Tonga artisans – Meet Elena and Betty

The Tonga region was one of the last places to be “westernized” in Zimbabwe, so until the year 2000 you could still meet women who had had their four front teeth knocked out to appear unattractive to the men of the neighboring tribes. – The neighboring tribes – all the way down to the capital – had on their side stories about the Tonga, such as they were little ones with hair on their backs and had six toes….

The Tonga lives in northern Zimbabwe near the Zambezi River, which forms the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is semi dessert and the area’s largest city is called Binga. Here you will find the district office, schools, library, museum, art center, crocodile farms, a and the smallest SPAR store imaginable.

Meet Elena, 44 years old and Betty, 55 years old who are some of the women working with ilala palm baskets at their home-steads in the North west of Zimbabwe.

How many years have you been weaving baskets?

Betty says laughing: All my life. As a tonga woman you learn to make baskets for your house hold.

What were they used for traditionally:

Betty: For our grain and seeds and for ceremonies by the Nyanga (traditional healer)

Tell us about your craft:

Elena: In the olden days we used to make pattern like our totem animal or like any animal we meet in the bush, as an example, the cobra, the zebra, the tracks in the sand from giraffes and so on.

Betty: Nowa days the young people are not interested in learning the old pattern, it takes too long, they say.

Why is this work important to you:

Betty: I like the weaving group of other women and I need the money for my grandchildren who lives with me.

Elena: There are very few jobs around here, so the income from baskets gives us money so we have for the children, to take them to the health clinic or to pay for school fees.

What do you feel is the most important thing about the tonga baskets?

Betty: The tradition, our traditional weaving methods and the patterns from our history.

Elena: We can earn money on our cultural heritage

The Tonga baskets are made from Ilala palm leaves which are harvested from the low palms living in the sandy soil in Northern Zimbabwe. The Leaves are separated on the long joint and the plant material is rolled up into individual bundles and boiled in a large pot for hours to make it soft and more compliant with the braiding work.

The dark pattern is Ilala palm stained with Bermech tree bark.

The Ilala palm grows wild and is replanted to secure the raw material for many years of Tonga baskets.

What’s your relationship with “House by the Sea”

Elena: We have been working together for a very long time. Since 200, that was the first year, HVH made us Fairtrade Producer under Fairtrade Denmark.

Tonga baskets, modern but with a traditional touch.

The Tonga people is the third largest tribe in Zimbabwe after the Ndebele and the ruling tribe, the Shonas.

In the old days, they were anglers on the river with their canoes of hollowed out tree trunks, and they supplemented the diet with vegetables from small farms on the riverbank. Their houses were spectacular as they were round African huts built on 1.5m high poles, so when the water rose in the rainy season it posed no danger to them and their families.

The Tonga has their own language which the Tongans struggle to preserve in schools. In the late 1990s, The Danish Foreign Ministry (Danida) built a library in Binga Town for the Tonga and a museum for the preservation of artefacts and for the dissemination of the special Tongan culture. They also have of cause their own music, which is said to be nice and special.

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