„Tonga.Online“ is a project on media, information & communication technology and art focusing on the Tonga people in the remote Zambezi Valley bordering Zimbabwe and Zambia.
The project goal is to promote a Tonga voice on the Internet. In turn it provides people in the Tonga area with the most advanced tool to communicate and to represent themselves to the outside world.
What are the implications, results and effects of such an endeavour? This was and still is a matter of discussion and reflection within the working group, among the stakeholders involved and with the wider public.
The project reflects the gaps and imbalances, which still exist or are rather widening in the 'global village'. Such imbalances are no longer just a question of resources but also of access and the capacity to use modern communication tools. Access has become a crucial question of political rights too: 'In the 21st Century, the capacity to communicate will almost certainly be a key human right.' (Nelson Mandela)

The „Tonga.Online“ project began as an idea following the invitation to participate in the exhibition "Tracing the Rainbow. Life in Southern Africa" from April until November 2001 in the Schlossmuseum in Linz, Austria. The aim was to provide a platform for communication with the Tonga people of the Zambezi Valley and, more specifically, the people of the Siachiiaba village in Zimbabwe's remote Binga area. This was realized through the design and launch of a project room equipped with computers and the web site www.mulonga.net.
The artists involved in this project visited Zimbabwe in 1997 as part of an Austrian team of artists, composers and film makers collaborating with the Cultural group Simonga from Siachiiaba, during the Nyaminyami Festival. This celebration of Tonga culture and reflections from European and Southern African composers culminated with 30 members of Simonga climbing the Totes Gebirge mountain range in Austria during the "Festival der Regionen" 1997. The project concentrated on the beauty and resilience of Tonga culture and did much to dispel disparaging myths surrounding these displaced and marginalized people. The focus was - and still is - on their extraordinary Ngoma Buntibe music, which relates as a kind of story telling to social and community issues. There are spiritual occasions too like burials, where it is performed on antelope horns, drums and rattles in the midst of the whole community moving and dancing in undisclosed patterns of communication.


Links: http://www.mulonga.net

Thomas Schneider is a visual artist working on new media related art projects and involved in AZFA’s cultural exchange projects with Zimbabwe for several years.

Peter Kuthan (A), born 1945, sociologist and free lance consultant in development cooperation, cultural activist with AZFA since 1993, has been living in Zimbabwe from 1989 to 1992.

Sabine Bitter is visual artist working on new media related art projects and involved in AZFA's cultural exchange projects with Zimbabwe for several years.

Helmut Weber is visual artist working on new media related art projects and involved in AZFA's cultural exchange projects with Zimbabwe for several years.