WE ARRIVE TOGETHER
TamiJofa
~~~~~
13.11.2026
A residency for African womxn artists, born from a dream and walking to a rhythm of its own.
Say the word aloud. In Malagasy, as Joey Aresoa explains it, Tamijofa holds a whole procession: we arrive, we come together, and walking in numbers, with energy and in rhythm, we lift the earth behind us.
Listen to what that announces. Not a solitary arrival. A crowd, arriving.
Tamijofa was born that way. From February to August 2026, Djolifon invited five artists from Gabon, Madagascar, Mauritania, Senegal, and Tunisia to imagine an ideal residency for African womxn artists, starting from their own experiences and aspirations. They were all artists, and at the start they did not know one another. They answered by putting on the table: their experiences, their aspirations, their fears, and their hopes. What they built from it is less a program than a promise, a place where artists can create, or simply rest, in trust and in safety.
Something else was built along the way: a bond. Their differences were real, and so was the recognition. Again and again, what one carried echoed in another. Joey Aresoa found a rare place where she could speak, listen, or stay silent, without having to explain herself to be understood. Héla Ammar felt something essential in common: roots in the continent, and an unshakeable wish to offer other African womxn artists the conditions some of them had, and above all the conditions they lacked to keep creating and keep being inspired.
Arrive together. Slow down. Dare.
That is the engine of Tamijofa: a lack turned into a gift. A bright workspace of your own. Shared spaces for rest and for living. Outdoor spaces for pausing and stepping back, in calm settings set back from urban areas. Two artists per session, for two to four weeks, with no pressure to produce results and no evaluation. Conceived by African womxn artists, for African womxn artists.
Then comes slowness, and it is not a simple pause but an active stance. Tamijofa steps away from the imperatives of the capitalist world toward the depth of being, time, memories, and creation. Slow down, and thought, gesture, and choices start to work at depth. And the earth behind a walking crowd is lifted, as Joey says, by energy and rhythm.
What does Tamijofa aims for? That artists leave with greater clarity, freedom, and confidence in their practice, and a stronger sense of legitimacy in their own expressions, the atypical ones and the fragile ones. Héla hopes it is the beginning of a long chain of solidarity, sorority, and transmission.
Tamijofa is for African womxn artists from the continent and the diaspora, aged 21 or over, who are developing, transitioning, or consolidating their practice, and who can show both that practice and a connection to the continent. Disciplines and media, including visual arts, photography, writing, performance, installation, video, multimedia, and craft, are welcomed with no hierarchy between artistic expressions and backgrounds.
Arrive together. Slow down. Dare.
Words: Meimouna Mohamed El Kory . Artwork: Amy Sow at Art Gallé