Introduction: Healing Through Art Across Africa
In Nairobi last spring, a group of 30 African artists from diverse disciplines gathered to confront a difficult but essential task: collective healing in the face of trauma, war, and genocide. Titled “The Power of Arts and Culture for Healing,” the convening was curated by Molemo Moiloa and Phumzile Nombuso Twala of Andani.Africa and organized by the Quaker American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). The gathering underscored a growing belief that art can be a potent vehicle for resistance, memory, and renewal across the continent.
Pan-African Solidarity as Practice
The event, held in Kenya, became a lived classroom for Pan-African solidarity. Each morning began with an invocation, creating a space where vulnerability could flourish and personal experiences of trauma could be shared. Through artist talks, music, film, drum circles, and shared meals, participants cultivated a sense of kinship that critics sometimes overlook in market-driven art worlds. The gathering demonstrated that radical exchange—where poetic, experimental, political, and healing aims intersect—remains a viable, necessary force in contemporary art.
A Moment of Personal Transformation
For the author and facilitator, the trip carried an additional weight: the sudden death of Koyo Kouoh, a towering figure in global contemporary art. Kouoh’s work—directing Zeitz Museum in Cape Town, founding Raw Material Company in Dakar, and preparing to curate the 61st Venice Biennale—had long been a beacon at the Pan-African crossroads for Black American and African artists alike. Her passing shifted the lens of the Nairobi gathering toward interdependence among Black diasporic communities and the responsibilities of curators and cultural workers to sustain one another across borders.
Historical Threads: A Pan-African Rhythm
The narrative extended beyond the present moment, tracing a lineage of cultural exchange connecting the Black Atlantic. The author recalls Pearl Primus’s 1948 Rosenwald Fellowship, which funded travel to West and Central Africa, and the choreographic bridges she built between continents. The memory of Primus’s journeys, as well as lectures and conversations with mentors, situates contemporary practice within a longer arc of transmission and mutual influence. This history informs the imperative to keep Pan-African connections alive through collaborative projects and shared rituals of making art.
Healing as a Political Act
Guest speakers and participants highlighted how trauma healing through culture is inseparable from broader political work. Theatre director Hope Azeda’s reflection on returning to Rwanda to heal multiple generations exemplified a key theme: healing must address both memory and the future. The discussion echoed Felwine Sarr’s assertion that reopening the future requires a reinvented relationship with past traditions—an argument that resonates with contemporary curatorial strategies and local artistic practices alike.
Reimagining Global Pan-Africanism
The conversation placed Kouoh’s curatorial philosophy in a broader frame. Her planned Venice Biennale project, and the concept of “In Minor Keys” as a form of refuge and radical proposition, suggest a nuanced approach to globalism—one that privileges subtler, more sustainable modes of exchange. The revival of pan-African gatherings—such as Loophole of Retreat at the Venice Biennale and Deborah Willis’s Black Portraitures—signals a renewed energy in regional solidarity that transcends nostalgic memory and builds toward an interconnected future.
Conclusion: Minor Keys, Major Impacts
Ultimately, the Nairobi experience affirmed a simple, enduring truth: individual healing is foundational to collective resistance. As Kouoh’s spirit invites, the work continues in “minor keys”—operating in subtle registers that offer sanctuary and shape radical alternatives to oppressive systems. The gathering did not merely reflect on past struggles; it charted a practical path for artists, curators, and cultural workers to sustain cross-continental solidarity in a rapidly changing world.
