Cheikh Sakho, in Holland known as Papa Sakho, was born in Dakar, Senegal, on the 27th of February 1960, the second son in a family of artists. He finished the Art Academy, Ecole des Arts du Sénégal, in 1988. He expressed himself in painting, music, welding and leather and was active as art producer and manager, taking up a prominent role in Dakar’s cultural life.
In his house Sakho used to receive visitors from all over the world. Hospitality (in wolof : Teranga) is a key concept in Senegalese culture. Sakho is a master of Teranga. Many of the visitors from Europe advised him to bring his art to Europe, if only to get a better price. Sakho sold the house that he inherited from his father and in 2000 organized a tour of the African Lions to five European countries, including a performance in Amsterdam’s Milky Way. At the end of the tour, in 2004, the director of the African Lions, Laie Ananas, asked him to stay with him in Amsterdam. But he could not bring his family over. By now the money was all gone, so he could not even buy a ticket home. He tried to make a living on the Waterlooplein market, where one day he was caught up in a fight and was detained by the police. Since he did not possess a document stating his regular residence he was soon transferred to the detention complex for undocumented migrants at Schiphol East, in order to be deported back to Senegal. While imprisoned he drew portraits of his fellow inmates and kept the spirits high.
In the night of the 26th of October 2005, cell block K, caught fire due to inadecuate prevention and security. Thirteen men and two women died in the fire, Sakho was among the fifteen severely wounded. As a survivor of the fire, having seen his fellow men die and suffer, he was himself heavily traumatized. It took the Dutch government another year to finally give the survivors a chance to restore their life, with proper documents and psychiatric treatment. Sakho could then move out of the asylum and settle back in Amsterdam. He lived for half a year as artist in residence in the Blue House, curated by Jeanne van Heeswijk. In the same period he joined forces with Jo van der Spek, campaigner and journalist, to make a weekly radio-program. Every year they organized the commemoration of the Schiphol fire. In 2009 Jo and Sakho founded M2M; the Migrant 2 Migrant foundation.
Sakho had several exhibitions in Goningen (2006) and Amsterdam (Melkweg (2006), Blauwe Huis (2006), Ruigoord (2011), Kameleon (2013) and The Beach (2012-2018).
Sakho died in Amsterdam on January 9, 2025 and will be buried in Dakar on January 17.
Sakho is one of the godfathers of the refugee collective We Are Here. In 2006 he proclaimed at the first commemoration:
We Are Here
To make a life again
Together as one
Here some fragments of a presentation about the 2005 Schiphol Fire by Mustapha Mujahid, Cheikh Papa Sakho and Jo van der Spek at Basis voor Aktuele Kunst art space (BAK), Utrecht, October 2018 (In English). The full video, which starts with a presentation by Forensic Architecture can be found here.
Schiphol fire website: https://schipholbrand.net/en/
Email M2M: m2migrant@gmail.com
