MOKOOMBA - MULONGA - ALM

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Created: Wednesday, 07 June 2023 10:51

Radio Transfer - Communities in dialogue: A project in the context of the European Capital of Culture Bad Ischl/Salzkammergut 2024

The concert of the band Mokoomba from Zimbabwe on 24th June at the Old Sawmill Schoenau 8 in Scharnstein / AT is celebrating the building of a Radio Bridge North-South between the Alm and Zambezi rivers. The communication and exchange of stories between pupils at schools in Austria, Zambia and Zimbabwe has already started. It is organised by Radio B138 on the Austrian and Radio Zongwe FM on the Zambian side.

Zongwe FM is a Community Radio station of the Tonga people in Sinazongwe on the Northern shores of Lake Kariba how the dammed Zambezi is called. Since the radio station was set up in 2007, there has been an ongoing collaboration with some Free Radios in Austria, facilitated by Austria-Zimbabwe Friendship Association AZFA in Linz and its partners Kunzwana Trust in Harare and Panos Southern Africa in Lusaka.

Radio B138 is hosting the Radio Bridge at the Old Sawmill Schoenau 8 in Scharnstein in collaboration with Kulturverein Mühldorf and Freies Radio Salzkammergut. The location provides space for some artwork from earlier and ongoing cultural exchanges with the Tonga communities.

The Radio Bridge will be highlighted already on Tuesday 20th June from 19:07 - with a live broadcast by Radio B138 at Schoenau 8 with some radioletters as introduced and co- moderated by our partner Claudia Wegener from radio continental drift   Listen to audios of the correspondence so far: https://archive.org/details/radiocontinentaldrift?tab=collection&query=radio-Bridges+South-North+23

tune in:    https://cba.fro.at/podcast/radio-transfer-communities-in-dialogue

 

 

From Upper Austria to the Zambezi Valley with Love

The lineup of the concert on 24th June at Schoenau 8 in Scharnstein is as follows:

  • The Monolith, a sound installation mounted in the now defunct rift saw recalls a composition by Klaus Hollinetz and the late Keith Goddard, one of the Six Reflections on Tonga Music from 1996/97 https://www.kunzwana.net/content/composer/
  • Grenzwertig, a band originating from different regions in Austria and crossing musical borders by fusing the traditional styles with a fascinating mix of contemporary sounds on string, brass and percussion instruments https://www.grenz-wertig.at/
  • Fadi Dorninger "TongaMusicRemix" a Live-Remix-Collage of sound and video footage from various encounters with Tonga music https://dorftv.at/video/41441
  • Mokoomba, one of the highlights at the recent Bushfire Festival in Eswatini „is bringing their fire with a dazzling performance which had audience members singing along.“ https://mokoomba.band/
  • Aftershow Party with RadioB138 DJs

The band Mokoomba from Victoria Falls belong to a younger generation of musicians from diverse cultural backgrounds keen to absorb various influences of modern life into an exciting mix of Afro-fusion and seductive traditional rhythms. Their homeground is Chinotimba Township in Victoria Falls, a crosspoint of diverse people and cultures and located near one of the biggest waterfalls in the world. Mosi-oa-Tunya how it is called in Tonga language, the smoke that thunders, where the Zambezi plunges into the deep Batoka gorge.

The band name Mokoomba means 'deep respect for the river', another ode to the Zambezi which is called Mulonga in the language of the local Tonga people. Tonga is synonymous to "the people of the great river". And Mulonga summarises that concept as a spiritual reference to the river. It is deeply rooted in the history and culture that the Tonga people share, both on the Zambian and the Zimbabwean side. Mokoomba are ideal messengers to link up between people and cultures in the Zambezi Valley and in the Almtal in Upper Austria.

The concert on 24th June will be streamed by Radio B138 with some sound / videoclips from the Southern side of the Radio Bridge where Maliko and Simonga with some more people on both sides of the Zambezi are joining the celebrations and the party. More soon: https://www.radiob138.at/

The concert is also the start of a fundraising campaign for the installation of a solar energy system to contribute to the sustainable running of Zongwe FM radio station in the future.

Life is in the River – Buumi buli mu Mulonga” (Andy Kampamu / chairman Zongwe FM)

Tune in and stay tuned:

https://archive.org/details/audio-letters-btw-UpperAustria-and-ZambeziValley
https://archive.org/details/Binga-Sounds-Building-Radio-Bridges-South-North-23
https://archive.org/details/message-from-zongwe-fm-press-club-zambia


read / watch / listen more:

Tonga.Onair – The setup of Zongwe FM in Sinazongwe, 2010, https://dorftv.at/video/450

FROzine - Both sides of the Zambesi, 2018, https://dorftv.at/video/28606
Zongwe FM – A radio bridge across the Zambezi, 2019, https://dorftv.at/video/30971

Technical mission to support the transfer of Zongwe FM station from Sinazongwe Basic School to the Boma, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng3vtQh7duk