With deep sorrow we have been informed that our friend and Director of Kunzwana Trust Keith Goddard passed away last night, Friday 9 October at St Anne's hospital in Harare, where to he has been admitted two weeks ago with pneumonia.

It seems really impossible to believe that Keith has gone. What a great loss to all of us, foremost to his mother Pauline but also for the gay and lesbian community of Zimbabwe, GALZ, for the promotion of cultural exchange by Kunzwana Trust and for the Tonga.Online project and the Tonga community at large. Keith has always been in the forefront in pushing for tolerance and appreciation of cultural and sexual differences in society but was also actively involved in broader human rights campaigning and in the fight for access to affordable treatment for all people living with HIV/AIDS. And he was a composer and promoter of cultural diversity and inter-cultural exchange for many years.

A report from Josiah Moyo who accompanied the Maliko group of musicians from Sinazongwe / Zambia on their journey to Austria to attend the Parade at Linz 09: "Ich war dabei" which means " I was part of it" and was written on the Linz09 T-shirts.

He writes about their astonishment: "they did not think that blowing a horn ('kusiba nyele'  in local Tonga language) can take a person so far".

See the many pictures enclosed in the report and read the accounts of participants. Read also feedback from other groups of musicians participating: http://www.linz09.at/parade-blog

The two Tonga groups of musicians, Simonga from Siachilaba in Binga district in Zimbabwe and Maliko from Sinazongwe in Zambia, who formed a joint ensemble as one of the highlights of Parade at Linz 2009 Cultural Capital of Europe in May are going to continue their collaboration across the waters of Lake Kariba.

Unfortunately this years visit and performances at the annual thanksgiving Lwiindi ceremony end of July at the Malende site in Sinazongwe was overcast by the mourning for the late Jonah Syamenga Syankondo.

Early this morning a joint ensemble of Tonga Ngoma Buntibe musicians from Zimbabwe and Zambia have paraded the Victoria Falls bridge into Zambia to board an areoplane in Livingstone tomorrow for the flight to Austria / Europe. Fifteen musicians of Simonga group from Siachilaba and fifteen musicians of Maliko from Sinazongwe have been invited by Linz2009, the Cultural Capital of Europe this year to participate at Parade from 1st to 3rd May.  The group is led by Jossam Munkuli and Peter Mungombe of Simonga, and by David Mundando and Chief Sinazongwe of Maliko. Tour manager is Sengamo Ndlovu from Tonga.Online team in Binga.

"It is such a pleasure to see the efforts by Simonga and Maliko to highlight the cultural heritage of the BaTonga people. That the event is being hosted on the Zambezi River, across the bridge, could not have been more symbolic. The bridge physically unites the two sides of the river as does this cultural project for the BaTonga people across the river." (Dominic Muntanga)

Time flies, the Parade at Linz 2009 -  the European Capital of Culture this year - is coming closer.

One of the key participants will be a joint ensemble of the Ngoma Buntibe groups Simonga from Siachilaba in Zimbabwe and Maliko from Sinazongwe in Zambia.

Have a look at the blog to see what's happening in the run-up to the
Parade, post your comments and greetings, and follow the events in Linz / Austria on site or online.

Parade-blog launch: www.linz09.at/parade-blog
http://www.linz09.at/parade-blog

A Multi-Stakeholder planning workshop for Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture (MOEASC) was held from the 3rd to the 4th of March 2009 in Bulawayo.

The workshop which was attended by NGOs and partners working with the ministry in Matabeleland North Province was organised by MOESC with the objectives of:-

i)Getting the stakeholders to know each other and their areas of operation in light of avoiding duplication of effort.

ii)Stakeholders to understand the goals and objectives of the MOEASC and in this way assist the ministry in achieving them.

iii)Share experiences and together plan the way forward for a better Matabeleland North as far as education provision was concerned.

Invitation to the presentation of the video documentation and exhibition:

The set up of the Sinazongwe Community Radio by Tonga.OnAir team: Marcus Diess, Sandra Hochholzer, Hannelore Leindecker, Ingo Leindecker 

 Venue: Kunstuniversity Linz, Audimax Date: Thursday 6th of December 19:00 

Images of the event 

A milestone in the development of Sinazongwe district was marked at the end of July by the establishment of the first community radio station in the Gwembe Valley by a team of Austrian ‘open access’ radio activists, Sandra Hochholzer, Ingo Leindecker, Hannelore Leindecker and Marcus Diess, who are reporting on their website

"..the new Sinazongwe Community Radio is ready to go on air!"

More information including a detailed project documentation is promised to come up soon,

read also their blog TRAVELOGUE (in German) on

http://www.servus.at/tongaonair/index.html