Tonga people (Zambia and Zimbabwe)

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A BaTonga crafter working on a decorative wall basket in Zimbabwe.

The Tonga people of Zambia and Zimbabwe (also called 'Batonga') are a

Kafue Twa. They differ culturally and linguistically from the Tsonga people of South Africa
and southern Mozambique.

The Tonga of Zimbabwe

The BaTonga people of Zimbabwe are found in and around the Binga District, Binga village the Kariba area, and other parts of Matabeleland. They number up to 300,000 and are mostly subsistence farmers. ln Zimbabwe the language of the Tonga people is called tchitonga.

The Tonga People were settled along Lake Kariba after the construction of the Kariba Dam wall.[1] They stretch from Chirundu, Kariba town, Mola, Binga to Victoria Falls.

In the 1800s, during the reign of Mzilikazi and Lobengula, BaTonga people were regarded by the Ndebele (at the time called the "Matabele") as very peaceful. Early British explorers also regarded them as "wholesome" and "entirely peaceful" on "both sides of the Zambezi."[2]

Human-Environmental Interactions of the Tonga of Zambia

The

structural adjustment program.[3] The structural adjustment program for these rural communities cut government funding limiting infrastructure even more. The consequences of the structural adjustment program means clinics do not have access to aspirin, chloroquine, antibiotics and other medications. The negative effect on education in these rural areas that are remote makes it challenging to find teachers to accept and keep positions.[3] The Tonga people in Lusitu and surrounding areas have become dependent on agriculture production and kinship family networks.[3]

Gwembe people's coping strategies to scarcity

Via the Gwembe Tonga Research Project, the Gwembe people’s adaptations to their environment have been observed through many changing environmental conditions.[3] As environmental conditions become harsher, there are four strategies in which the Gwembe people cope with scarcity. These coping strategies address scarcity in both physical and economic environments in Gwembe Valley. The copper industry failed in Zambia in the 1970s and there is a lack of maintenance of national and local infrastructure, creating equally harsh conditions of economic strife.[3] Extended family networks and kinship play a large role in how scarcity is confronted, exemplified by the four coping strategies.[3]

Malnutrition

Humans are capable of eating less and less food, both in volume and nutritional value, and surviving.[3] A way that Gwembe people change behavior in response to food scarcity is through malnutrition.

Alternative food sources

When preferred foods become scarce or disappear, Gwembe people turn to “famine foods” that include tamarind seeds mixed with ash.[3]

Decrease domestic-group size

Gwembe people decrease their domestic group size to be more mobile and to feed less people.[3] Being more mobile allows for bettered ability to find food sources, through the environment or asking extended family members not encountering scarcity.[3]

Limit sharing with outsiders

Gwembe families will not repair their homestead granaries to maintain the appearance to outsiders of a lack of grain, while they still have it.[3] Families will also start eating indoors. Both strategies are to prevent neighbors from pleading for grain.

Languages

The

Tonga language of Zambia is spoken by about 1.38 million people in Zambia and 137,000 in Zimbabwe; it is an important lingua franca in parts of those countries and is spoken by members of other ethnic groups as well as the Tonga.[4]
(The Malawian Tonga language is classified in a different zone of the Bantu languages.)

In Zimbabwe, the Tonga also speak

Ndebele
and English. In Zambia, the Tonga also speak Nyanja and English, in Mozambique the also speak Portuguese as second languages. One of the most difficult task is to quantity the actual population of the Tonga people. Because of their peaceful approach, they easily assimilate to other tribes and eventually move over to dominant tribes. In Zimbabwe not only do they speak dominant languages such as Shona and Ndebele but a great population have taken on either Shona or Ndebele surnames. There are families in places such as Binga, Zimbabwe where half the siblings could carry Tonga surnames and another Ndebele surnames. In the national population register the ones with Ndebele surnames will be counted among the Ndebeles. Beside the Tsonga speaking in South Africa, they are also a population of that speaks predominantly Zulu, however among the Zulu tribe it is well known that there is a great population of the Tonga people among them. In Mpumalanga, Enkomazi, there is a place called Tonga, while the population of the area is called Swati, the name is a testimony to the once existence of the Tonga people in the area.

Notable Tonga People of Zambia

See also

  • Choma Museum and Crafts Project

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-7190-1033-0
    .
  2. ^ Matabele Rebellion, 1896: With the Belingwe Field Force by Laing D. Tyrie · 1901
  3. ^
    doi:10.2979/AFT.2001.48.1.2
    – via Researchgate.
  4. ^ Gordon, Raymond G. Jr., ed. (2005). "Ethnologue report for language code: toi". Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Retrieved 2006-05-08.
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