Damian Boniface K. Msagula, 1939–2005
Born in the Ndanda village of the Masai District to Yao parents, Damian Msagula began his primary education in Lindi.
His father, struggling to provide for six children, encouraged young Damian to leave home and build his own life. Msagula later reflected: “He did not do this because he disliked me. He thought of me as obedient and disciplined, and believed these qualities would help me in the stormy world outside my home. He was right.”
Msagula spent part of his youth as a musician, organizing several bands — the Uhuru Jazz Band, The Black Hammer Boxing Band, and the Skylarks. “I was given an award by the Bishop, and our bands became quite famous in Mtwara and Lindi. I was then only fifteen years old.”
Damian Msagula led an unusually varied life. Few Tanzanians can claim to have founded two villages, as he did: Kwaa Msisi (Korogwe) in the mid-1960s and Kwa Raza near Mlandizi. Conflicts with local administrations — which he preferred to avoid — led him to leave both communities, though they still exist today.
In 1972, while selling fruits and vegetables from the Tanga region at Morogoro Stores, he encountered the Tingatinga artists. The following year he joined them and began painting. By 1974 he was training Peter Martin, whom he had brought from Tanga; Martin would later move to the Village Museum.
Msagula never married and had no children. His relationship with his extended family was strained, beginning even before independence. His uncle, a colonial police officer, resented his involvement with TANU, the pro-independence political party.
After independence, Msagula became active in the “Ujamaa” movement — promoting village life, self-reliance, and solidarity.
He formed lasting friendships within Dar es Salaam’s art community, especially with Rifaat Pateev, Director of the Russian Tanzanian Cultural Centre. Pateev admired Msagula’s originality, saying: “Among all the Tanzanian artists whose work I have seen, Damian stands out because of his individuality.” Pateev also cared for Msagula after his stroke in 2003.
Msagula’s paintings are known for their harmonious colors — so important to him that he once produced his own pigments from roots and plants. From his early naďve style, he developed a unique artistic language centered on the village as the root of African culture and on respect for ancestors and their spirits.
Today, Damian Msagula is recognized as a central figure in Tanzania’s art scene.
source: “Tinga Tinga, the popular paintings from Tanzania”, Y. Goscinny; “Art in Tanzania 2000”, Y. Goscinny; “Damian Struck Down”, Christopher Elkington in *The Mirror*