(1934 - 2005) George Lilanga was born in Masisi in the Mtwara region of Tanzania in1934. Having been born a Makonde, he was still very young when he learned the art of sculpting wood, particularly ebony.

In the sixties he began to sell his sculptures to the Europeans working in the Lutamba refugee camp on the border with Mozambique.
In 1971 his uncle, Agostino Malaba, a Makonde sculptor, made him come to Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania, to help in the creation of Nyumba ya Sanaa (the House of Art), for which he made the doors sculpted from hardwood, the iron gates and the cement pediment.

During that time Lilanga successfully experimented with etching, lithography, painting, batik and bronze casting. His first important exhibition was in the Dar es Salaam National Museum in 1974.

In 1977 he exhibited, with great success, in the Maryknoll Ossining Center, New York, and in 1978 he showed some hundred paintings at the IMF Hall at the World Bank, Washington, DC. From then on his international fame continued to increase, until his death in Dar es Salaam in June, 2005.

(Above notes courtesy of George Lilanga, edited by Enrico Mascelloni and Sarenco, Milano, Italy, 2005.)