recent articles

Tonga.Online project has been recognised with a "honorary mention" in the Net Excellence category and is invited to take part at the Ars Electronica Festival from 7-12 September 2002 in Linz. This will provide for a platform of reflection and interactive communication for the project and will contribute to raise attention and support for the Tonga community.

“The avoidance of begging bowl politics is why the KUNZWANA/AZFA cultural relationship with the Tonga has little to do with humanitarian aid. It has not involved food drops, grinding mills or the building of clinics. It is founded on the principle that cultural identity forms a vital function in terms of human survival. When forcibly removed to make way for the building of Kariba, the Tonga lost everything including the fixed assets of their material culture such as their shrines. Their cultural styles were automatically transported with them because they filled no extra space and could not anyway have been separated from the bodies being moved. The Tonga maintained their identity by organising around what remained of their culture and, because the culture was dynamic, it helped them face and adapt to the massive challenges that their new environment presented them. Put very simply, the Tonga invested heavily in their culture and this meant they survived...

2001: The Exhibition "Tracing the Rainbow – Life in Southern Africa" at the Schloßmuseum of Upper Austria province in Linz invited AZFA to present some results of the vast cultural exchange programme between Linz / Austria and the Tonga area in the context of this exhibition. The invitation sparked the idea for the TONGA.ONLINE project as a way to communicate with the Tonga community concerned in a more direct way. Therefore a TONGA.ONLINE Project Room was established as a laboratory where visitors of the exhibition had an opportunity to get immediate access to information about the Tonga people and Tonga culture using the Internet as a tool for communication. For at least a short period of time The Big Blue Van, a mobile computer lab on a lorry moving from village to village on site in the Tonga area, provided for at least some glimpses of direct communication via email postings to the website www.mulonga.net

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

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