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Tinga Tinga Studio provides the most comprehensive information about Tinga Tinga artists

Visit Tinga Tinga Exhibitions
The name of Edward Tingatinga and his designs are copied by BBC and Walt Disney. Who ilustrated the series of 52 animated films called Tinga Tinga Tales? Copyright infringement of Tanzanian art by worlds´largest media?
The living Tinga Tinga master painters







Opinion about Lilanga (Pascal Boagert) 13/4/2011
Who is Painting Mzuguno Now? (Afrum) 7/4/2011
Mzuguno: Selling Art like Hotcake (Daily Monitor) 2/4/2011
The Son of Mzuguno Coming to Uganda (Start Journal) 2/3/2011
Lilanga Faked his Biography (lilanga.org) 28/3/2011
Tinga Tinga Tales Heads for Unhappy Ending (Africanclours.com) 21/2/2011
Tinga Tinga lands Monaco Deal (Allafrica.com) 17/1/2011
Atanas Art Style of Tanzania (Afrum)21/11/2010
To be Tingatinga or Lilanga; That´s a Dada! (Africancolours.com) 15/11/2010
A Tinga Tinga Review: London and Copenhagen (Africancolours.com) 8/11/2010
Tinga Tinga Painting for $55.000 (Afrum) 24/10/2010
Reflection on Tinga Tinga Masai Art (Petrine Arche) 2/9/2010
Tinga Tinga Puts Kenyan Animation on Map (The Africa Report) 8/7/2010
Tingatinga: Kitsch or Quality (Africancolours.com) 28/6/2010
David Mzuguno past away (Afrum) 15/6/2010
The Makonde Sculpture (Elias Jengo) 25/12/2009
Art Set Aside at EASTAFAB Biennale (Afrum) 12/11/2009
BBC: Tinga Tinga created in Kenya (Afrum) 1/11/2009
Tingatinga and the Mozambique Myth (Afrum) 1/11/2009
Ndanda: The Tanzanian Fina Art Capital (Afrum) 15/7/2009
Artists Look Back at Nyumba ya Sanaa (Eric Mchome) 10/7/2009
Nymba ya Sanaa (The Tanzanian Cultural House) in Mess (Ray Nayulaga) 9/7/2009
The Passed Makonde Sculptor Mathambwe Lives through Pius (Afrum) 9/7/2009
Malaba: No Instructions from Lilanga (lilanga.org) 4/5/2009
The Makonde big five from Tanzania (Afrum) 28/3/2009
Hassani Mchisa Poisened (lilanga.org) 4/3/2009
Lilanga: The Fraud of the Millennium (lilanga.org) 22/2/2009
New Faces in the Lilanga Group (lilanga.org) 5/1/2009
Nakapanya: The Tingatinga Capital (Afrum) 4/1/2009
Half of Tanzania on Tingatinga Motorcycle (Afrum) 3/1/2009
The Mystery of Nafasi Mpagua (Afrum) 7/12/2008
Malaba Studio and People who are Working there (lilanga.org) 23/11/2008
Robino Ntila Changes Style after 40 Years (Afrum) 14/11/2008
New Book - Angaza Africa by Chris Spring (Afrum) 14/11/2008
If you have more questions about Tinga Tinga art, don´t hesitate to contact me. Do you want to know more about the artists who are represented on Tinga Tinga Studio? Then go to Artist Page! Or are you interested in Tinga Tinga art? Learn how to buy a painting!

Tinga Tinga´s home is Tanzania. This remarkable country is situated under equator in East Africa and border to Kenya. Tanzania is extremely popular tourist destination because of the vast wildlife - one of last to be found on our planet. Tanzania is also known for the highest African mountain Kilimanjaro and the legendary island of Zanzibar where Fred Mercury was born.



Tinga Tinga is a name for a well-known painting art style from Tanzania, East Africa which was started in 1968 by Edward Saidi Tingatinga. Since then the family of E.S.Tingatinga operates from Tinga Tinga Partnership and later from Tinga Tinga Arts Co-operative Society based in the commercial capital of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam. Though the Tinga Tinga refers to art, much of the production is rather handicraft which includes the reproduced paintings and various products aimed for international markets. These products include hand-painted plates, glass, pencils, decorative objects and others.
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Photos from Left: 1. Omari Amonde, 2. Z.Chimwanda, 3. Daimu Zuberi, 4. Agnes Mpata
Tinga Tinga brand spread throughout Tanzania and East Africa -without any effective tools to protect the name and production of the Tinga Tinga Coopertive. Tourists may find Tinga Tinga paintings and products in Zanzibar, Arusha and even in Kenya. Today, there are estimated 500 painters in East Africa. Most of them copy and imitate the art and handicraft of the family of E.S.Tingatinga. But not only poor Tanzanians infringes the copyrights of Tinga Tinga Cooperative but even rich international companies registered Tinga Tinga as trademark. Often they use the traditional designs of Tinga Tinga art in their own products. Tingatinga family is seldom profiting from its creative ideas.
But during the short art carrier of E.S.Tingatinga, the art and handicraft production was under control. E.S.Tingatinga accepted only six relatives as his students. These were Ajaba Mtalia, Adeus Mandu, January Linda, Simon Mpata Kasper Tedo and Omari Amonde. Though E.S.Tingatinga was of Mgindo tribe after his father, he was brought up by his mother Agnes Ntembo from Makua tribe. He was born in 1935 in south Tanzania in the village of Namochelia which does not exist today. The nearest village is Mindu, situated ca 70 Km east of Tunduru town. Many relatives of Tingatinga still lives in south Tanzania.




Photos from left: 1. Jabili, 2. Rubuni, 3. Chiwaya 4. S.Omary
The painting skill of E.S.Tingatinga is possible to trace to his job as a wall painter in his native village. The wall painting tradition is spread in south Tanzania and the young Tingatinga was painting on the walls of the huts animals and stories. He later came to Dar es Salaam where he first worked as gardener for an expatriate Mr. George Pollack, then as a street vendor and then he secured a job at Muhimbili hospital. His creative spirit provoked him to various activities such as music, dance, weaving and painting. It was easier to find colors and materials in the city than in village. He started to experiment with them. While in his village he was limited to soils and ash, he quickly found the industrial enamel colors and the construction wooden sheets sold in Dar es Salaam.
From a purely technical standpoint, Tinga Tinga art can be defined as painting on wooden sheets or canvas using enamel industrial paint which are widely used for painting of windows or metals. The paintings can be as small as 20x20cm, while the biggest reach several meters in diameter. The painting technique is complicated as the painter must wait until each layer of the oil color dries before the next layer is applied. But the result is a stunningly shining painting which was very popular among the foreign expatriates. They paid cash to Tingatinga for the paintings and soon Tingatinga decided to leave his job at hospital. He became a professional artist now.
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Photos from Left: 1. Omari Amonde, 2. Z.Chimwanda, 3. Daimu Zuberi, 4. Agnes Mpata
Edward Tingatinga painted single animals on colorful backgrounds. The animals were painted in a simple, symbolical way. Both the colors and shapes do not correspond to the animals in the real world. Black antelope, white and black giraffe, white and black leopard are some of examples. The shape of body parts was further simplified so no details are shown. Decoration in form of plants, birds or landscape was very rare. Instead Tingatinga talked in the language of symbolism which is frequently seen in shamanism. Many of Tingatinga´s paintings dealt with the world of spirits and shamans.
The Tingatinga´s life came to abrupt end in 1972 when he was accidentally shot by a bullet from police who mistakenly regarded him as thieve speeding in the Volkswagen Beetle. Tingatinga left behind his two children who now work at the Tinga Tinga Cooperative in Dar es Salaam – Martina and Daudi Tingatinga. The 6 students were also left without master and teacher and the time was difficult for them. Without a master the group quickly grew up but without any direction. However the group was approached by Mr.Salum Mussa known also as Mzee Lumumba. He proposed to build Tinga Tinga Partnership. It was also decided on a meeting attended by Saidi Chilamboni, Omari Amonde, Hashim Mruta and others that the name Tinga Tinga would be used for paintings and products.



Photos from Left: 1. Paintings in Bagamyo, 2. Tinga Tinga after rainy day, 3. Tinga Tinga at Namanga
The Tinga Tinga Partnership was changed in 1990 to Tinga Tinga Arts Cooperative Society. Today it has 54 members, most of them related to the family of Tingatinga. Each member contributes 15% from his sales to the Cooperative so that the basic expenses are covered. Most of the artists are either illiterate or semi-literate and this has greatly retarded the Cooperative´s development. In 1996 the Cooperative got development aid from HELVETAS, a Swiss NGO to build a construction of an art gallery in Oysterbay in Dar es Salaam. In 2008 the artists signed a contract with Tiger Aspect in which both the family name and the traditional designs are granted to third parties such as Penguin, BBC or Walt Disney. The artists got minimum benefit.
Today Tinga Tinga is a concept that wide public has been drawn to, but which, over time, has lost its uniqueness. In the past, Tinga Tinga art and products could be sold on its name alone, but increasingly other works are being presented as "Tinga Tinga" as well.

Once upon the time a man called Edward Saidi Tingatinga painted under Baobab tree in Dar es Salaam. It is not fair tale, it was in 1968. He was a very succesful painter. Until his death he taught 6 students who later taught other painters. Now there are hundreds of painters in Tanzania! The definiton of Tinga Tinga is difficult to grasp since the paintings are very different today. Technically the Tinga Tinga paintings are painted by industrial enamel colors. Many paintings on this website are painted by the family of E.S.Tingatinga. Some of them are by the son of E.S.Tingatinga, some of them are painted by the last livinbg student of E.S.Tingatinga, called Omari Amonde.
read more about Tinga Tinga on www.tingatinga.info and www.afrum.com.
I am welcoming any feedback in order to revise the facts about Tinga Tinga, write me on daniel@tingatingastudio.com.

Benjamin Mkapa
The previous president of
Tanzania.

Deo Kafwa, Tanart

Yves Goscinny
"Tinga Tinga art existed for a long time, as can be seen from the ancient rock-drawings in certain regions of Tanzania. Also wall-painting, that is decoration of house-walls with different shades of clay - red, blak and white - has long been practised in the southern and central regions. These pictures show mostly animals and birds, sometimes also human figures" By Deo Kafwa, previous Marketing MAnager of Nyumba ya Sanaa (source: Christine Hatz, Tingatinga, 1996)
"It is artists way of survival. A survival. But what they sell is so much more than the tourists can put into their walls. They sell their souls, they sell their thoughts. They sell their life, their hardship. They sell food, they sell because it is the only way". By Doreen Mandawa, a local expatriot artist
"I have discovered that many of the images are mass-produced, however, those particular would be the ones the artists knew they could sell to all kind of tourists. On the other hand, they also always seem to be working on the other paintings, somehow more personal. For the artists to have enough money to be able to work on the more personalised paintings they need to produce the ones that they "know by heart" so as to make a living." By Pernille Nessje, researcher
"Art very much exists in Tanzania, but has been subdued; with no places to exhibit, the artists have simply gone underground and built around them a survival network that will allow them to reach the better season...." By Yves Goscinny. An art critics from Belgium who lived in Tanzania for more than 10 years
"In Europe, art has been growing very abstract to an extent that some art lovers feel that it has become a monologue- an artist expressions that makes little sense.
When the same art lovers arrive in Africa, they found real honesty; artists telling deep stories that easily depict their lives while at the same time probing the issues of life." By Mwenda wa Micheni, Africa Review
"Probably the best object I brought home from the trip to Kenya was a single painting by a Tanzanian named Sey Rashid Hussein who paints crowded city scenes in a capacious style called Tingatinga, after a self-taught painter in Tanzania of the same name." By Pascal Zachary