables could talk, they would testify to being constantly laden with people, love, food, and conversations that lasted late into the evening.

When the need arose, congregating online was just as important as gathering in person for Koyo. In 2020, when most of the world was in lockdown because of the global pandemic, she initiated the Radical Solidarity Summit, which was led by the questions “What can we do for ourselves? What can we do for others? What can we do together?” [6] The week-long online gathering addressed urgent issues of the time and discussed possibilities that could be forged in the cultural field through acts of solidarity. The impact of such an occasion may not be quantifiable, but the exceptional residencies, exhibitions, publications, and programs, as well as the academic citations by or about the summit’s brilliant participants in the months and years that followed, point to the fact that many attendees were emboldened by this gathering.

Institution-building to Koyo meant having contagious ambition. We caught onto it when she shared with us that after seven months of pandemic closure, we would pause our original programming at Zeitz MOCAA and reopen with an exhibition that included any artwork from anyone in the Western Cape Province who wanted to partake. Shortly thereafter, 2,000 local artworks were hung from floor to ceiling for an exhibition titled “Home Is Where the Art Is” (2020). Koyo surely had the insight to see that such a momentous gesture would generate long-lasting community engagement as locals began to see themselves reflected in the museum.

Whether in speaking to heads of state, such as French President Emmanuel Macron during a roundtable discussion on the French restitution of African art in 2021, or as part of the myriad keynote addresses she gave in recent years, Koyo was widely admired for her tact, passion, and pursuit of fairness.

While Koyo occupied, fashioned, and molded physical space as part of her practice, for her, institution-building was also about intangible and immeasurable investments in the future. She constructed training programs for emerging professionals on the African continent. In Dakar, as part of RAW, she founded RAW Academy, an experimental seven-week program for the research and study of artistic and curatorial practice. Each season was facilitated by a director who had what she called “an off-the-beaten-track practice.” [7] These session directors have included Princess Marilyn Douala Manga Bell, Linda Goode Bryant, Otobong Nkanga, and, most recently, Felwine Sarr. In Cape Town, she initiated the Zeitz MOCAA and University of the Western Cape (UWC) Museum Fellowship Programme, developed to foster the growth of museum practice as well as advancement in art scholarship. Over the course of its 12 months, it gave fellows an opportunity to have hands-on practical museum experience and increase their art networks while also wrestling with rigorous art theory.

Outside of the highly sought-after opportunities that she developed, Koyo contributed to countless other mentorship programs, such as Forecast and Independent Curators International. Informally, she often found a way to squeeze younger professionals into her impossible calendar, so that they could ideate, vent, or use her as a sounding board. In 2015 while completing my masters thesis, I was incredibly touched when Koyo agreed to have a call with me to support my research, of which RAW was a case study. She didn’t know me then, and I expected 30 minutes – yet she gave me a few hours. Perhaps it is because she grew up surrounded by strong-willed, generous women in Cameroon that Koyo held space, especially for younger Black women. In Dakar, the term Amazons became a term of endearment to describe some of the women she supported there.

And there are others: A few years ago, curator Oluremi C. Onabanjo captioned an Instagram picture of her and me by using the term Koyo Hive. It was a fun way of acknowledging that Onabanjo and I are both part of a larger group of younger professionals influenced by Koyo’s practice. Recently, as a small group of us were reflecting on the plethora of tributes emitted by this global Koyo Hive, writer Siddhartha Mitter aptly referred to it as the Koyo Diaspora. Dispersed around the world are countless numbers of us whose contributions to the art ecosystem are informed by the seeds that Koyo planted in us. I worked with Koyo from when she joined Zeitz MOCAA until 2024, and I continued to work with her on a major traveling exhibition. She was the fiercest supporter of my career.

“Life itself is a durational performance, and there is no boundary between artistic practice and life,” she once said. [8] Koyo poured so much of herself into her practice that her work, her being, and her passion were at times indistinguishable, which makes writing an obituary for her very challenging. It is difficult to try to weave in lesser-known life aspects while highlighting her more visible work. I might make reference to some of the witty exhibition titles she ought to be celebrated for, such as “When We See Us” (2022–26), “Body Talk” (2015), “Saving Bruce Lee” (2015–18), and “Dig Where You Stand” (2018). I also wish to give insight into aspects that few may know, such as how food was one of Koyo’s love languages. The Swiss chocolate, Togolese peanuts, or British toffee that she brought back for us were always telling of the global engagements she had returned from. I consider listing all the publications associated with her name, from Word! Word? Word! (2013) to Breathing Out of School (2021). I want to point out the different geographic temporalities that informed her worldview, such as growing up in Douala or being a Prince-obsessed teenager in Zurich before beckoning to the call of Dakar as a young mother. Within the word limit, I try to squeeze in how Koyo’s failed attempt to interview filmmaker Ousmane Sembène paved the way for her to meet artist Issa Samb, whose friendship would have a significant impact on her own practice. But I also want to mention that after hours of rigorous brainstorming during curatorial retreats, Koyo’s amusing competitive streak would manifest itself during evening board games. I feel it is equally important to underscore her major achievements, such as being part of two consecutive Documenta curatorial teams, in 2007 and 2012. Or being the artistic director for the 37th EVA International, Ireland’s Biennial (2016), titled “Still (the) Barbarians,” as well as the 8th Triennial of Photography Hamburg (2022), under the theme “Currency.” And being awarded the Prix Meret Oppenheim in 2020. How do I write about how literature was her first love, and about how freely Koyo danced – while describing how fiercely she insisted on putting artists first? How do I say all of this without also sharing how she gave long and tight hugs, and that she cared for all of the people she worked with deeply?

The 61st Biennale di Venezia edition, titled “In Minor Keys,” will have its opening day on May 9, 2026 – marking almost exactly one year since Koyo’s transition. I have no doubt that Koyo’s original vision for the Biennale will come to fruition. Because every individual on the team that she formed and left behind has in one way or another worked closely with her on previous curatorial, research, or institutional projects of note. As we continue in our own collective and individual practices, may we remember to dance more freely and care deeply for each other just like Koyo did.

Tandazani Dhlakama is the curator of Global Africa at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), Toronto. Previously she was a curator at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town. Prior to that she worked at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare. She has contributed to exhibitions, conferences, and a biennial in a variety of functions. Among several other exhibitions, she cocurated “When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting” (2022) and curated “Five Bhobh: Painting at the End of an Era” (2018), “Witness: Afro Perspectives from the Jorge M. Pérez Collection” (2020), and recently cocurated “Seekers, Seers, Soothsayers” (2023). Dhlakama holds an MA in art gallery and museum studies from the University of Leeds (2015) and a BA in fine art and political science from St. Lawrence University (2011).

Image credit: Photo © Trevor Stuurman