PICTURE: Tsonga people at Boli-Mhlanguleni Business Centre in Chiredzi South. INSERT: The inferiority complex imposed on them result with most men risking lives crossing Limpopo River on foot into South Africa for a greener pastures.
IN preceding centuries, people of different nations have been terming other cultures as inferior or backward. This system of rating each other’s culture as inferior or superior is found across the globe with most fingers being pointed at elite nations like Australia, Canada, Mexico, Scotland and New Zealand as promoters of the concept.
The people who originated the issue of cultural classification used the following aspects as measures of cultural backwardness and inferiority: extremely low level of literacy, extremely low percentage of children in school, absence of a written script connected to a literary language, an extremely low level of national cadres and existence of "social indications” that include oppression of women, racial hostility, nomadism as well as religious fanaticism.
Analysts suggest that for the originators to achieve their goal, they had to brainwash the host cultures. They used the “colonial mentality” to regard their cultures as superior and elite. With that in mind, the colonised people had to strive to match or copy the elite cultures. This resulted with natives alienating themselves with own culture.
The cultural classifications has led to what is termed as cultural cringe or inferiority complex. When natives realised that their cultures had been made cheap, they ended up heaping their frustration on other local cultures. It’s surprising that African people who shy away from their African identity find solace in rating own brothers as inferior. The Masai people of Kenya and the San people of Botswana are regarded backward by fellow Africans. In Zambia, the Kunda people of Chief Jumbe in Chipata district are regarded backward fellow Zambians.
Zimbabwe isn’t spared in the cultural inferiority muddle. While accepting being inferior to other foreign cultures, a huge segment of native Zimbabweans has been seen regarding the San people of Tsholotsho, the Tonga of Binga, the Remba people of Mberengwa, the Tsonga (also known as Shangaan) people of Chiredzi and foreigners like the Sena people of Mozambique as very backward and inferior. Is any culture really backward or inferior?
This article shall discuss the case of Tsonga people and their culture. Being traditional agriculturalists and hunters, the Tsonga people can be simply be described as a peaceful people. The Tsonga deny that they have anything to do with the name Shangaan which have overshadowed their identity. One may wonder how it happened.
This happened in the 19th century when Ngunis under Soshangana incorporated Tsonga tribes like Rhonga, Bila (Bhiyeni/Bileni Masiye), Ngomane, Shongonono, Hlengwe, Ndzawu (Ndau), and many others. Soshangana later called his people Shangana. Tsongas claim that if ever the word Shangaan is to be used, people should come to know that Shangaan might be a segment of Tsonga people since not all Tsonga tribes became assimilated into Soshangana’s people.
Present day Tsongas are mostly found in the South Eastern part of Zimbabwe in Chipinge and Chiredzi districts although some may be found in Mwenezi and Zaka districts, Gaza Province of southern Mozambique and Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces of Eastern and Northern South Africa respectively. There is no official number of the Tsonga population in Zimbabwe but estimates say they may be over a million.
Tsonga people in Chiredzi are under Chiefs Tshovani, Sengwe and Gudo. In Chipinge they are under Chief Mahenye. In Zaka they’re under Chief Benzi as Chief Chitanga houses those of Mwenezi. Common Tsonga totems are: Baloyi (Baboon), Chauke (Snail & Fire), Manyise (long nosed rat) and Nyarhi (Buffalo). Save for Chief Gudo who is not Tsonga himself but of Sangwe tribe and of the Khumbula/Hliziyo (Heart) totem, all Tsonga chiefs in Zimbabwe are of the Chauke totem.
Some parts of Chipinge district and the whole of Chiredzi district lie in the arid region of the south-east Lowveld of Zimbabwe. The area receives an average 450mm of rainfall per annum. Crops like maize are not guaranteed of good yields. Livestock farming is ideal for the area. The prevailing climate change has seen the Lowveld losing more than 3800 cattle; 1300 being in Chipinge and 2500 in Chiredzi.
Labelling of Tsongas by some Zimbabweans as an inferior and backward people has affected development of their communities. Most males who got trapped in the inferiority web have found themselves quitting school at a tender age and trekking down south without proper educational qualifications or legal papers. Some of the males, in a desperate bid to enter South Africa, risk crossing the Limpopo River on foot in an operation termed as Dabula-up.
Elderly people aren’t spared in the Dabula-up trekking. A baseline survey that was conducted in 2011 by Plan Zimbabwe revealed that more than 60 percent of households in Mpakati, Chikombedzi, Malipati, Dumisa and Samu areas of Chiredzi South are being headed by women and children. The males are in South Africa.
As a result, despite donour or government food handouts more than 80 percent of the families skip meals in order to survive. Most children headed families survive using the 0-0-1 meal format meaning zero breakfast, zero lunch and one supper per day. In extreme cases, some child headed families may sleep on wild fruits.
The issue of some Africans underrating the Tsongas and their culture is so disturbing. In 1999, on our way to the Outward Bound which is near Chimanimani National Park, we took with us some artists who wanted to attend the now defunct Chimanimani Arts Festival.
The artists were under a banner of a theatre group that had been assembled by The Malilangwe Trust of Chiredzi to produce a theatre piece named “Kukwita – The limping leopard” directed by South Africa’s celebrated comedian Nik Rabinowitz, I asked one South African guy who claimed to have acted in a South African movie called Sarafina what had led to the assassination of self-proclaimed king of Tsonga disco music, Peta Teanet.
His answer was, “Who is Peta Teanet?” When I gave him the singer’s identity he replied, “I don’t regard such people as singers. Singers in South Africa are Brenda Fassie, Chicco and Lucky Dube.”
The Tsonga people have been underrated by some of us Africans to the extent that most male Tsongas end up hiding their identity in order to marry women from other cultures. They may adopt names or totems from “superior” cultures.
What aspects of Tsonga culture will they be hiding? Is Tsonga culture really backward and inferior for tourism? The forthcoming article shall discuss the questions.