fair music weblog

Mulonga.net is a platform for a very special kind of sustaining and furthering cultural diversity and cultural exchange between the area of the Tonga people of Zimbabwe and across the Zambezi River in Zambia, Austria and the world.
The Tonga.Online Project, that has been launched in 2001, has focused attention on promoting a Tonga voice over the Internet. The aim is to provide the Tonga with access to the most advanced communication tools, so that they may represent themselves to the outside world and reflect upon the social, political and economic environment in which they live.

The project derives its domain name, Mulonga (meaning River), from the local Tonga language, as the name reflects the history and needs of the Tonga people. Nearly 50 years ago the Tonga have been forcibly removed from the banks of the Zambezi River (which is called Mulonga) to make way for the building of the Kariba Dam. Once deported from their habitat and split into two peoples by the dam, they were abandoned.

The Kunzwana Trust and the Austria Zimbabwe Friendship Association are trying to overcome this broad technological divide. A number of school-based telecenters have so far been established. They can be used by the larger community and connect the Tonga with the other part of their folk and with the world.

Since the Zimbabwe tour of Austrian musicians Attwenger in 1993 the focus of attention and activities of the Tonga.Online project has expanded substantially into the field of cultural exchange. Subsequently a series of projects involving artists from both sides was undertaken in close collaboration with various artists and other partners.

A first culmination of this exchange programme was the encounter with Tonga culture from 1995 onwards, which saw a number of Austrian artists from Wiener Tschuschenkapelle or Stadtwerkstatt Linz visiting the area. In 1997 a project of six contemporary composers reflecting on the unique Tonga Ngoma Buntibe Tonkunst was launched.

The music of the Valley Tonga is as extraordinary and distinct as it is beautiful. However, it remains almost totally unexplored by researchers and academics and is nearly unknown outside the Tonga area.
In 2002, the Tonga.Online project was recognised with a “honorary mention” in the Net Excellence category of the Prix Ars Electronica and was invited to take part in the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz with the title “Africa unplugged” with the project The Loop took place. Archived for 45 years, historical recordings of Tonga Ngoma Buntibe music were returnin via streaming from Grahamstown/ZA to Linz/A and via shortwave radio broadcasting from London/UK to the territory of Zambezi River Valley.

In June 2004 the Tonga.Online project received an Award of Distinction from the Prix Ars Electronica in the category “Digital Communities”. An ambitious “sound bridge” provided for a connection between the festivals in remote Zimbabwe and in Linz / Austria.