By Kasebamashila Kaseba
“ALL TONGA MUSIC FESTIVAL” IS OF COURSE TONGA AND TRIBAL ALBEIT POSITIVE TRIBALISM APPROVED BY GOVT AND UNESCO
The question of whether the “All Tonga Music Festival”, marking its twentieth anniversary, is tribal or not is, it is tribal except positive and approved tribalism.
Firstly, there is no denying Tonga is a tribe or group or nation like 70 other tribes.
Tonga tribe is the third, of the seven, biggest or semi official tribes, after Bemba and Chewa.
Tonga, from 1929 to 1969 censuses, was the second biggest tribe after Bemba.
How Tonga declined to third and Chewa grew to second position, is unexplained in the context of post independence politics of SP etc being ANC stronghold.
On the other hand, Bemba and Tonga are tribes and languages whereas Nyanja and Lozi are languages but not tribes.
Ngoni is a tribe without a language or is generally Nsenga speaking and Nguni or Zulu singing.
A tribe, from tri-bus in French after Latin meaning three groups, is more than a language derived from a culture that may include music.
(Bantu Botatwe Languages is group of seven or eight that also uniquely says Bantu Botatwe for three people or groups.)
Government and UNESCO have recognised music among other tribal practices.
However, since 2011, PF and Bemba negative tribal politics have given a negative tribalism spin.
For example, The Post once criticised FJT post 1991 Bemba tribalism of government whereas MCS criticised LPM post 2002 Mukuni-Lenje tribalism of government by-named family tree.
Sata, EL and later CK post 2011 attack of Tonga negative tribalism was strange and different in that it was government or ruling party that attacked opposition as triball than vice versa. It was villain attack victim. For MCS and CK it was even deep Bemba.
What was also strange was that Mukuni-Lenje, Ila, Kaonde, Lunda, Luvale were all reclassified as Tonga.
Tonga was not anymore a tribe or one but a tribalism, a negative one at that.
Tribalism badly backfired through 2021 election results.
While tribal politics was clearly criminal and contradictory and divisive, and Tongas don’t have to defend themselves, the Tongas, like Mukuni-Lenje, have also not known how to accordingly defend themselves against such attacks but deny.
HH may not necessarily be Tonga but Lundwe that is between Tonga and Ila whereas ANC second president Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula was Ila of Maala, not Tonga.
HH himself has generally denied but practiced reverse tribalism of negative discrimination of his own tribe overcompensatiom of the other tribes.
UPND and HH have had no blueprint for tribalism as MMD or PF did with UNESCO local or community languages policies.
In short, other than deny and defend, the All Tonga Music Festival, let government initiate and sponsor similar festivals, or policies, in addition to partly state-approved-and-sponsored traditional ceremonies.
Let government through its ministry or NAC or such festivals separate music and food from traditional ceremonies as well as inditectly teach tribe from tribal from tribalism, positive or negative.
In the end, the (mission) Chikuni Community Radio Station-sponsored All Tonga Music Festival is positive tribalism to be celebrated and emulated by all whereas the Government-sponsored curriculum teaching of Tonga since 1969, at say Chipembi (mission) the nation’s first girl’s secondary that taught Mukuni-Lenje or say Mutakwa School near Chief Mungule or Lusaka City, is negative tribalism that must be stopped forthwith.