Tonga Composition Project: Six Refelections on Valley Tonga Music

As per the mandate of the Austria Zimbabwe Friendship Association, the organisers believe that cultural expression and exchange is the most authentic way to communicate a common cause and the cultural diversity existing in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. “It helps to elaborate and explain the social reality that confronts each continent; it helps to move away from the clichés of poverty and wealth and to address the roots of imbalance and injustice. Cultural exchange should inspire and encourage those progressive forces that are able to confront and resolve these problems as a global challenge.”

The primary project in this cultural exchange was the Tonga Composition project wherein international contemporary composers wrote creative responses to the sounds of the “nyele” instrument, the trademark sound of the Simonga music group from the Tonga people of Siachilaba. This music group is one of three “ngoma buntibe” groups in the area whose role is to vocalise warnings about and exposure of socially unacceptable behaviour amongst the Tonga people.

The Simonga group, along with the visiting composers, provided educational programmes in schools and other institutions, such as the Amakhosi Cultural Centre in Bulawayo, creating awareness about the rights of minority groups such as the Tonga people as well as imparting professional guidance concerning music technology and its relationship to indigenous sounds and rites.

The organisers used the Tonga Composition project as a platform to provide subsidiary events, such as the Minority Rights Seminar. “The aim of the seminar is not simply to table the social and economic difficulties facing the Tonga people but to outline the essential principles of minority rights in relation to marginalised peoples and to ascertain how these affect the Valley Tonga in Zimbabwe and Zambia… They are the victim of myths, ignorance and prejudices which portray them as dangerous, deformed and primitive.”

Other complementary projects included:

• An exhibition of photographic installations that was displayed during performances of the Six Reflections on Tonga Music.
• The Clothes project in which the HAK-Auhof, a school in Linz, Austria, collected 420 kg of used clothing for the Valley Tonga people.
• The School and the Book project in which Kunzwana Trust, co-organisers of the Tonga Composition project, collaborated with local book charities, in particular the Africa Community Publishing and Development Trust, with the aim of providing books for the Siachilaba School.
• A Documentary on the Tonga people for which Kunzwana Trust provided the musical score and hired local musicians to participate.
• The Simonga tour of Europe wherein the cultural exchange was completed as the music group travelled to Upper Austria to participate in the Festival of Regions.

Rights, Education, Youth.

"The Tonga are a marginalised people who do not share in the luxuries of modern life in Zimbabwe. Until recently, they viewed outsiders with suspicion and their remote position has not encouraged investment in the area. Even the advantages of electricity and tourism which Kariba dam brought to the cities, have bypassed the Tonga almost completely."

Although the Tonga lost so much with the coming of Kariba, they managed to maintain their cultural identity. The Kunzwana Tonga Cultural Project, in association with AFZA, was set up to find ways in which the Valley Tonga people might expose this distinct and vibrant heritage for their own advantage.