[4] His father, the first born of five children, had won a scholarship to study at a South African University, but never took it up because his own mother died suddenly, and he chose to stay and look after his younger siblings.

With help from his father (who went to school at Lubwa Mission in Chinsali in Northern Rhodesia with the likes of Kenneth Kaunda (President of Zambia 1964–1991), Simon Kapwepwe (Vice President 1967–1970), and Wesley Nyirenda and others, and who lobbied the Ministry of Education at Ridgeway in Lusaka on his behalf), he was awarded a Zambian Government scholarship to study at Uganda's Makerere University in Kampala, where he graduated[7] in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

[8] In 1972, Tayali got a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) scholarship to study for a Masters in Fine Arts at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, West Germany.

After graduating in 1975, and fluent in German (in addition to English, Bemba, Ndebele, and Ngoni), he returned to Lusaka to the Institute of African Studies.

[11][12] Tayali died on 22 July 1987 while visiting his eldest son and family friends the Moiks / Moik-Becker in Aachen, West Germany, after attending his youngest brother's wedding in Southampton, England.

[3][13] His painting career took off after that, and using water colours, Tayali begun to produce varied, vibrant, dynamic works such as Sunset Road and Destiny.

[14][15] He also produced sculptures, amongst them The Graduate[16] at the University of Zambia campus in Lusaka, as well as silk-screens and woodcuts, a few of these were printed as greeting cards and sold through newsagents and book stores.

[17] He was associated with artists, authors and politicians, including Simon and Cynthia Zukas,[18] Andrew Sardanis[19] (whose property at Chaminuka houses a collection of Tayali's paintings and sculptures amongst others) and American Professor Melvin Edwards[20] at home and abroad, many of them becoming lifelong friends.

Often, he would be working simultaneously on four or more paintings at a go, and different prints and sculptures at the same time – all the while with the backdrop of lecturing at the University, or undertaking research in different and remote parts of Zambia (mostly by road), or travelling internationally.

Funded by donations from the Zambia State Lottery, the Anglo-American Corporation and some individuals, it depicts a graduating student in his flowing gown and mortar board hat, the book in his left hand signifying progress through learning in the modern world, and the hoe in the right hand the hard work and progress through agriculture that has underpinned the country in general.

Initially these were fairly simple as he was new to the medium and its techniques, but by the time of his death they had a majestic complexity to them - probably the most famous example is The Bull, which was mounted on the road to Lusaka International Airport.

His painting Destiny, produced while Tayali was still in school, has been described as "an attempt to express the profound thoughts of a serious young man, about the struggles of Mankind now and in the future" and has been exhibited around the world.,[5] see also[34] In 1991, it was purchased by the Lechwe Trust, a charity which supports visual artists in Zambia.

[36] Writing in 1980, the American academic Bob Barde placed Tayali's woodcut prints on a par with Europe's great printmakers such as Käthe Kollwitz and Théodore Géricault.

[36] Tayali's woodcut subjects were usually about the common African man (and woman), and the feelings evoked by his daily travails, and the prevailing political landscape of the times.

[38] The art writer, Jean Kennedy said that Tayali's work, "makes strong statements, frequently leavened with humor, about personal and communal tragedies".