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Tanzania Arts

Tanzania has much to offer in terms of traditional dance, drama, music, TingaTinga painting, sculpture in wood (Makonde cavings), Taarab music, Tanzania Jazz, and Bongo flavour are all there to be experienced.

Tingatinga Paintings
Tanzania's most well-known style of painting was begun in the 1960s by Edward Saidi Tingatinga, after whom it is named. Tingatinga was born in 1932 in southern Tanzania's remote Tunduru district, and had only four years of primary school, in the 1950s, he headed north to Tanga, where he worked on a sisal plantation, and then later to Dar es Salaam, where he worked as domestic help for a British civil servant. During his time in Dar es Salaam, Tingatinga began to seek creative outlets and additional income, first as a member of a musical group, and later as a self-taught artist, painting fanciful and colourful animals on small shingles.

Traditional Tingatinga paintings are composed in a square format, and generally feature colourful animal motifs against a monochrome background. One of the most distinctive characteristics of the style is its use of undiluted and often unmixed enamel and high-gloss paints which give Tingatinga paintings their characteristic glossy appearance.
Source: http://www.ntz.info/gen/n00621.html

Makonde Carving

Makonde carving is probably the best known art work produced in Tanzania. This art is produced by the Makonde people of southern Tanzania, and their material of choice is African blackwood, or mpingo. Their work is both traditional and contemporary, reflecting a tribal past as well as modern response to urban life. They utilize their tribal myths and stories as inspiration for the masterful work; one carver, for instance, specializes in ghost spirits and clouds. Animal statuettes, and human and demon-faced ceremonial masks are common. Source: http://www.blackwoodconservation.org/carving.html

Taarab

Taarab Music is mainly based on coastal regions of Tanga, and Dar es Salaam for the mainland Tanzania, and Zanzibar is the Major Centre of Taarab for the whole country, and possibly the whole of East Africa.

Tanzania Jazz

DDC Mlimani Park Orchestra, and OTTU Jazz Band are the Tsars of Tanzania Jazz. These two bands have very long story of entertaining Tanzanians for decades. It is also important to mention the names of Mbaraka Mwinshehe, Salum Abdala, Marijani Rajabu, and others who used to be stars of Tanzania Jazz.

Aside from discos and posh hotels like the New Africa that feature dinner-dance music for tourists and local upper class, central Dar es Salaam is dry as far as music is concerned. Almost all the bars and dance halls that feature live music are located in residential areas like Kinondoni, Magomeni, Manzese, Msasani, Mwenge, Ubungo, Yombo and Kimara.

Links:

Bagamoyo Arts College


www.sanaabagamoyo.com

Mfuko Organisation


http://www.mfuko.org/first.asp

The National Arts Council

The National Arts Council was established by the Parliamentary Act no. 23 of 1984.  Its role is to foster the development of art with the emphasis in music, theatre arts and works of art.  The art activities are performed by not less than 4 million people in groups, associations, companies and individually, mostly the production of art depends on individual talented artist with simple tools.