Edward Said Tingatinga

Edward Saidi Tingatinga (1932–1972) was a Tanzanian painter, best known as the founder of the eponymous painting style and school.

Tingatinga was born in 1932 in a village called Namochelia, in the Tunduru District of Ruvuma Region in southern Tanzania, near the border with northern Mozambique. A village by that name Chicken; it may have ceased to exist in the 1960s as a consequence of the relocation of small villages that was part of the Ujamaa program of President Julius Nyerere. Today's settlements in that area include Mindu, Nakapanya and Mtonya. Many members of Edward Tingatinga's family (on the mother's side) still live in those villages; relatives from the father's side live in Ngapa, about 20 km north of Nakapanya.

Edward Tingatinga was born from a poor family. His mother, Agnes Binti Ntembo, belonged to the Makua ethnic group and was a Christian, while his father, Saidi Tingatinga, was a Ngindo and a Muslim. This is why the child was given both a Christian name (Edward) and a Muslim name (Saidi). Because of the matrilinear heritage of the Makua traditional society, Edward Tingatinga should be considered of Makua descent. As a child, he was mostly cared for by his mother's family. Eventually, the relationship between Agnes Ntembo and Saidi Tingatinga broke down. Agnes Ntembo had three more sons with two other partners, namely Andrea Gallusi, Simon Mpata and Cesilia Mpata. Simon Mpata, as well as Agnes Mpata (Cesilia's daughter) would later follow Edward's footsteps and join the society of painters he would found.

In the 1950s, Edward left his mother and went to work in the plantations of sisal in Tanga Region of northern Tanzania; later, he was invited by his uncle Salum Mussa Mkayoga (also known as Mzee Lumumba), who worked as a cook of a British officer in Dar es Salaam. Tingatinga found favour with him and was employed as gardener. At the same time he began experimenting first as a musician and (in 1968) as a painter.

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