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)

Simonga-Maliko is keen and excited to take up this excellent opportunity to promote Tonga music and cultural heritage abroad. Hopefully this will strengthen the standing of the Tonga minority and highlight the cultural diversity of their home countries Zambia and Zimbabwe also.

The tour to Austria will not only touch the Linz area but other parts of Austria and its capital Vienna too. The Tonga musicians will meet and perform with a wide range of other musicians, some of them have been visiting the Tonga area in recent years like the Windhund musicians Otto Lechner and Karl Ritter from Vienna.

more: www.linz09.at/parade-blog

www.aktionsradius.at

The tour schedule for Simonga-Maliko in more detail:

1 May, 14:30 – Linz / Parade / Pichling / solarCity / Lunaplatz
2 May, 15:00 – Linz / Parade / Harbour @ Time's Up
3 May, 15:00 – Linz / Parade / Pöstlingberg / Petrinum
5 May, 19:30 – Linz / Concert / Neues Rathaus
6 May, 19:30 – Melk / Concert / Kolomani Saal im Stift Melk
7 May, 19:00 – Vienna / Panel discussion “Tonga in Transit. Zimbabwe in Transition” / Depot
8 May, 19:30 – Wachtberg / Gars am Kamp / Concert at Kunst am Wachtberg
9 May, 14:00 – Vienna / Open Air concerts with Austrian hosts and friends / Augarten

more: www.linz09.at/parade-blog
www.aktionsradius.at

Parade documentation project

The documentation project aims at capturing the wealth of sounds and images, of cross-cultural encounters, experiences and reflections during the Parade  at Linz 2009. It creates a collaborative platform for artists and media experts from various countries and cultural backgrounds – like Sabine Maier and Michael Mastrototaro aka MACHFELD / Vienna, Marcus Neustetter& Stephen Hobbs from The Trinity Session / Johannesburg or Klaus Hollinetz / Linz, Sengamo Ndlovu / Binga and others -  to document and to reflect on the strategies of presentation by  ”deconstructing the image of the other” .  

more: http://www.machfeld.net

[[ ]]  t h e  t r i n i t y  s e s s i o n
Johannesburg, South Africa
www.onair.co.za
 
blog: www.linz09.at/parade-blog