About Bwango

The  name of the artist is Ali Saidi but he is famously known as  Bwango.  Ali is born in Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania in 1987 where he grew up with his parents and two younger brothers.  He finished Primary School in 2002 and his parents did not have the money for him to continue in school.So he did not go any further with studies. He is married to  Saumu and has a  four years old daughter called Innaty.

When Ali was 15 years old he started painting and he has now grown into a great talent expressing Tanzanian art in a very unique way. Ali is an alternative Tanzanian artist who does not make the traditional and more known “Tingatinga” paintings . He uses abstract motives and likes experimenting and mixing colors.

Paintings

All his paintings are telling a story about the Tanzanian life like  music,  it’s rhythms and the life of the Tanzanian woman. Ali uses many different characters and motives and combines the colors differently from painting to painting. Some paintings therefore have the same motives but differs in the color composition. All paintings differs and no copies are made.

Goal

Ali’s dream has always been to be able to sell in other countries than Tanzania, and he hopes that TanzanArt could help him reach that dream. If he succeeded he would like to continue studying and go to art school. At the same time he would like to take his daughter to a good school as education is important for him and his wife. Last but not least, he has a dream of getting his own office (art gallery )in Dar where he can sell his art.

Video from the market in Tanzania