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Tinga Tinga Tales
Tinga Tinga Tales is a Kenyan/British 52 episodes children's series based on African folk tales and aimed at 4- to 6-year olds. It was commissioned by the BBC for its CBeebies channel, and by Disney Channel for its Disney Junior block. Named after the Tingatinga art from Tanzania, it was made in Kenya by a studio of about 50 people.
The series was first developed by Claudia Lloyd, head of animation at Tiger Aspect, while travelling through Africa. The first three episodes premiered on the BBC website in early February 2010. The distribution rights have been bought by Entertainment Rights.
The TACS and Tingatinga
It was Edward Saidi Tingatinga who started to paint in 1968 and later accepted 6 relatives as apprentices. After his sudden death in 1972 in 1976 followers of E.S. Tingatinga registered the "Tingatinga Paintings Partnership" in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania. Till today this organization can be found at BRELA, the Tanzanian Business Registration and Licensing Agency . The successor of this organization of some painters is the Tingatinga Arts Cooperative Society (TACS). This organization should have been registered supposedly in 1990 as a "Limited". With an online search on BRELA currently it is not possible to find the TACS as a Tanzanian company or a business name. This means under the term "Tingatinga" and also with the term "Tinga Tinga" (see also: Talk: Tinga Tinga Tales).
The Tingatinga craftsmen created unique designs which they applied on a broad range of products – paintings, trays, mugs, T-shirts, toys, pencils, bracelets etc. They decided to market the products under the trade name “Tingatinga” as a respect for the grounder of this artistic style Edward Saidi Tingatinga. Today Tingatinga paintings and other products are produced on a huge scale and they are well known handicraft items. There were few talented and creative craftsmen who aspired to art. The first of them was Tingatinga himself who was regarded as a self taught artist and his paintings reached artistic value. Already during his professional carrier, exhibitions were organized both in Tanzania and abroad. It was birth of new East African art style called after Edward Saidi Tingatinga. Since the 1970s also internationally book authors use the term "Tingatinga" (e.g. Tingatinga Art, Tingatinga style etc.) for this art trend (see in addition: Talk: Tinga Tinga Tales).
The contract between Tiger Aspect, Classic Media and TACS
In June 2008 three identical contracts in English, Kiswahili and English-Kiswahili (no member speak fluently English) were signed between (these company names were used) the Tingatinga Arts Co-operative Society Limited (TACS) and Tiger Aspect, one of the biggest UK film production companies, to license the term "Tinga Tinga". A sum of 30.000.000 Tsh (ca $24.000) was paid to the Cooperative in four installments. The first installment of ca $6000 was paid cash in the Cooperative's office. Since the leadership of TACS did not realize the importance of the contract, they never called a meeting of members of TACS nor entrusted any professional lawyer to analyze the contract before signing. Though Tiger Aspect got irrevocable exclusive royalty-free license to use and otherwise exploit the title “Tinga Tinga” in connection with the exploitation of the programs, Tiger Aspect claimed that the payment was not for the license but only for services provided by TACS within the project. In other correspondence to TACS, Tiger Aspect claimed the payment was a gift. In addition Tiger Aspect got the right "to assign the benefit of the agreement to any other person". Today Classic Media, BBC, Walt Disney, Penguin, Bandai and a many of television networks airs the children tales using the name "Tinga Tinga" and market the products under trade name "Tinga Tinga" or "Tinga Tinga Tales"
Reaction by National Arts Council of Tanzania (NAC/BASATA)
The National Arts Council (NAC/BASATA) is a body established by an Act of Tanzanian Parliament whose functions are to promote production of artistic works, carry out research in production of artistic works, plan cultural activities and advise the Tanzanian government on all matters relating to culture. In December 2009, the National Arts Council wrote a letter to Tiger Aspect: “It is advisable that we make a few remarks concerning Tinga Tinga before we go into the merits or demerits of the said agreement. The Tinga Tinga veteran or call him “inventor” the late Eward Saidi Tinga Tinga is a Tanzanian by nationality whose surviving children are still being called by the name Tinga Tinga. His artistic works attracted nationals at various national exhibitions and later permeated the gates of the National Museum thus upgrading its status from individual identification to national culture. Let us then look at it from that dimension and consider whether Tinga Tinga Arts Co-operative Society wielded the authority of divesting the nation of its artistic culture leave alone the name which is attached to it. It had no authority or mandate to execute contracts whose matters are within the exclusive domain of the state.” It is obvious that the NAC/BASATA used the wrong spelling Tinga Tinga on cause through the TACS. Before this activity the NAC/BASATA never used the term "Tinga Tinga" (see in addition: Talk: Tinga Tinga Tales) because the internationally known and acknowledged term was only "Tingatinga" and only this brought the advertisement and business.
Concerns about Copyright Infringement
Some of the characters of Tinga Tinga Tales are nearly identical with well-documented designs painted by artists in Tingatinga Cooperative. One of them is the black antelope called “Swala” in Kiswahili. The creator was Edward Tingatinga himself (1972) but it was later developed by his relative Bushir Mruta in eighties. The paintings of the black antelope were exhibited in National Museum in Copenhagen in Denmark in 1974 and published on many occasions in books about Tingatinga art. Black and white giraffe is another character of Tinga Tinga Tales which is painted today by Rubuni Rashidi and Beckar Wasia at the Tingatinga Cooperative. The birds used in animations are at the core of the Tingatinga art from Tanzania. Tiger Aspect claims that the animations are merely inspired by Tingatinga art and thus neither Tingatinga Cooperative nor Tingatinga artists are entitled to charge any licensing fees. A running litigation on Tanzanian court will clear this difference of opinion.
Threats of legal action
Starting February 2009, the manager of TACS expressed publicly the concerns about possible copyright and trademark infringement, about moral rights and social issues. The articles were copied on various websites. In April 2009, Tiger Aspect's lawyer Duodu Korieh sent a letter to the manager of TACS and demanded to delete the articles on the ground of defamatory allegations. A similar letter was sent to popular community websites such as www.africanartonline.com, www.africancolours.com and others. Most of the articles and comments were deleted. In January 2010, after publishing an article by Bertha Kang'ong'oi in Africa Review, Nation Media Group (NMG) was threatened by legal action. Founded by Aga Khan, NMG is the largest private media house in East and Central Africa.
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Selene!.
User deleted
Adoro la sigletta di questo cartone!
Mi piacciono i disegni ma non riesco a sopportare come parla quella scimmietta e le animazioni XD. -
Chibichan.
User deleted
sono stilosissimi i disegni mi piacciono un sacco!
la scimmietta rimane irritante però XD.
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