The
Tonga people of Zambia and Zimbabwe (also called 'Batonga') are a Bantu ethnic group of southern Zambia and neighbouring northern Zimbabwe, and to a lesser extent, in Mozambique. They are related to the
Batoka who are part of the Tokaleya people in the same area, and also to the Tonga people of Malawi.
The so-called 'Valley Tonga' live along the
ZambeziThe Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. The area of its basin is 1,390,000 km² , slightly less than half that of the Nile...
River valley and on the shores of the
Kariba DamThe Kariba Dam is a hydroelectric dam in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is one of the largest dams in the world at 128 m high and 579 m long.- Construction :...
.
The
Tonga people of Zambia and Zimbabwe (also called 'Batonga') are a Bantu ethnic group of southern Zambia and neighbouring northern Zimbabwe, and to a lesser extent, in Mozambique. They are related to the
Batoka who are part of the Tokaleya people in the same area, and also to the Tonga people of Malawi.
The Tonga of Zambia
The so-called 'Valley Tonga' live along the
ZambeziThe Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. The area of its basin is 1,390,000 km² , slightly less than half that of the Nile...
River valley and on the shores of the
Kariba DamThe Kariba Dam is a hydroelectric dam in the Kariba Gorge of the Zambezi river basin between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is one of the largest dams in the world at 128 m high and 579 m long.- Construction :...
. Their culture was severely disrupted by the creation of the Kariba Dam, which resulted in the displacement of many people.
The so-called 'Plateau Tonga' live on the southern plateau of
ZambiaThe Republic of Zambia is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west. The capital city is...
and are traditionally farmers who place great importance on cattle as symbols of wealth.
The Tonga are thought to have migrated from central Africa into the region during the 12th century. The Tonga people were the first tribe to settle in Zambia and are the good subsistence farmers mainly keep cattle to support their way of life. They are also great crop farmers, supporting the entire Zambian nation.
The Tonga of Zimbabwe
The BaTonga people of Zimbabwe are found in and around the Binga District, 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
chitonga.
The Tonga of Mozambique
They live south of Zambezi River and along the border with Zimbabwe.
Languages
The
Tonga language of ZambiaThe Tonga language of Zambia and Zimbabwe is a Bantu Language primarily spoken by the Tonga people in those countries who live mainly in the Southern and Western provinces of Zambia, and in northern Zimbabwe, with a few in Mozambique. The language is also spoken by the Tonga, Ila, Iwe, Toka and...
is spoken by about 1.38 million people in Zambia and 137,000 in Zimbabwe; it is an important
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
in parts of those countries and is spoken by members of other ethnic groups as well as the Tonga.
The Malawian Tonga language is classified in a different zone of the
Bantu languagesThe Bantu languages constitute a grouping belonging to the Niger-Congo family. This grouping is deep down in the genealogical tree of the Bantoid grouping, which in turn is deep down in the Niger-Congo tree. By one estimate, there are 513 languages in the Bantu grouping, 681 languages in Bantoid,...
.
Tonga also speak
ShonaShona is a Bantu language, native to the Shona people of Zimbabwe and southern Zambia; the term is also used to identify peoples who speak one of the Shona language dialects, namely Zezuru, Karanga, Manyika, Ndau and Korekore. Shona is a principal language of Zimbabwe, along with Ndebele and the...
in Zimbabwe and Mozambique,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
in Zambia and Zimbabwe, and
PortuguesePortuguese is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia and northern Portugal. It is derived from the Latin spoken by the romanized Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula around 2000 years ago...
in Mozambique as second languages.