Honouring the late Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh, a visionary that reshaped global art through African perspectives
This African Liberation Day, we honour visionary Cameroonian curator Koyo Kouoh, who reshaped global narratives of liberation through culture and art.
Throughout her career, Kouoh worked to centre African perspectives within contemporary art. Through her exhibitions, institutional leadership, and mentorship of emerging artists and curators, she remained steadfast in her belief that African art must speak in its own language.
Born in Douala, Cameroon in 1967 and raised in Switzerland, Kouoh came to curating through activism, publishing, and organising. In 2008, she founded RAW Material Company in Dakar, which quickly became one of the continent’s most influential independent art spaces, a place for radical thought, artistic experimentation, and community.
In 2019, she became the Executive Director and Chief Curator of Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town. Under her leadership, the museum shifted from a contested institution to a vital cultural space, with programming that challenged reductive understandings of African art and opened up richer, more nuanced conversations.
One of her most celebrated exhibitions, When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, embodied this approach. First shown at Zeitz MOCAA and currently at Bozar in Brussels, the exhibition traces 100 years of Black self-representation in painting, weaving together themes of joy, love, spirituality, and resistance.
“Liberation is not an act of charity. It’s a process of unlearning the assumptions of others, of reclaiming authorship, and shaping the narrative on your own terms.” said Koyo Kouoh
As part of the Bozar programme, Jukebox Collective was invited to share short film Of Us, alongside a live performance, directed by Liara Barussi. Rooted in the history of Tiger Bay in Cardiff, one of the UK’s oldest Black communities, Of Us translates lived stories into movement, honouring inherited memory, African heritage and traditions carried across the ocean.
Across every project, Kouoh remained consistent in her message: African art is central to the global story. Whether as the General Commissioner for the 2026 Venice Biennale or creating platforms for artists across Africa and its diaspora, she redefined institutions from within, demanded new frames of reference, and opened doors for generations to come.
