Betty Manyolo

Estelle Betty Manyolo (1938–1999) was a Ugandan art painter and printmaker. Her work was inspired by black and white house murals created by the Bahima people and the Kakoro and Nyero rock paintings in Eastern Uganda.

Early life and education

Estella Betty Babirye Nakayemba Manyolo was born in 1938 in Kampala, Uganda. Known as Betty Manyolo, she was a Muganda, and one of ten children. Her middle name Babirye indicates that she was the elder of twins, it being a traditional name given to the older female twin. Twins were considered a blessing in Buganda and she spent her school holidays at the palace of King Muteesa II, where twins took on ceremonial roles in the palace. She later worked as a teacher in Abidjan, Ivory Coast and travelled to France, having learned to speak French. After fleeing political unrest, she worked as an Art Design Supervisor for the Nigerian Television Authority until 1989, before returning to Uganda. "Cattle People" - NARA - 558922.jpg|Cattle People "Death in the Forest" - NARA - 558920.jpg|Death in the Forest

Personal life In the 1960s, Betty Manyolo married a Nigerian man and took his surname of Sangowawa. Their family moved to Nigeria, where she worked as a teacher, before moving to the Ivory Coast. She lived in Uganda again from 1973 to 1977, but left for Nigeria as Uganda became increasingly unsafe under the dictatorship of Idi Amin. Manyolo returned to Uganda once more in 1989. From October 2023 to January 2024, her Cattle People (1961) was included in African Modernism in America, 1947-67 at the Philips Collection in Washington DC, loaned from the Fisk University Galleries collection following donation by the Harmon Foundation.