Tonga tunes

The Chikuni music festival is an annual event held in September which seeks to promote traditional Tonga music, which is the dominant tribe in this part of the Southern Province. The village of Chikuni is about 2 or so hours south from Mazabuka and a place that Marco lived and worked in for two years when he first came to Zambia. So he guided us around the village, waving to various familiar faces and then we ended up at the home of a former neighbour. Kasonde and his family had prepared a feast for us – pork and goat cooked on the braii, nshima, various local vegetables and some beer too. We could not have received a warmer, friendlier welcome. We then spent the afternoon listening away to the various acts performing at the stage – having no real idea of what they were saying as the singing was all in Tonga but enjoying the music anyway. Some acts were simply a man on stage singing and strumming his homemade guitar, whilst others were much bigger with 10 or more people of dancers, singers and musicians. As dusk came in we headed back to Maz to continue our cultural experience, though this included enjoying the Lebanese food ordered from our neighbour (great hummus), and dancing and drinking away until the early hours. Needless to say Sunday was a lazy, lazy day.