ABSTRACT
The resettlement at the Kariba Dam negatively impacted on the socio-economic and religio-cultural values of the Tonga-speaking people of Zimbabwe. The ‘2-year food-handouts’ the Tonga people received from the colonialists were not only inadequate for subsistence and for their material losses; they did nothing to restore their intangible losses, including cultural belief systems, identity, and language. The removal of the people from the Zambezi River impacted on an identity that was contingent upon the Zambezi landscape. It also separated Tonga communities of both sides of the river and placed CiTonga-speaking people in some areas that had ChiShona and IsiNdebele-speaking people as their hosts. Increased contact with these ‘hosts’ threatened the existence of their own language and notions of identity. The Tonga people of Zimbabwe were not included in the resettlement decision-making processes. Through their Gwembe Tonga Native Authority, those in Zambia were, to some degree, included in decision-making, which helped mitigate harm to their cultural heritage. This chapter argues that, if the Tonga people of Zimbabwe had also been included in decision-making, the damage to their cultural heritage could have been reduced: chiefs and traditional leaders could have settled for decisions that safeguarded their culture rather than shattering it.
