Explore: Sam Joseph Ntiro

(1923 - 1993)

Painter, diplomat and academic, Sam Ntiro was born in Machame, a district of Tanzania located 6000 feet high on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. The eldest son of a coffee farmer, he studied at Makerere College of East Africa until 1952 when he was awarded a colonial scholarship to study at the Slade School of Art in London. While in London, he exhibited his work in group shows and had a solo exhibition at the Piccadilly Gallery in 1955. Joining the diplomatic service of Tanzania (then Tanganyika) in 1961, Ntiro was appointed the first High Commissioner to London. He returned to Africa in 1964 to lecture at Makerere College and later at the University of Dar es Salaam where he founded the department of music, art and theatre. In the 1960s he successfully showed his work in New York and across America and Africa. From 1967 to 1973 he became the Commissioner of Culture for the Tanzanian government. During the ‘70s and ‘80s, Ntiro continued to teach and work as a university examiner in Africa, America and the UK.