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A team of AZFA delegates led by Peter Kuthan, AZFA Chair person, visited Sinazongwe in Zambia's Southern Province from the 20th to the 31st of July 2013 to render support to the Community Radio station Zongwe FM. The radio experts Marcus Diess and Mario Friedwagner installed a 500watt-transmitter, replacing the old one (with 100watt only). Zongwe FM’s transmission radius has now more than doubled the previous one in a bid to enhance a wider broadcasting coverage of the station at 105.0 MHz. They also dealt with all the faults in the studio in a bid to facelift it for a full operation and provided for some relevant training.

"KUNZWANA comes from the Shona word nzw(an)a which means
‘listening, hearing and understanding one another’." - Keith Goddard

CONCEPT  

Kunzwana # 1 is both a musical journey and cross-cultural collaboration featuring some outstanding and innovative Austrian musicians with their Zimbabwean counterparts.

As a kind of prelude the Austrian artists will visit the group Simonga in the village of Siachilaba in the Binga area along the Zambezi River.  This encounter aims to recognise the traditional Ngoma Buntibe music as highly appreciated musical art form / Tonkunst of the Tonga people, and highlight it again as a source of inspiration.  From there the Austrian artists will take some more impressions and ideas along on their journey to Harare.

At the Book Café in Harare the quartet from Austria will meet some outstanding and open-minded Zimbabwean musicians for an extensive exchange. They will retreat for an intense rehearsal phase with a focus on Mbira music and its derivative forms such as Chimurenga and Mbira-inspired contemporary music styles.  Such dense and creative interaction will result in the formation of the cross-cultural Kunzwana # 1 ensemble, striking a balance between different styles and cultures and ready to excel in performances at the Book Café and Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) 2014, and other venues in Southern Africa.  Further joint performances at music festivals in Austria in July 2014 are already in the pipeline.

Access to information by the rural communities of the Zambezi valley district of Sinazongwe in Zambia is still a very big challenge. Just like on the Zimbabwean side, national radio and Television reception in this area is very poor. Newspapers also rarely reach the area as it is over 100km off the main high way linking Lusaka and Livingstone. Newspaper vendors find very little persuasion to develop the Sinazongwe route. Privately run electronic media is also not available in the whole district except at Maamba mine, over 80km from the local population of Sinazongwe district. This situation makes it very difficult for the remote communities to participate in the democratic processes of the country. Since 2006 the Austria-Zimbabwe Friendship Association (AZFA) has responded to these challenges by assisting in the implementation of an ICT project at Sinazongwe Basic School, in partnership with Basilwizi Trust as well as with support from HIVOS. In 2007 some volunteers from Free Radio movement in Austria have stepped in to establish a Radio studio and to train some aspiring community members in broadcasting. This ICT4D and community radio project is now part of a wider education and culture support program of Basilwizi Trust and aims at ensuring the community takes part in national issues through information, educational and cultural promotion.

For the Tonga people like me, there is something deeply biblical about the word MULONGA, yet it is a modern story too. One of massive but unshared technology. One of plentiful water but perpetual drought." (Dominic Muntanga)

[an electro-acoustic composition by Keith Goddard, based on field recordings collected in the Tonga area and the nyele ngoma buntibe composition, ToendeTukulime, by Peter Mwembe. THE MONOLITH was realised in 1997 by Keith Goddard and Klaus Hollinetz in the OK studios, Linz, Austria.]

THE MONOLITH forms part of a larger sound installation, “Wounded Earth and they Greet us with Guns“ which explores the world of the Valley Tonga, a marginalised people who live on both sides of the Zambezi River in the Binga district of Zimbabwe and the Gwembe Valley in Zambia. The lives of the Tonga were severely disrupted in 1957 when they were forcibly moved from their ancestral homes and relocated on higher ground to make way for the building of Kariba dam.

The original concept is an extension of a theme which first appeared in a short story by Arthur C Clarke and which was later expanded in the Stanley Kubrick film "2001 Space Odessy" where the music associated with the monolith is the requiem of György Ligeti.