Saidi Abasi Shaha

Shaha was born on August 10, 1982, in Tunduru, in the Ruvuma district of Tanzania. In December 1999, he moved to Dar es Salaam, where he found employment with a close relative as a shopkeeper. On weekends, he visited another relative. Starting in 2002, his relative Rashida Chilamboni began teaching him painting at her home in Mbagala, which lasted for six months. Shaha made rapid progress because art had been a part of him since his school days. Later, he moved to Msasani. For the next year, he continued his painting education under Rashida’s brother, Abdallah Chilamboni. After that time, he became an independent artist. He is married and has one daughter. Shaha is one of the important representatives of the Tingatinga style. In his work, he experiments with new styles. In some paintings, he uses strong contrasts and unusual colors or patterns of animals. In others, despite their decorative nature, he uses only two or three colors, such as brown or yellow on a white background