The Tonga tribe has lived in the Zambezi River Valley for many centuries.The first Bantu migrants from the North, only the San Bushmen roamed the area before the Tonga arrived. The next wave in the Bantu migration brought the Karangas to what is now Zimbabwe, but this was around 250 years later.
For generations the Tonga lifestyle changed very little, but when the Kariba Dam was built in the mid-1950's, things would never be quite the same again. Before the entrapped waters of the Zambezi rose, the Tongas had to be re-located to higher ground upstream. Apart from the physical stress of being forced to move from their traditional riverbank huts to the far less suitable and arid lands in the Binga region, 57 000 of these spiritual people had to leave behind their ancestral burial grounds, soon to be swallowed by the new lake.The world was told about "Operation Noah"--the rescue of wild animals trapped on the vanishing hilltops as the waters rose. But the plight of the Tongas received scant coverage.
Before Kariba the Tonga tribe (also known as Batonga and Batonka) lived a very primitive existence, being very isolated and cut-off from the rest of the world. Only 50 years ago they were scantily clad and sported reed "bones" through their noses. David Livingstone, who encountered the Tongas en route to discovering the Victoria Falls, was startled by the (then) traditional greeting reserved for eminent visitors. Facing away from the Missionary,they knelt and wiggled their bare buttocks in his direction! Tourism and the commercial fishing industry on the lake have brought the Tongas more contact with outsiders--not always a good thing, as the high rate of HIV/AIDS attests.
The Tongas are not related to other tribes with the same or similar names. They have their own language, customs and traditions and are fiercely proud and independant. Showing Tonga doors and Furniture on the Decorex exhibition in Johannesburg in 1997, Bunny Mentz was approached by a puzzled, elderly Afrikaans gentleman who wanted to know "are these the same Tongas who play rugby?".
These days the Tonga people are in pretty bad shape. One could say that all the peoples of Zimbabwe are experiencing tough times, but this is particularly true where the Tongas are concerned.They no longer have the alluvial floodplains of the pre-Kariba era. Soils in their new locale are poor and they desperately need irrigation schemes to be laid-on from the Lake.The tsetse fly and big cats mean they can't keep cattle and if they are able to grow some food, they have their hands full keeping the wild animals from getting it first.Fish catches aren't what they used to be and poor health facilities and schools and a lack of any meaningful voice in Central Government also contribute to their woes.
|
