The Artwork of Edward Saidi Tingatinga
Born in 1932, Edward Saidi Tingatinga was a self-taught Tanzanian artist who developed a unique painting style that evolved into an urban traditional art form. 
Once established as an artist, he taught his style to many students, both local and foreign.
Edward Saidi Tingatinga was born in 1937 to a family of subsistence farmers at the small village of Mindu in southern Tanzania near the border of Mozambique. He left his village in 1957 and worked on a sisal plantation in the Tanga district. Tingatinga traveled in the latter part of 1957 to Dar-es-Salaam where he labored in construction jobs and as a gardener until 1961. He relocated to the Mikoroshoni district where he met and married his wife Agatha Mataka. After the birth of his son Daudi, Tingatinga became employed in 1968 as a ward attendant at the public Muhimbili Hospital.
Impressed by the number of tourists who purchased western-styled paintings from Zairian artists, Tingatinga began to paint in 1968 and soon developed his own particular style of colorful, crowded paintings of fantastic animals and dancing tribesmen, as well as scenes of village life. 
The paintings sold well and soon developed into a distinctly urban art form. Through the support of the National Arts of Tanzania (NAT), Tingatinga regularly sold his paintings and began to teach his technique to students.
The traditional Tinga Tinga style of painting most often depicted the native fauna and flora of Tanzania, rendered in both a naïve and surrealistic style on single-colored backgrounds. Due to their availability, masonite substrates and highly-saturated, brilliantly colored industrial paints were used to create the artwork. Current Tinga Tinga painters now paint a variety of subject themes on stretched muslim and canvas. Many of these artists still uphold the traditional use of bicycle enamel paints.
Edward Tingatinga, who had established himself as a successful artist, was shot in 1972 by police in a case of mistaken identity during the officers’ search for a 
gang of bank robbers. He died at the age of forty years on the way to the hospital. Six-year old Daudi Tingatinga and his younger sister Martina were left in the care of their mother, Agatha. Growing up in a state of poverty, neither sibling received any formal education. Edward Tingatinga’s fellow artists formed the Tinga Tinga Arts Cooperative in his honor; this cooperative later became a school for artists from Dar-es-Salaam and Zanzibar. The traditional art form of Tinga Tinga was passed onto Daudi and Martina by their uncle Salum Mussa, known as “Mzee Lumumba”, who had received his art education from their father.
Notes: The Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society website is located at: https://tingatinga.ch/en/about.php
An article entitled “Tinga Tinga: An African Tale” written by feature editor Kate Bystrova for the Commonwealth Secretariat’s independent magazine, “Global: The International Briefing”, can be located at: https://www.global-briefing.org/2014/09/tinga-tinga-an-african-tale/
The Tinga Tinga Arts Cooperative has a biographical article on Edward Saidi Tingatinga in its January 2022 edition located at: https://www.tingatingaart.com/blogs/articles/edward-saidi-tingatinga
Top Insert Image: Jesper Kirknaes, “Edward Saidi Tingatinga”, Date Unknown, Color Print, January 2022 Issue of Tinga Tinga Art
Second Insert Image: Edward Saidi Tingatinga, “Le Lion”, 1971, Oil on Masonite, 61 x 71.5 cm, Private Collection
Bottom Insert Image, Edward Saidi Tingatinga, Untitled, Enamel on Board, 61 x 61 cm, Private Collection
