The Matabeleland North province of Zimbabwe promises fireworks in September as the organizer, Insiku YaBaTonga Association is set to hold a three day inaugural BaTonga Cultural Festival that will be running under the theme “Unveiling and Enhancing Economic Strides of Arts and Culture in Marginalised Communities” The festival, an annual event, will in its inauguration, run from 28 September 2023 to 30 September 2023 in Binga town.
The Insiku YaBaTonga Association was established on 26 march 2021 and launched at Binga town on 6 October 2022. This is an association that is also registered under the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ). The board is made up of David Mangombe (Director and Chairperson), Teresia Leach (Vice Chairperson), Monison Mleya (Secretary), Matabek Mudenda (Treasurer), Lastane Tshuma (Programs Manager) and Irene Muleya (Committee member). “This is a board that works tirelessly in ensuring a successful festival, we coopt artists and stakeholders in the buildup of works that promote the Tonga culture and to help promote those who partake in the creative activities that focus on Tonga language, arts and culture”, says Mangombe.
Mangombe states that the BaTonga Cultural Festival is important in the BaTonga history as it seeks to ensure that it stands as an event that markets and promotes the Tonga lifestyle. The festival is an open event that seeks to bring people together to celebrate who they are and share their culture with other language groups and individuals that put up time to come and enjoy and learn from each other. Mangombe also emphasizes that the “BaTonga” is just a title meant to embrace the language and culture, they are inviting everyone from different cultures from all corners of the world as they believe in diversity.
Mangombe mentions that there have been a lot of misconceptions and myths regarding the BaTonga people and what they do, “This event will help clean off such anomalies and put up the correct information and educate those that want to know about BaTonga people correctly because people will be getting the information from the source, from the baTonga people themselves seeing some of the lifestyles of the BaTonga people live on stage and through interactions, talking to each other and through storytelling”.
Mangombe mentions some of the misconceptions about the baTonga people lifestyle, “There is a misconception about the baTonga smoking pipe (nchelwa/ mfuko/ ndombonda), commonly used by old women that is made up of dry gourd, reed, sticky-stuff and clay”. He says that this is a refreshment that unstrains the body when it is exhausted though it can also be smoked luxuriously and people who are not baTonga think that it is used for smoking marijuana yet it is not. Mangombe says that in the smoking pipe there will be water as a neutralizer, cleaned sorghum as smoking stuff sometimes self-farmed tobacco called “dambuleni and chikolwani” and burning charcoals”. He states that the sorghum provides energy as it is a starch then the tobacco is for luxury and can also be used for medicinal purposes. He further emphasises, “This is why it is the best for women as they can spend more than 8 hours gathering food and doing house chores for their families”.
Here is another myth that Mangombe reveals and clarifies on, he looks forward to having people learn and appreciate the baTonga culture during and after the festival. “In baTonga culture women were removed the four front teeth (kubangwa menyo), this is the other misconception that other groups say is degrading someone’s beauty, yet the baTonga would tell you that it is how a beautiful woman should look”, Mangombe explains. He further elaborates on this practice saying that there is a secret behind that which was meant for protection from adaptation by the Portuguees during slave trade and by King Mzilikazi’s adaptation operation. He reveals that this practice was meant for easy identification that they belong together when they are taken for slavery.
Mangombe says that the event will be attended by different people doing different things, performing artists, crafts people, writers and many others. There will be theatre and local film viewing, the music Galla, pungwe with Bio Mudimba and other local bands.
“There will be a lot of movement in terms of what will be happening, we will have different venues for different activities, we will have exhibitions like the crafts, books by Tonga writers and other exhibitors”, says Mangombe. He also adds that people will be treated to great adventures such as visits to the hot spring, Chigwatata and getting stories and enjoying there, Croc viewing at the Croc farm. Visit the Zambezi river to view and see what activities are there, boat cruise, house boats, kapenta rigs. He also mentions that the sand beach is also another entertainment venue where people will learn how and what happens there. “There will also be some home visits so that visitors can have an experience, a great feel of being in a Tonga home and interact”.
When asked why the event takes place in Binga town instead of Binga rural, Mangombe justifies their selection, “We had different feelings to say we push the event right into the rural but we noted some challenges of some people coming from afar where accommodation might be difficult, we later finalized that the event will take place in Binga centre and spread out to the nearest rural communities where it is easy to drive there and back in a very short space of time, otherwise all the activities will be administered from Binga town”.
For accommodation Mangombe mentions the following facilities that people can consider, Journey’s End lodge, Kabila lodge, BaTonga villa, Lake view, Masumu lodge, Tusimpe guest house, Binga council guest house, Abangane and Catalina house boats and other house boats, Rest camp hotel and Camping sites among other places.
The Insiku YaBaTonga Association acknowledges that the business community are such an important stakeholder in this event because it is a crowd event that needs food services, accommodation, transport, therefore they need the business community to partake.
The festival offers free activities and admission activities. “We have a full ticket for 3 days at $10. A $2 ticket is for Theater plays, comedy and poetry. A $3 ticket is for Theater plays, sand beach partying, bio scope and musical show, the $5 ticket is for a live band”, reveals Mangombe. He also adds that there are many more activities such as boat cruise, dinner cruise, crocodile view, village tours, hotsprings tour, museum tour and others where the audience will have to pay a certain fee to gain entry.
