Tonga Music & Culture

The people of the Tonga live in two areas: On the river and on the plateau. They live north of the Zambesi in Zambia and south of it in Zimbabwe. The Valley Tonga live in the middle Zambezi Valley on both sides of the Zambezi River in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Upstream is the Victoria Falls, downstream is Kariba Dam. The Valley Tonga are the third largest ethnic group in Zimbabwe after the Shona and Ndebele. The Plateau Tonga live up on the plateau in Zambia.

The best known fact about the Tonga is that they were forcibly removed from the banks of the Zambezi River forty years ago to make way for the building of Kariba. Once deported from their habitat, they were abandoned.

About the Tonga Music: "With the formula “One man - one note”, composer Keith Goddard has summed up the complex interplay of simple yet multi-layered tones of Tonga music with an allusion to universal suffrage. “One person - one sound” stands for the unique cultural heritage of the Tonga: the art of sound with which they have mastered their precarious living conditions with self-confidence and creativity for generations. And at the same time for the persistence with which they demand equal rights and respect as an ethnic minority in crisis-ridden Zimbabwe." (Peter Kuthan ARGE Zimbabwe Friendship)