The project goal is to promote a Tonga voice on the Internet and to provide the Tonga minority with the most advanced information and communication tools.
The implications and effects of such an endeavour is a matter of discussion within the working group, among the stakeholders involved and with the wider public.
The project does also reflect the divide and uneven development in the 'global village'. Its gaps and imbalances are not only 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
These bonds of friendship between people in Austria and Zimbabwe are reaching back to the seventies. By then the anti-colonial struggle as an expression of popular demand for political and social liberation was at its peak in Southern Africa and an inspiration for the democratic and social movements all over Europe.
In the transitional period following Zimbabwe's Independence in 1980, the focus of our attention was on the cooperative movement leading to a link between self-help-initiatives in the North and the South in order to foster solidarity and mutual learning. A project assisting the apex body of cooperatives OCCZIM and its Musengezi District Cooperative Union was an offspring of these aspirations.
Since the Zimbabwe tour of Austrian musicians Attwenger in 1993 the field of activities has expanded substantially into the field of cultural exchange. Subsequently a series of projects involving artists from both sides was undertaken in close collaboration with our partner NGO Kunzwana Trust.
A culmination of this exchange programme was the encounter with Tonga culture from 1995 onwards, which saw a number of Austrian artists i.e. from Wiener Tschuschenkapelle or Stadtwerkstatt visiting the area. In 1997 a project of six contemporary composers reflecting on the unique Tonga Ngoma Buntibe music was launched. And a group of 30 members of Simonga from Siachilaba village participated in the "Festival der Regionen" in Upper Austria province crossing the Totes Gebirge mountain range under the theme "Kunst.Über.Leben".