> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.marmaladecollective.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Sungi Mlengeya Is Painting Freedom in Black and White - URL: https://www.marmaladecollective.com/sungi-mlengeya-is-painting-freedom-in-black-and-white/ - Published: 2026-10-16T09:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-16T08:59:59.000Z - Description: The self-taught artist on leaving banking for painting, the women who remain constant in her life, and finding freedom in dance and space. - Author: Omotola Saba - Tags: Guides, In Conversation With Sungi Mlengeya is a self-taught Tanzanian painter known for spare acrylic works in which dark figures, mostly Black women, are set against expanses of bare white canvas. Working primarily in acrylic on canvas, she uses shades of black and brown to depict women drawn from her family, friendships and everyday encounters. The space around them leaves room for stories of self-discovery, companionship and the freedom to pursue their own desires. Born in Dar es Salaam, Mlengeya spent much of her childhood in Serengeti, where her parents worked as wildlife veterinarians, before moving to Arusha. Quiet afternoons spent making crafts with her sister helped nurture her love of creating, but her route into painting was not direct. She studied finance and worked in banking for four years before leaving in 2018 to pursue art full-time. Travels through East Africa brought her into contact with other artists and, eventually, Afriart Gallery in Kampala. Her work has since been exhibited in cities including London, Cape Town and New York. She was named in Apollo's 40 Under 40 Africa in 2020 and the Johnnie Walker and Trace Africa Top 30 in 2022. In this conversation, Mlengeya reflects on the places that shaped her, the women she keeps returning to in her paintings, and how her figures have grown from portraits into bodies in motion. We also discuss her instinctive approach to making work, what freedom means to her, and her curiosity about ceramics and drawing from imagination. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f2/65/f2656369-0f61-4d65-ad9e-0284e2fdbaca/content/images/2026/10/Sky-200cm-width-X-150cm-height_1.jpg) Sky 200cm width X 150cm height **You were born in Dar es Salaam and later lived in Serengeti and Arusha. What do you remember about growing up in those places, and how have your travels shaped you?** I was born in Dar es Salaam, and we lived there until I was about five or six. My recollection of an art experience was in kindergarten. We were told to draw the people who were at home with us, and I drew my mum and my aunt. I rushed home, so excited to show them the drawing, but they were like, “No, it doesn’t look like us.” It didn’t matter. I remember that feeling of accomplishment, like I had done very well in capturing their essence. That’s a cosy memory I have with art. Then we moved to Serengeti and lived there for about ten years. It’s a very quiet place. Since it’s a national park, only staff and their families live there. It wasn’t like Dar es Salaam, where we had neighbours and lots of friends. We had to find ways of entertaining ourselves and filling our days. My mum had magazines with a craft section and recipes. My sister and I would always be making crafts, trying to copy them. Those days were very important in nurturing my love for creation because that’s what we did all day: cutting paper, making crafts, non-stop. I went to primary school in Arusha and had a very good, supportive art teacher. I think that’s when I got into drawing. Then I went to secondary school, and it was strictly classroom studies. There were no extracurriculars like sports, music, painting or drawing. I stopped practising any sort of creation for a while, apart from some portraits of friends very occasionally. I went to university in Nairobi and did a finance degree. After graduating, I went back home and worked in a bank for about four years. Then I quit and started creating. I was living in Arusha and tried to show here and there, but I felt I needed a bigger audience, so I travelled to Nairobi and Mombasa, met artists and participated in self-organised exhibitions. Around that time, I was invited to Kampala for an art workshop in May 2019\. The gallery organising it is the gallery I’m still working with. The director liked my work, and that’s how we began working together. Being around artists in Nairobi gave me a feel for the art world, but working with my gallery brought another perspective on the professional and international art world. It’s really broadened my horizons. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f2/65/f2656369-0f61-4d65-ad9e-0284e2fdbaca/content/images/2026/10/Sungi-Mlengeya--Surge--2024.jpg) Sungi Mlengeya, Surge, 2024 **When did you begin thinking of art as something you wanted to pursue professionally?** I’ve been trying to think about that, but I really don’t know when the idea began. Around secondary school or before university, I knew some friends who were artists and were going to an arts college. I thought that was very daring and inspiring because I had never met anyone who was going to study art professionally. They gave me living proof that an artistic path could be possible. I think by that time I was set on being an artist, but I still wanted to study something safe, like finance, just in case it didn’t work out. I wasn’t ready to take the big risk of studying art professionally and having just that as a degree. In my mind, I knew this was a detour, but I was eventually going to be an artist. I can’t pinpoint the exact moment that made me decide that. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f2/65/f2656369-0f61-4d65-ad9e-0284e2fdbaca/content/images/2026/10/Sungi-Mlengeya-Portrait.jpg) **Your paintings often draw on the women around you. What keeps bringing you back to them?** When I started painting, the female portrait was one of the first things I got into. It was very instinctive because I am a Black woman, so it felt very natural. The reason for always coming back to women is that I’ve been surrounded by great women in my life: my mother, my sister, and female friends who have been the most constant thing in my life. They’re always a source of comfort and joy. Choosing to keep painting women is my way of surrounding myself in this bubble and preserving these moments with them, continuing that feeling of love and familiarity I’m surrounded by when I’m with them. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f2/65/f2656369-0f61-4d65-ad9e-0284e2fdbaca/content/images/2026/10/Pokea-150cm-width-X-140cm-height.jpg) Pokea 150cm width X 140cm height **Yes, and your early paintings were mostly portraits. What were you exploring when you began introducing the full body and more movement?** I began introducing that slowly. As I got comfortable with my technique, I started introducing the hands, the feet and the full body, then even multiple figures. Then I started exploring themes like dance. Dance is a continued theme in my work. It comes from a personal point because I love dance, but I feel it has so many layers that are meaningful to me. With dance, there’s a choice to carry yourself lightly, a freedom to it, or sometimes a positivity. Not all the time, because it can be a sorrowful dance, but most of the time it’s a blissful act. I think it is a choice to live life mostly in that way, choosing the things that matter to you rather than things that are expected of you. The act of dance also involves ownership of space and ownership of your body. You’re in full control; you embody yourself and take up space, and you also sort of lose yourself. Those ideas of autonomy, ownership and taking up space are quite empowering. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f2/65/f2656369-0f61-4d65-ad9e-0284e2fdbaca/content/images/2026/10/Sungi-Mlengeya--Ripple--2024-1.jpg) Sungi Mlengeya, Ripple, 2024 **That freedom is very evident in your work. How did you arrive at the dark figures and white backgrounds that have become part of your visual language?** The black and white came by chance. In some of the earliest paintings I made, I wanted what I was working on to really stand out. I wanted to figure out a background that was very striking and hard to miss, but I didn’t know what it was, so I started working on the face. When I was done, I loved the contrast with the plain background. That’s how it began. I occasionally experimented with different things, but my heart kept going back to the black and white. I felt those were the most striking to me, and the audience was always drawn to them. It’s come to mean a space of endless freedom because I have not fully committed to everything in the painting. I’ve only committed to the figures, not the background. They could be at any point in time, anywhere, around anything. There’s always that space left to fill in the blanks. I can do that, and the audience looking at the work can do that. I think it’s a place of possibility. With the background absent, it creates a place of infinite direction. **What does freedom mean to you?** Having a choice, and remembering that you have a choice. **How do you balance planning with spontaneity in your creative process?** Sometimes I start with an idea of what concept I want to put through. Sometimes I do not. Either way, my creative process begins with photographs. I either do a shoot of the models or look through pictures I’ve already taken and select what I think makes sense at that moment. That process is very instinctive. I could have a plan, but I might not go with it. It’s about what calls me in the moment. When we’re doing a photoshoot, sometimes you have planned poses, but something else happens, and you end up going in a different direction. Sometimes I work with Photoshop. It’s like my sketchbook, to compose where the work will be positioned and whether I want to add any abstractions. That process is also very fluid. What do I like? Does this make me feel good? Does this not? Once I have that, I begin painting. That’s more fixed because I already have a point of reference. Sometimes I could make a mistake and go with it, create something out of it. I have my fluidity in the beginning process, and when I begin putting paint on canvas, that’s the technical part. **Do you take the photographs yourself?** Most of the time, unless it’s a very hectic shoot, maybe there are so many models, and I need to focus on telling them how to stand or move. Sometimes I have help, where someone is clicking with the camera, but I do the directing. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f2/65/f2656369-0f61-4d65-ad9e-0284e2fdbaca/content/images/2026/10/Watu-140cm-width-X-150cm-height.jpg) Watu 140cm width X 150cm height **Multifaceted! There’s often a sense of companionship in your paintings, with figures touching or resting a hand on someone’s shoulder. What’s behind those connections?** In my most recent work, some of it is more about composition. But there’s one work called Watu, which is about community. There are two people holding hands, sort of in a dance. I was reflecting on my mother’s teachings, and community is one of the most important. I tried to portray that through multiple figures holding hands, to show that connection. With other figures I’ve done together in the past, most of it was instinctive. I was trying different poses with two people interacting. But the idea of continuing that connection with the women in my life could be where it stems from: showing that warmth and having constants in your life. I have three works titled Constant. Constant III is quite popular. It’s one person sitting and one standing, with an arm on the shoulder. It was about companionship, having that person in your life who is around through thick and thin. Sometimes you’re in a romantic relationship and think this person is the most important thing in your life. Maybe in a few months they’re gone, and your friend is still there. Through all these people you have interacted with, they are the ones who are constantly there. That was the idea of the painting and its title. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f2/65/f2656369-0f61-4d65-ad9e-0284e2fdbaca/content/images/2026/10/Sungi-Mlengeya--Constant-III--2019--Acrylic-on-Canvas-1.jpg) Sungi Mlengeya, Constant III, 2019, Acrylic on Canvas **Has having your work exhibited beyond Tanzania affected your practice and the way you see it?** Since I began painting, I knew I was more interested in a global audience. One reason is the strict focus on everything else but art. In my secondary school, everything was classroom subjects. There was nothing extracurricular. Most schools follow that: the main priority is performance or being ranked among the best-performing schools. Sadly, we lose so many artists along the way. There are few artists and few art appreciators because of that absence of a background in art. I do want my work to be appreciated at home, but it’s a long journey. In the meantime, to survive as an artist, I needed a bigger platform so there’s no waiting to infinity. I began with that angle, so there wasn’t a shift in how I thought once it was appreciated globally. That’s where my thoughts were to begin with. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f2/65/f2656369-0f61-4d65-ad9e-0284e2fdbaca/content/images/2026/10/Sungi-Mlengeya--Swimmer--2024.jpg) Sungi Mlengeya, Swimmer, 2024 **What are you most curious about exploring next?** I’m curious about ceramics. The earth itself is very fascinating to me. I like how it looks; I like the smell of it when it’s wet. I love ceramics. I’m obsessed with ceramics, so I would want to try to learn and see where that goes. I’m also trying to learn how to draw from my imagination and make figures from my head. That begins with understanding the structure well. If I have a reference, that’s okay, but without one, I don’t know if I can render a human figure quite well. I want to go back to the basics because I skipped that stage and started painting directly. I want to try that and see where it takes me. Maybe more abstraction, because if you’re referencing everything from your head, you can be freer. It can take you anywhere. **Is there anything else you would like to mention?** I have a show going on in Paris until the 24th of October. It’s titled Earth and Sky. When I talked about ceramics and my fascination with the earth, I thought of the title of the exhibition. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f2/65/f2656369-0f61-4d65-ad9e-0284e2fdbaca/content/images/2026/10/SUNGI-C-26.jpg) Images via [Sungi Mlengeya](https://www.instagram.com/sungimlengeya/?hl=en&ref=marmaladecollective.com) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/f2/65/f2656369-0f61-4d65-ad9e-0284e2fdbaca/content/images/2023/06/pexels-gradienta-6984984.jpeg) ## Your insider guide to African culture Join ****5500+ subscribers** and get our 5-min weekly newsletter on the best stories and global news on Africa(ns). Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.