THE Tonga language has remained BaTonga’s only tool to fight and repel foreign domination.
Their struggle began in 1955 when they were removed from the land of their birth on both sides of theZambezi River.
When the Kariba Dam was built, their river became a lake.
The Rhodesian authorities regarded the Tonga as a nuisance to their development programmes at the time the Kariba Dam was being constructed.
The Rhodesians also stifled modern social development of the Zambezi Valley in order to preserve BaTonga and their culture in a primitive stage as a tourist attraction.
Perhaps this explains why Binga remains one of the most attractive places in Zimbabwe, although half its population is wallowing in poverty.
They were resettled on inferior land away from the river.
They left behind a way of life and a culture that was built around their proximity to the river.
They have suffered an identity crisis ever since they were in touch with colonialists as they were given names associated with the Ndebele in order to eliminate their original status as the first Zimbabweans who were found in Zimbabwe by missionary Dr David Livingstone.
They have their own language, customs and traditions, and they are also proud and fiercely independent.
However, their efforts to protect themselves from colonialists who labelled them inferior suffered a backlash as they became increasingly associated with the Ndebele people.
According to BaTonga elders, efforts are being made to correct this imbalance through the educational curriculum and publishing of new books in Tonga.
For instance, their totems and names were changed and affiliated to Ndebele or other languages.
For example, the Munsaka became the Ndlovus, while the Mutale became the Ngwenyas, among other names.
In Binga today, it is common to find names such as Chuma/Tshuma, Moyo, Dube or Ncube which were alien to their tribal groupings.
This, according to elders, was done to create a ‘civilised’ lot among the BaTonga.
However, despite this so-called transformation, the BaTonga have maintained their good habits and accommodation towards visitors.
Today, when a visitor arrives at a BaTonga homestead, he is greeted in Tonga by the female matriarch who kneels before the visitor facing sideways and clapping hands.
Other women and children follow suit.
Women greet visitors facing sideways as a sign of subservience.
It is believed facing a male visitor is a sign of aggression or challenge.
By kneeling, the women show the visitor he is welcome.
The father of the homestead is the only one allowed to handshake the visitor.
He removes his hat before asking the stranger the nature of his visit.
Depending on the visitor’s taste, women bring a calabash of water or traditional sorghum beer.
The visitor is not allowed to sit in the family kitchen or near women and children.
He is taken away to the special nganda where a unique array of stools are on display.
To this day, you still find a crowd of rumpled fishermen ready to welcome you in Tonga with forearms toughened from years of hauling nets on the Zambezi River.
The elderly also take every opportunity to welcome visitors with broken tooth smiles and wave at strangers with calloused hands.
The way they greet people in their language and other ways of their lifestyle remain baffling to so many people. Usually when one talks of the BaTonga people, the image that immediately comes to mind is not always a rosy one.
To many, the BaTonga are just a backward community living on the fringes of civilisation, in the backwaters of Binga where they do nothing, but smoke marijuana, while taking more women into polygamous marriages.
The BaTonga are often viewed as a community of people not keen to embrace modernity, but the heart of the matter is they are just a rare breed of people in Zimbabwe remarkable for their desire to safeguard their culture, language and traditions at whatever cost.
It is also evident they are content with their traditional lifestyle which is rooted in the dusty and rocky area of the backwaters of Binga.
Although a few modern trappings like simple clothes have crept into their lifestyle, the BaTonga still follow their traditions kept alive across generations.
The BaTonga people are just one Zimbabwean tribe that still derives livelihood from natural surroundings in a way similar to that of the ‘hunter/ gatherer’ generation among the ancient African tribes.
Although their daily routine, in an effort to put a fulfilling meal ‘on the table’, is often painstaking, most of their foods are rich in nutrition, nourishing and to a certain extent, herbal or therapeutic. So strong are their beliefs in traditional methods of doing things that, to them, modern gadgets such as grinding mills are unnecessary. Still, they feel the so-called modern lifestyle is not much of a money-based economy.
While most Tonga people are still wrapped in their culture and traditions, there are, however, some from the area who feel the Tonga’s way of life is now predated and would seize the earliest opportunity to escape it.