Mohamed Wasia Charinda, 1947–2021

Mohamed Charinda was born in 1947 in Nakapanya village, in the Tunduru district of the Rovuma region in southern Tanzania. He was married and father to six children.

Charinda completed primary school and began painting in 1975, learning from Hashim Mruta, one of the first-generation Tingatinga painters. Charinda became known for depicting village scenes and narrative stories, often carrying moral or educational messages.

He also illustrated the Makua Inferno legend, in which wrongdoers — thieves, criminals, and others — are tied together and transformed into semi-animal devils (*shetani*).

Charinda was the first Tingatinga painter to transition from masonite boards to textile canvas in 1989, a shift that influenced later generations of artists.

source: “Tinga Tinga, the popular paintings from Tanzania,” Y. Goscinny and “Art in Tanzania 2001,” Y. Goscinny