In the 1980s, arguably the largest theft of ancestral artifacts occurred in Kenya. Hundreds of Vigango statues, wooden totem poles sacred to the Mijikenda people, were stolen from hallowed forests to be sold to western art collectors and museums. These statues, carved from trees within the very forests where they held spiritual significance, bore intricate markings that embodied the identities and preserved the memories of revered elders and healers that have passed away.

While some of the looted statues have been returned, many of them are still hundreds of miles away from their culturally significant homestead. In Relooted, the upcoming game created by South Africa-based Nyamakop Studios, players will have the chance to retake stolen Vigango statues and dozens of other ancestral artifacts forcibly taken from Africa over the centuries.

Relooted is coming at a time when the discussions for repatriation of stolen artifacts are increasingly loud and absolute, not just by Africans but also by concerned people all over the world. The game itself is a radical jump for Nyamakop following its first published game, Semblance, a puzzle-platform game where players squish, push, deform, and reshape a playdough world. Semblance was positively received for its innovative art style and satisfying puzzles.

For its second game, Nyamakop had to up the level of execution to match its much higher ambitions. “I think it’s just that the concept itself felt so important,” Ben Myres, CEO and Creative Director at Nyamakop, tells OkayAfrica. “Obviously, with African artifacts, repatriation is a huge deal, so it felt really important to make the game as high production value and high quality as possible.”

To ensure that Relooted hit the high marks the studio set for itself, the number of people who worked on the game was just over ten times more than the three full-time staff it took to put together Nyamakop’s debut game. This time around, a high level of coherence and coordination was needed to balance narrative depth with strong gameplay, in its attempt to create an Africanfuturist heist game.

Mohale Mashigo, a writer referred to by Myres as “the queen of Africanfuturism,” was approached to helm the game’s storyline, situating the relooting of artifacts within the context of an engaging game. “It’s a heist game, right? So I spent a long time watching heist films and also understanding what heisting is, like hacking buildings basically, and I realized that this has got to be a team [effort],” Mashigo says. “Heists are always great because everybody’s got a role to play in the heist. The best part of the heist is when you see the mastermind go and recruit different people and their different personalities and how they work together.”

Led by the character Nomali, the motley crew in Relooted includes a delinquent brother obsessed with cracking safes, an ex-MMA champion, a sports scientist, and a grandma. “This may be the first family heist that includes a grandmother,” Mashigo says with ample cheer in her voice. All characters in the game are from different parts of Africa, operating from a hideout in a futuristic version of Johannesburg.

Myres, Mashigo, and their colleagues had to iterate and build their own playbook for Relooted, spending years experimenting to arrive at a game that’s unique within the canon of heist games, which are usually based on a single character and often violent.

“There are not a lot of heist games that are more like Ocean’s Eleven than anything else, and it just made sense for us to make a sort of nonviolent game because of the themes,” Myres says. “Trying to find a reference for nonviolent heist games was tricky, so it was a lot of back-and-forth between all departments – art, narrative, gameplay – just trying to make it all work. There are compromises in some places that we had to figure out. It meant there were often things the narrative and the art departments had to change, or there were certain things we knew we couldn’t change narratively, so we just had to figure it out gameplay-wise.”

Myres is conservative about sharing an exact timeline for the release of Relooted, with behind-the-scenes developments underway to bring the game to the Xbox console and to PCs, platforms where representation for African-inspired games remains very low. Last year, Cameroonian studio Kiro’o Games debuted the first African role-playing game on Xbox with Aurion: Legacy of the Kori-Odan, which had been previously released for Microsoft Windows several years earlier.

While Africa is projected to have a gaming audience of over 400 million, the growing numbers haven’t really translated into a strong base of Africans playing games by African studios, which will be a key factor in improving the visibility of African-inspired games. Myres makes the point that the artforms that have seen crossover success, from afrobeats and amapiano to fringe film successes, started with a high level of acceptance at home.

Several factors currently hinder the continental success of games by African studios, primarily due to the fragmentation of African countries. In addition to the challenges of purchasing power, the difficulty in paying for games across countries due to differences in regulations and mobile money services is a significant challenge. Consoles are luxury items in many parts of the continent, which means that a significant amount of gaming in Africa is done on mobile devices, limiting the scope of what studios can deploy for Africans, and monetization will continue to be a challenge.

“Someone’s going to have to make a lot of money from one game,” Myres says as a possible solution to the low adoption of African games among Africans, as well as the global visibility of African-inspired games. “If that happens, it fundamentally changes who can make games about what and for whom, not just in Africa but across the gaming industry worldwide. I think once you have a reasonably-sized hit, people are like, ‘Oh my God, we can make games like that and there is an audience for it.’”

Nyamakop hopes Relooted will become very successful upon release within the next year, which would amplify the cultural significance of the game, particularly in relation to artifacts stolen from Africa. Myres mentions the Maqdala Crown as one of his favorite artifacts curated in the game, citing its significance in “how deliberate the European attempts were to make African civilization look uncivilized,” even though Africans had been creating beautiful and deeply intricate metalwork pieces centuries ago.

For Mashigo, the recency of the Vigango statues being stolen is striking. “We think about colonial times for artifacts, but this happened in the 1980s. They just went into the forest and took many of these Vigango statues, and then they were being sold in the West, and it was like a fashionable thing to have.”

Relooted turns the dynamic on its head, with the hope that it resonates with many people worldwide, including Africans and the diaspora community. “It is very much a power of fantasy because I don’t think Africans very often get to see themselves set in the future and joyfully,” Mashigo says. “So, dreaming of this beautiful utopian future continent, hopefully it inspires people and makes them feel proud, both of their heritage in the past and the possibility of the future. The game is very much about the artifacts, but it is so many different things at the same time.”

In November 2021, thousands of artifacts were destroyed in a fire at the National Museum of Gungu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Four years later, the Sudan National Museum met a similar fate, as tens of thousands of artifacts were either destroyed or shipped off to be sold when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized the country's capital. In other parts of the continent, like Ghana and Nigeria, archival documents and records are being improperly stored or are already deteriorating.

While the knee-jerk answer to these setbacks has mostly been a surge of creators digitally preserving African history and culture — from Fu'ad Lawal's Archivi.ng to Juliana Oduro's Vintage African Women to Rwanda Archives to Decolonising the Archive — creators like Kofi Iddrisu are now playing vital roles in archiving both digitally and physically.

Founded in 2020 solely as an Instagram page, Iddrisu's project ArchiveAfrica has attained a global audience of over 200,000 followers, a growing digital store of over 1,800 photos, videos, and documents, as well as partnerships with institutions like the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the University of Oxford Afro Caribbean Society, 154 Art Fair, amongst others. What started as a personal project for Kofi to post images, whether submitted by followers or sourced across the continent, gradually evolved into an audio-visual archive curated to enable university students, historians, art enthusiasts, and cultural workers to utilize it without worrying about payment or subscription.

"Before now, it was very difficult to find a giant archive of African history and art that isn't behind a paywall or hidden in some Western university's library," Kofi tells OkayAfrica. Now, students and academics can access this freely.

Kofi, born Kofi Nana Oduro Iddrisu in North West London, has always been fascinated by his African roots. His parents ensured that he spent his formative years in Accra, prioritizing African history and culture at home while he was schooling in the UK. "It was easy to lose connection when you are in the diaspora," he explains.

It was when he moved back to Ghana in 2020 to further his medical studies that the brainwave for ArchiveAfrica started. His siblings, Kanchelli Iman and Charney Iddrisu supported the project and played a crucial role in curating the page. They later went on to establish respective projects focusing on Black-owned businesses and the cinema industry.

Now in its fifth year, ArchiveAfrica is expanding to create a physical archival space in Accra, enhancing preservation and accessibility. Kofi says that one of the reasons for this is the unreliability of social media pages. Instagram, a common platform used by photographers, archivists, cultural workers, and models to share ideas, has been deactivating accounts without warning or explanation.

"If the goal of our work is preservation, we need a medium that is permanent," Kofi states. "How can we transfer this massive social media following and condense it into actual physical space?"

The plan for the museum's construction is underway. The museum will be dedicated to the royal history of Ghana's Upper West region and will also house a library and writer's retreat in Accra. This will create a space for archival research, literature, and creative work that fosters deeper engagement with African history and storytelling.

While there are existing physical archives in Ghana, such as the Public Records and Archives Administration Department (PRAAD) created in 1997, Kofi laments that these archives are at risk of deterioration. For the museum project, he has made a GoFundMe page for donors to support construction and maintenance. But there are challenges.

"Nowadays, funding is so precarious, so while we don't have long-standing paid staff on our list yet, we have received numerous offers to volunteer from different countries," Kofi says. He envisions the museum to house a mix of audio-visual, textual, and tactile materials.

The fundraiser has raised only £865 ($1,177) of its £60,000 ($81,693) target, but this initial success has prompted the architects to begin planning the site. While the crowdfunding goal may appear ambitious, Kofi stresses that this is an early-stage project where raising awareness is essential for attracting both institutional and individual support. He is actively pursuing partnerships and exploring alternative funding approaches with diverse organizations, including Mubi UK, 154 Art Fair, and the British High Commission.

Once the museum is established in Accra, Kofi plans to expand to other countries on the continent and beyond: "We are hoping for a permanent space in different African countries and multiple spaces in the diaspora to support the next batch of cultural workers in terms of giving access to spaces and encouraging networking."

"The overarching goal is to have a physical location where the average African person can walk through the doors, borrow a book or photography collection, go home, do research, and return it," he says.

“We need to take the time to do the things that are urgent, that are essential, that are necessary,” renowned curator Koyo Kouoh said in a 2023 podcast. “And for me, building out institutions on the continent is a matter of urgency.”

Today, those words carry even more weight following her death on Saturday, May 10, in Basel, Switzerland, after a short battle with cancer.

With her passing, the art world mourns one of its most fearless visionaries. But for African artists and practitioners, this is the loss of a giant—and I say that without exaggeration. Kouoh believed deeply that Africa’s creativity must be shaped and shared by those who live it.

Even more tragic is the timing: she died just ten days before she was to unveil her concept for the 2026 Venice Biennale. As the first African woman appointed to curate one of the world’s most prestigious art exhibitions, it was a dream interrupted. Yet her legacy continues. We can honor her legacy by moving with the same urgency she lived by in building our own spaces and telling our own stories.

Kouoh spent her life working to build platforms where African creativity could be seen, respected, and celebrated. She was the executive director and chief curator at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town. She once called the museum “an unapologetically and decisively Pan-African, pan-diasporic museum… we are building our own voice, our own language.” And she meant it. Under her leadership, the museum became a space that showcased African talent in powerful and lasting ways.

Born in Cameroon, raised in Switzerland, and building a career in Senegal, Kouoh knew how to move between worlds. She built bridges between artists, countries, and ideas. In 2008, she opened RAW Material Company in Dakar, an artist residency and space where she mentored young talent, published writing, and curated exhibitions that asked difficult questions about identity, migration, and history.

When she joined Zeitz MOCAA in 2019, she transformed a struggling institution. She changed how it was operated, brought in new people, and even redesigned the space to serve the art better. Under her leadership, the museum focused on giving artists the space to tell their full stories. She led major solo exhibitions for artists like Otobong Nkanga, Tracey Rose, and Senzeni Marasela.

In 2022, she curated When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, a powerful show about how Black people have represented themselves in art across Africa and the diaspora. It was part of her larger mission to reclaim African stories in contemporary art.

“Art is in the cracks, not in the polish,” she once said, reminding us that beauty and meaning often come from broken places. She also believed museums should stay close to their communities, not just the art world.

Kuouh was repeatedly named one of ArtReview’s 100 most influential figures in contemporary art. But what made her special wasn’t the rooms she was in or the titles she held. It was how she always put Africa at the center. Through her warmth, generosity, and belief in others, she created spaces where African artists and curators were seen and valued. She rooted everything she built on the continent and helped others believe they could lead too.

Her life is a reminder that we can’t wait. We must continue to build institutions and platforms. But more importantly, we must build each other, just as Kouoh did. If we want African creativity to be seen, we must make the space ourselves. That’s what she did, and that’s how we honor her.

The New York edition of this year’s 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair activities will be open to the public this weekend. Held in Marrakech, New York, and London, 1-54 is dedicated to showcasing art from Africa and its diaspora at thoughtfully curated events across multiple continents.

Months after this year’s Marrakech edition, all eyes turn to New York, where the fair will be hosted in Halo – at Manhattan’s iconic 28 Liberty Street – for the first time, a 30,000 square foot venue. The fair will spotlight a sprawling list of galleries and artists from Africa, Europe, the U.S., and more, along with captivating special projects.

“We’re eager to make our return to New York as we continue to grow our annual edition,” Touria El Glaoui, founding director of 1-54, said in a press release. “It’s been wonderful to see the positive response from our U.S. audience over the last decade, as well as a shared passion for expanding visibility for contemporary African art. We’re excited for visitors to see the incredible artwork and programming from this year’s gallerists and fair partners.”

Below, OkayAfrica spotlights five things to look forward to at 1-54 New York this year.

A typically diverse lineup of galleries and artists

As is now customary of 1-54, this year’s New York edition will feature 30 exhibiting galleries. Fifteen of those galleries will make their 1-54 fair debuts, while 18 will be showing in New York for the first time. The diverse selection of galleries is based across 17 countries and five continents, with exhibitors from everywhere, from Tokyo, Japan, and Lagos, Nigeria, to Geneva, Switzerland, and Johannesburg, South Africa.

The first exhibitor from the Democratic Republic of Congo

KUB’Art Gallery will be the first 1-54 fair exhibitor from the DR Congo. The Kinshasa-based gallery was founded in 2020 to showcase Congolese contemporary art and make the work of artists accessible to the international market. Its curatorial focus centers on heritage, identity, and preserving ancestral knowledge while challenging the erasure of indigenous narratives through painting, photography, and mixed media.

KUB’Art will be exhibiting works by Rachel Malaïka and Prisca Munkeni Monnier. Malaïka is a multidisciplinary artist who challenges ideological narratives and highlights the resilience of collective identity through photography, painting, and installation. Brussels-born, Kinshasa-raised Monnier explores memory and heritage through photography, film, and performance, and has been exhibiting internationally since 2007.

Gallery 1957’s special installation by Yaw Owusu

Ghanaian artist Yaw Owusu has consistently used his art as a form of political critique. His 2017 installation piece, Back to the Future, which coincided with Ghana’s 60th independence anniversary, was a portrait of the Ghanaian flag using pesewa coins, reflecting the country’s unyielding inflation and general economic situation.

At 1-54 New York, Owusu created an interpretation of the U.S. flag using American pennies to explore liberty as an American symbol and what that means with respect to current political and economic conditions.

The ‘Art Comes First’ special project

Art Comes First (ACF) is a global collective dedicated to preserving and reinterpreting African craftsmanship through contemporary fashion and design. “Textile Language,” its special project at 1-54 New York, delves into the ancient art of weaving, linking cotton cultivation in Sudan and indigo-dying techniques from Mali, to the legacy of a Black-owned cotton farm in Alabama, which has been operational since 1877. The project merges traditional techniques with modern designs as a medium of storytelling, heritage, and empowerment.

A special spotlight on Caribbean art

ATLANTIC ARTHOUSE, a hybrid collective of artists, designers, creatives, and galleries from the Caribbean Mid-Atlantic, curates this year’s 1-54 Caribbean Spotlight. Through thoughtfully curated group exhibitions, which combine culturally specific e-commerce with dynamic programming, the collective creates space for underrepresented creatives from Caribbean, LatinX, Indigenous, and Afro-descendant communities. ATLANTIC ARTHOUSE will be exhibiting works by 11 artists during its spotlight.

Also, the TERN Gallery will debut as the first exhibitor in the Bahamas. The Nassau-based gallery celebrates the region’s rich artistic contributions while fostering the international expansion of the contemporary Caribbean art market. At 1-54 New York, TERN will show works by ceramic artist Anina Major and visual artist Leasho Johnson.