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Her influence extended through generations, mentoring young curators, building platforms for critical discourse, and ensuring that African artists and intellectuals were not merely included but central to global cultural narratives. As she once put it,“ We are no longer asking permission to exist. We are building our own houses.”
Flashmag! Issue 161 June 2025
She concluded in her extensive talk with Artforum executive editor Lloyd Wise in 2016, talking about Africa image and personal achievments she stated:“ THE WAY AFRICA HAS BEEN and continues to be portrayed in the media is extremely negative, and among the creative class there is a strong desire to correct this. For the longest time, I’ ve felt that we were always talking to others, continually saying,“ Look at us, we are able to do this, we are capable.” I call it the first-and-only syndrome. That is, whenever an African person achieves something, we always hear that he is the only African or she is the only African, or she is the first African or he is the first African. It is always extraordinary.
Now, the first-and-only syndrome is finally being challenged as a narrative. That, I think, is an important shift. It means we are talking to ourselves now, which is where the real discussions begin.
Kouoh is survived by her husband, Philippe Mall, and their four children. But above all, she is survived by the institutions she built, the artists she uplifted, and the future she dared to imagine.
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