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Tinga Tinga Tales

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Tinga Tinga Tales
Tinga Tinga Tales logo
GenreChildren's Television
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Original release
NetworkDisney Junior (United States)
File:Tingatinga Cooperative Logo.gif
Tinga Tinga Logo

Tinga Tinga Tales is a Kenyan-British 52 episodes children's series based on African folk tales and aimed at 4- to 6-year olds. It was commissioned by the BBC for its CBeebies channel, and by Disney for its Playhouse channel. Named after the Tingatinga art from Tanzania, it was made in Kenya by a studio of about 50 people.

The series was first developed by Claudia Lloyd, head of animation at Tiger Aspect, while travelling through Africa. The first three episodes premiered on the BBC website in early February 2010. The distribution rights have been bought by Entertainment Rights.[1]

The original Tanzanian brand

TACS (The Tinga Tinga Arts Co-operative Society Ltd.) was registered in 1990 in Tanzania by the Tinga Tinga family. It was Edward Saidi Tingatinga who started to paint in 1968 and later accepted 6 relatives as apprentices. After his sudden death the group of painters expanded and formed Tinga Tinga Partnership which was predecessor to TACS. The family of craftsmen created unique designs which they applied on a broad range of products – paintings, trays, mugs, T-shirts, toys, pencils, bracelets etc. They decided to market the products under the trade name “Tinga Tinga”, as a respect for the grounder of the family business – Edward Saidi Tingatinga. Today the Tinga Tinga brand is mostly popular in Europe and Asia, especially Japan. There were few talented and creative craftsmen who aspired to art. The first of them was Tingatinga himself who was regarded as a self taught artist and his paintings reached artistic value. Already during his professional carrier, exhibitions were organized both in Tanzania and abroad. It was birth of new East African art style called after Edward Saidi Tingatinga.

The contract between Tiger Aspect and the Tinga Tinga Cooperative

In June 2008 three identical contracts in English, Kiswahili and English-Kiswahili (no member speak fluently English) were signed with the Tinga Tinga Cooperative (TACS) to license the title "Tinga Tinga" to one of the biggest UK film production companies. A sum of 30.000.000 Tsh (ca $24.000) was paid to the Cooperative in four instalments. The first instalment of ca $6000 was paid cash in the Cooperative´s office. Since the leadership of TACS did not realize the importance of the contract, they never called a meeting of members of TACS nor entrusted any proffesional lawyer to analyze the contract before signing. Though Tiger Aspect got irrevocable exclusive royalty-free license to use and otherwise exploit the title “Tinga Tinga” in connection with the exploitation of the programs, Tiger Aspect claimed that the payment was not for the license but only for services provided by TACS within the project. In other correspondence to TACS, Tiger Aspect claimed the payment was a gift. In addition Tiger Aspect got the right "to assign the benefit of the agreement to any other person". Today Classic Media, BBC, Walt Disney, Penguin, Bandai and a many of television networks airs the children tales using the name "Tinga Tinga" and market the products under trade name "Tinga Tinga" or "Tinga Tinga Tales"

Reaction by National Arts Council of Tanzania

The National Arts Council is a body established by an Act of Tanzanian Parliament whose functions are to promote production of artistic works, carry out research in production of artistic works, plan cultural activities and advise the Tanzanian government on all matters relating to culture. In December 2009, the National Arts Council wrote a letter to Tiger Aspect: “It is advisable that we make a few remarks concerning Tinga Tinga before we go into the merits or demerits of the said agreement. The Tinga Tinga veteran or call him “inventor” the late Eward Saidi Tinga Tinga is a Tanzanian by nationality whose surviving children are still being called by the name Tinga Tinga. His artistic works attracted nationals at various national exhibitions and later permeated the gates of the National Museum thus upgrading its status from individual identification to national culture. Let us then look at it from that dimension and consider whether Tinga Tinga Arts Co-operative Society wielded the authority of divesting the nation of its artistic culture leave alone the name which is attached to it. It had no authority or mandate to execute contracts whose matters are within the exclusive domain of the state.”


Cast List

Source

References

  1. ^ The Times on Entertainment Rights
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