Estelle Betty Manyolo was a Ugandan painter and printmaker whose most well-known work was produced and exhibited internationally in the 1960s. Born in Kampala in 1934, her full name was Estella Betty Babirye Nakayemba Manyolo. “Babirye” is a name traditionally given to the elder twin in Buganda culture. Her childhood holidays were spent in the palace of King Muteesa II, the reigning king of the Buganda Kingdom at the time, as twins held special cultural significance and performed specific roles in the palace. B. Manyolo was educated at Gayaza Junior School and continued her education at Gayaza High School where, in 1953, she obtained her Junior Secondary School Certificate. In 1955, she also achieved an Overseas School Certificate from Cambridge University through the same school. In 1956, B. Manyolo enrolled at Makerere College to study Art at the Margaret Trowell School of Industrial and Fine Art. She obtained a Certificate in Fine Art in 1958 and went on to earn a Diploma in Fine Art in 1960.
A few years after her graduation, she married, taking on the name Sangowawa. She and her family relocated to Nigeria, her husband’s home country, where she worked as a teacher. She then relocated to Ivory Coast with her family. She learned French in Abidjan and also during travels in France. She returned to Uganda from 1973 to 1977 and worked as an artist for the Health Ministry in Entebbe, creating various visual aids for the Department of Public Health and Hygiene. B. Manyolo moved back to Nigeria when Uganda became politically unstable. She worked for the Nigerian Television Authority for twelve years as an Art Design Supervisor, until 1989. The last decade of her life was spent in Uganda. In 1999, at the age of 64, she died of breast cancer. She is survived by five children and ten grandchildren.

When B. Manyolo’s work was introduced to the Harmon Foundation early in the 1960s by her professor Cecil Todd (1912-1986), he remarked “Her happiest products are linocuts where her sense of drama, bold design and effective use of pattern and texture are much in evidence”. This distinct style was deeply inspired by the decorative black and white house murals created by the Bahima people of Western Uganda and the rock paintings found at Nyero and Kakoro in Eastern Uganda. From 1961 to 1968, B. Manyolo’s work was exhibited in different institutions in America and in East Africa. Her pieces were included in the Harmon Foundation’s publication titled Africa’s Contemporary Art and Artists (1966) by Evelyn S. Brown. She was the only Ugandan woman to be featured in this publication and also to have her work displayed in the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Contemporary African Printmakers from 1966 to 1967. B. Manyolo illustrated the books Awo Olwatuuka, a Luganda children’s book written by Janet Nsibirwa Mdoe, and Y. R. K. Mulindwa’s Ebikoikyo (1961) featuring stories, proverbs and folklore in Runyoro/Rutooro. Her illustration Dance of Death was featured in Origin Africa: A Natural History by Jonathan Kingdon (2023).