Tonga.Online

The Tonga.Online project uses technology to provide the marginalised inhabitants of the Valley Tonga with opportunities to empower themselves through the use of ICTs as vehicles for cultural exchange and knowledge-sharing in educational and artistic contexts.

Concentrating on the district of Binga in Zimbabwe, the project takes advantage of modern ICTs to establish direct communication with and among the Tonga. This link was first established temporarily via a mobile internet centre based on a lorry that is being provided by the World Links for Development Programme (WorLD), which reaches out to remote areas in developing countries with an ICT training programme sponsored by the World Bank. According to the organisers, by joining the global information and communication technology, "the project addresses the social, economic and political effects on local communities, where ever the participants live (be it Siachilaba or Linz, Harare or Vienna)." In the long run, “the Tonga are expected to use the new technology independently and sustainably for their own purpose as a permanent tool used in and based on a network of schools.”

The web portal, www.mulonga.net, has provided a means for the development of a number of communication tools and discussion forums involving the cultural exchange and exposure of the Tonga people. Three schools, along with their own websites, have been established as a result of the Tonga.Online project. They are: the Syanzyundu ITC, the Siachilaba ITC, and the Binga ITC - all of which provide training, materials and ICT networking facilities, as well as access to fine arts facilities including music recording and graphic design programmes. It is envisaged that the project will extend its outreach "across the waters" to the Zambian side of the Zambezi river or Lake Kariba.

The Tonga.Online project has also been responsible for the creation of a newsletter that documents the progress of mulonga.net, an online dictionary in Chitonga (the language of the Tonga people), a series of online slide-shows of the Tonga.Online project, and the LOOP (a streaming Emap.FM broadcast of a UK-based radio show playing historical recordings of Valley Tonga music).

Education, Youth, Rights, Technology.

This project is motivated by the observation that "There are bright young Tonga people hungry for knowledge and experience and it is their right to receive and impart information. Those of us in urban areas do not hold the intellectual property rights to information tools; neither do we have the right to hold back providing tools to people who want them. The computer generation belongs to all of us."

According to organisers, Tonga.Online serves to bridge the gap in technological development in Less-Developed Countries (LDCs), and thus encourages an exchange of cultural and intellectual goods that can empower the less fortunate and enrich the empowered. “The project reflects the divide and uneven development in the 'global village'. Its gaps and imbalances are not only a question of resources but also of access and the capacity to use modern communication tools. Access has become a crucial question of political rights too.”