Cultural Promoter

Music of the Buntibe

There are eighteen Tonga chieftancies in Zimbabwe and within each exists at least one ngoma buntibe group, if not three or four. Each team consists of forty people or more. Around thirty men play up to nineteen different sizes of horn (nyele) fashioned from different species of kudu, in particular impala for the higher horns and sable for the lower ones.

In addition, there are between five and seven conical-shaped drums ranging from small hand-held ones played with sticks to a giant drum requiring one or more persons to support it in addition to the principal player. The smaller drums are covered with cowhide, the larger ones with elephant's ear.

Women play hand rattles (insaka) made from small gourds filled with seeds or condensed-milk tins and filled with small stones or seeds. Women also provide most, if not all, the singing.

Cultural Promoter

Tonga Tonkunst: One man One Note

by Keith Goddard (in 1997)

The music of the Valley Tonga is as extraordinary and distinct as it is beautiful. To date, however, it remains almost totally unexplored by researchers and academics (except in regard to musical instruments as artifacts of material culture) and it is virtually unknown outside the Tonga area.

More: http://www.mulonga.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=219:tonga-tonkunst-one-man-one-note&catid=43:tonga-culture&Itemid=93

see appendix

Cultural Promoter

Siachilaba backstage

Photo installation by Sabine Bitter and Helmut Weber designed to provide a visual accompaniment to the presentation of the "Five pieces / Six reflections on Tonga music". The installation also includes some of the photographic work of Ilo "the pirate" Battigelli.

Impressions of contemporary architecture in Harare, photo documents from the period as the Kariba Dam was being built during the 1950's from the archive of Ilo Battigelli, and pictures from Siachilaba during a concert in March 1997 are all used to form the optical borders and transparent reflections of a short-term, yet intensive cultural exchange. 5 color prints laminated on transparent sheets, 90 x 125 cm each, 3 b/w prints laminated on transparent sheets, 90 x 200 cm each, (slide projection).

Cultural Promoter

Exposure and promotion of Tonga Ngoma Buntibe Tonkunst in Southern Africa and Europe

Timetable 1997

: SIMONGA Ngoma Buntibe Ensemble from Siachilaba/ZIMBABWE

MAY 6 FIVE PIECES OFFENES KULTURHAUS LINZ/AUT

JULY 26 SIX REFLECTIONS ART GALLERY BULAWAYO/ZIM

JULY 31 SIMONGA & BEERHALL SIACHILABA/ZIM

SIX REFLECTIONS

AUG 3 SIMONGA & AMAKOSHI BULAWAYO/ZIM

SIX REFLECTIONS CULTURAL CENTRE

AUG 4 - 10 TONGA. EXHIBITION HARARE GARDENS HARARE/ZIM

from CHOMA MUSEUM / ZAMBIA

AUG 4 - TONGA. PHOTO. GRAPHICS L'ALLIANCE HARARE/ZIM

ILO BATTIGELLI, PATRICK MWEEMBA

AUG 7 - 9 SIMONGA ZIM.INT.BOOKFAIR HARARE/ZIM

SIX REFLECTIONS GALLERY DELTA

AUG 13/14 SIX REFLECTIONS CARFAX JOHANNESBURG/SA

AUG 16 - 24 TONGA. EXPEDITION TOTES GEBIRGE

FESTIVAL OF THE REGIONS UPPER AUT

AUG 22 FIVE PIECES ALBERT- APPEL HAUS STYRIA/AUT

AUG 23 CAMPFIRE - OFFENSEE

FEST DER FEUER IM TAL UPPER AUT

AUG 27 "THE LOST VALLEY" FILMFESTIVAL FREISTADT/AUT

AUG 29 SIMONGA & FIVE PIECES REMISE VIENNA/AUT

OTTO LECHNER, TSCHUSCHENKAPELLE

DEC 12/13 SIX REFLECTIONS COOP ARTE FELIZ MAPUTO/MOC

GHORWANE

Cultural Promoter

OÖ. Festival der Regionen Kunst.Über.Leben

more details from Stadtwerkstatt / i.e. Versorger

Reisebericht Alfred Komarek, Wahlverwandtschaften

http://intra.fdr.at/fdr/fdr97/routen/route2.html

video Tonga Exit only by Michael Pilz & Thomas Schneider

video Across the River by Michael Pilz, 151', A/2004

video Across the River / 4 Zitate, by Michael Pilz, 33', A/2005 (for Zambezi River Music, Symposium @ Donau Universität Krems, 30th July 2005)

video “tribute to Keith” 4' version + 22' version by Michael Pilz

Cultural Promoter