Peter Martin Chauganga ( 1959 -2005)

Peter Martin was born in 1959 in the village of Kwamdorwa, in the Korogwe District of the Tanga Region, Tanzania. Of Myao tribe origin, he left his village in 1971 to look for work in the town of Tanga where he met the painter Damian MSAGULA. Peter Martin became one of Damian Msagula's first students in 1971 and in 1974 he started painting on his own.

Peter paints mainly village scenes in a storytelling style. He has gradually come out of the Tingatinga mainstream in such a way that his work would now be best described as naive painting.

Today Peter Martin's works can be found in inumerous private collections and in various publications. His erotic paintings have also gained quite a reputation.

(adapted from biography in Tinga Tinga:  The Popular Paintings from Tanzania, by Yves Goscinny.  Dar es Salaam, c. 2003  and Art in Tanzania 2000, Yves Goscinny)