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.

Maliko Budima Group: Trip to Binga for Rehearsals for Linz09 from 02 – 09 January, 2009.

Maliko Budima group  from Sinazongwe / Zambia had a trip across the Lake Kariba to Binga for its final rehearsal for the journey to Austria in May 2009. The rehearsal was held at Binga High School from 2nd to 9th January.

See Images

Binga district witnessed the launch of grade one to seven ChiTonga Books titled Bwacha Lino on the 27th of November 2008. This launch was organised by the Zimbabwe Publishing House ZPH Publishers (Pvt) Ltd. It was dawn and a dream come true for the BaTonga people. It was a day of joy and jubilation. For the first time, Tonga language will be taught from grade one to seven in the Binga and Nyaminyami Schools. I would therefore like to applaud ZPH, TOLACO, BASILWIZI TRUST and Save the children for the job well done. 

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 

Good news for the Tonga.Online project from Mica – the Music Information Center Austria, which has started the Fair Music Initiative recently. On Saturday 8th September the project received the newly-created Fair Music Award in the context of this years Ars Electronica Festival - together with female:pressure, Freibank Music Publishing, and Extraplatte as this years other laureates.

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