The Tonga people are a group of people who maintains, preserves themselves from cultural capture. Reading from various scripts, researches one would realise whether these types of groupings are still there in the modern world. Lovely found in Zimbabwe, these people are a beautiful people, the head of the house leads by example for instance the head of the family or the matriarch’s name is scribbled on the walls to quickly show the passers-by that the owner of the homestead is Mr/Mrs So and So.
Tonga people have remained mostly the dominant group with a history to trace and tourist would want to visit the place which have that unique of living their life. They have images of animals such as the hippo, elephant or crocodiles drawn on the walls to resemble family totems. The BaTonga believed to have been displaced from the banks of the Zambezi River, they built their huts on the animal pathways to the river for water but they built these huts on stilts which would raise them above from being trampled or crushed by chaotic, running animals. Lions and hyenas would devour them alive. The BaTonga build huts that they would climb during the night. These animals would pass or rest underneath the stilted huts and not harm them.
The area they have put themselves ever since is known for wild animals and they have related very well knowing that such animal for instance elephants need to be chased with any sound for them to do the farming. As for their homestead Tongas prompted the switch from the ground to above the ground some hundreds of years ago is a matter for conjecture, but defence must surely have been a factor as well as the natural ventilation provided by the huts during the hot summer days in the Zambezi escarpment.
The BaTonga is the name which resembles who these people are with pride and dignity. Homesteads such as granary has special designs where different types of grains are stored even for years. Granaries are suspended on stilted poles or stones in other groupings of people even the Shonas but for the BaTonga people, they uniquely stored their grain in these stilted huts to avoid termites, insects and other vermin from eating the harvest.
It is understood that poles used for the building of the granaries were from special trees which are thoroughly treated with oil derived from reptiles such as crocodiles and snakes. Doors to the huts are made from strong teak and mahogany logs felled on the banks of the Zambezi River. As stated above the BaTonga people are the darling for the tourist because they have maintained who they are without interference of globalisation. Anything of their art is a treasure for most tourists because of their strength and cultural significance.
