Edward Tingatinga
Edward Said Tingatinga (1932 - 1972) was a Tanzanian (or Mozambican[1]) painter, best known as the founder of the eponymous painting style and school.
Biography
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Tingatinga was born in 1932 in the village Namochelia in the Tunduru district in Ruvuma region in southern Tanzania , near the border between southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique. The Namochelia village ceased to exist probably due to the Ujamaaa politics of the first Tanzanian president Mwalimu Nyerere when people were urged to resettle to designated villages in order to have access to schools, sanitation and hospitals. The neareast villages to the then Namochelia are called Mindu, Nakapanya and Mtonya still inhabited by numerous members of Tingatinga´s family from Mother´s side. There are few of the members of Tingatinga´s family from father´s side living in Ngapa, situated ca 20 km north of Nakapanya.
His mother, Agnes Binti Ntembo was Makua and Christian while his father, Saidi Tingatinga was Ngindo and Muslim. Therefore Tingatinga got both christian name Edward and muslim name Saidi. The family from father´s side did not take care much about the new son, Tingatinga was cared for by his mother´s family. Makua is a society following matrilinear heritage and therefore is Tingatinga refered to as Makua, not Ngindo.
Tingatinga was the first born son but the relationship between Agnes Ntembo and Saidi Tingatinga did not last long. Ntembo got Andrea Gallusi (still living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) with second partner and Simon Mpata and Cesilia Mpata with third partner. Simon Mpata was also one of the first students of E.S.Tingatinga. Cesilia´s daughter is called Agnes Mpata and she paints at the Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society now.
In the 1950s he left his mother and went to work in the plantations of sisal in the tanzanian countryside in Tanga region, north Tanzania; later, he moved to Dar es Salaam where he had uncle Salum Mussa Mkayoga, known as Mzee Lumumba who worked as a cook for a British Mr. George Pollack. Tingatinga found a favour with him and was employed as gardener. At the same time he began experimenting first as a musician and then as a painter.
In 1970 he married Agatha Mataka, who was Makonde. His wife was born in Mozambique and emigrated to Tanzania when she was small child. His wife even invited her family members from Mozambique to Dar es Salaam. As a consequence, two of his 6 students are not Makua but Makonde from Mozambique. These are January Linda and Adeusi Mandu. The other four students are: Ajaba Abdallah Mtalia, Casper Tedo, Simon Mpata and Omari Amomde. Today only his nephew Omari Amonde is living.
His painting were made using recycled, low-cost materials, such as masonite squares, ceramic fragments, and bicycle paint. His style was naive, bordering on surrealistic and humorous; most of his subjects were stereotypical african icons, such as wildlife or savannah landscapes. Eventually, Tingatinga's works became very popular among European residents and tourists, so that he was able to work full-time as an artist. He later founded his own painting school in Dar es Salaam, namely, the Tingatinga Society.
In 1972 Tingatinga was accidentally killed by a policeman who mistook him for a fugitive, leaving behind his wife and two children, Daudi and Martina (His wife is not living today). The Tingatinga school survived him, and grew in size and relevance. Through Tingatinga's followers and imitators, the Tingatinga style gradually became the prominent type of tourist-oriented paintings in both Tanzania, Kenya, and a large part of East Africa. Tingatinga is burried at Msasani Cemetery.
Dispute about the Origin
Although Tingatinga has undoubtedly lived in Tanzania, some sources claim that he was born in Mozambique. According to Daniel Augusta of the Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society, all these sources can be traced back to a mistake found in 1996 article by swedish art critic Berit Sahlström, Tingatinga and His Followers[2], that also reports Tingatinga's first name as "Eduardo" instead of "Edward"[3]. Sahlström herself never met or interviewed the Tingatinga painters, but admittedly relied on a research paper by her student Mia Terent, who in turn reportedly got this information from the Swedish-Tanzanian missionary Barbro Johansson (also known as "Mama Harbro") in an interview on May 12th 1996.[4]
The Tingatinga painters, the Tingatinga Arts Co-operative (TACS), the family of E.S Tingatinga (his living children Daudi and Martina, his brother Gallusi and his half brother Omari Amonde), as well as scholars (among them, Jesper Kirknaes, Merit Teisen, Yves Goscinny, and Felix Lorenz, who long worked with the Tingatina painters) reject the idea that Tingatinga was born in Mozambique. Despite being asked to correct her mistake, Sahlström did refuse to do so, but not on the basis that she was certain of her claim.[3]
Footnotes
- ^ See the "Dispute about the origin" section.
- ^ Tingatinga and His followers
- ^ a b Tingatinga and the Mozambique Myth
- ^ In a letter to the Tingatinga Society dated October 7th 2009, Sahlström wrote:
Mia Terent did interview the legendary "Mama Barbro" on 12 May 1996, the former member of Tanzanian parlament and Swedish-Tanzanian missionary
Mia Terent hänvisar i uppsatsen, när det gäller Tingatingas härkomst, till en intervju hon gjorde den 12 maj 1996 med legendariska "Mama Barbro", f. tanzaniska parlamentsledamoten, svensk-tanzaniska missionären Barbro Johansson (1912-1999)
In turn, Mia Terent wrote
My parents came back to Sweden from Tanzania and bought two Tinga Tinga paintings. I was fascinated by them and decided to write a research paper. It was dificult to find literature, I used exhibitions catalogues. In order to get more information I interviewed Barbro Johansson who lived in Uppsala (Sweden). She was healthy despite her high age. I don´t know where Barbro got the information that E.S.Tingatinga was born in Mozambique but because she is dead now, we can´t ask her
Mina föräldrar var nyss hemkomna från Tanzania där de hade kommit i kontakt med Tingatinga och de hade köpt två tavlor. Jag fascinerades av färgerna och formspråket och beslöt mig att skriva en uppsats om Tingatinga. Det var svårt att hitta litteratur, jag använde mig bland annat av utställningskataloger från Tingatingautställningar. För att få mer material intervjuade jag Barbro Johansson som då bodde i Uppsala. Hon var mycket pigg trots åren. Jag vet inte var Barbro fick uppgiften om att han var född i Mocambique ifrån och eftersom hon tyvärr är död så kan vi inte fråga henne.
Bibliography
- Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society, Tingatinga in Kiswahili and English (Mture Educational Publishers Ltd, 1998, 2005) ISBN 9976 967 34 9
- Tine Thorup, Cuong Sam, Tingatinga - Kitsch or Quality (ThorupArt, 2010) ISBN 978 87 992635 1 6
External links
