MDG 1 – Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
MDG 2 – Achieve universal primary education
MDG 3 – Promote gender equality and empower women

Introduction

The stated project goal is access4all. It is the culmination of a decade of good relations and mutually beneficial activities between the Tonga people of Binga and Siachilaba and ARGEZIM (Linzer ARGE Zimbabwe Freundschaft) who have remained steadfast in their loyalty to development in the area in spite of extremely difficult economic and political conditions over the last two years. Where other donors have withdrawn their support from development projects in Zimbabwe in the recent past, ARGEZIM have been faithful in their support, and the Tonga people have not been abandoned for reasons which are totally out of their control.

Fischkutter auf dem Lake Kariba

Background

For centuries the Gwembe Valley Tonga lived along the north and south banks of the Zambezi river. In 1958 they were forced to move by the rising waters of Lake Kariba due to the damming of the Zambezi - a hydro-electric project of the then Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The resettlement was followed by a physical separation by the new lake, later reinforced by the incorporation of the Tonga people into two different nations, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 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 style was automatically transported with them because it filled no extra space and could not 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.

At the same time they maintain a strong individuality within community which is perfectly expressed in their unique style of music as Andrew Tracey (International Library of African Music / SA) has stated at a recent visit: “Of course the whole sound of the music of Ngoma Buntibe is highly involving, complex and compelling and the fact that each person’s part is completely different from every other person is a real challenge, fully demonstrating the universal African musical principle of independence within inter-dependence, or of individuality within community, however you like to put it”.

Project History and Activities

The Tonga.Online project is an offspring of a cultural exchange program between Austrian and Zimbabwean artists and NGO´s which is going on since more then ten years.

In 2001, this cooperation was invited to take part and present the Tonga culture in an exhibition “Tracing the Rainbow” about life and cultures in Southern Africa at the Landesmuseum in Linz / Austria. Consequently a project room with 5 PC workstations was established there and the website www.mulonga.net was designed to present not only some outcome of the cultural exchange but also to provide for a platform for information and communications between North and South. The domain name MULONGA, refers to the Tonga history as the "People of the Great River".

Since then the project has managed to arouse interest and raise support to facilitate access to computers and the Internet for the Tonga community. The first Information Technology Centre with 15 PC workstations was established at Binga High School in October 2001 and has become a power house for computer training, e-learning and access to information.
Equipment and technology sponsored by Austrian artists has enabled the establishment of a sound recording studio at the Binga ITC. A workshop was held in 2003 on the use of computers for archiving, recording, editing, analysing, transforming and composing (new) sounds.

Sianzyundu Secondary School

The vivid and exciting culture of the Tonga is relatively unknown and yet it is one of the few resources they can exploit to their own advantage, in order to alleviate poverty (MDG 1). Sourcing of crafts markets for the beautiful Tonga baskets and communications with suppliers and other important contacts are facilitated through the Internet.

The focus of the current phase of the project is to assist in the establishment of “satellite” IT centres in two rural communities 60 and 70 km away from Binga respectively. The schools involved are Siachilaba Primary School, and Sianzyundu Secondary School. Both schools have already equipped appropriate classrooms, set up management committees and infrastructure and are working hard to develop a suitable schedule of computer lessons for the pupils and services for the wider community (MDG 2).

Special Training and Outreach Programmes have been developed to introduce new users who have never been exposed to computers. Particular target groups such as women and girls are receiving extra attention in order to ensure that access to training is enjoyed by all sectors of these rural communities and that nobody is excluded (MDG 3).

The two satellite ITC´s are expanding the Tonga.Online project venturing first time into Open Source Software applications. A further extension of the project is envisaged and will reach out to remote areas of Binga district, like Siabuwa, Lusulu and to the Tonga people living across the waters of the Zambezi River in Zambia. The stated project goal is access4all. This should be achieved by a special outreach programme for the wider community and special stakeholder courses.