Tonga Tribe Collection

The Tonga people lived in relative isolation in the fertile lands along the Zambezi Valley on both the Zambian and Zimbabwean sides before Lake Kariba flooded their villages in 1957-58. Tonga people in the Zambezi Valley were forcibly relocated to barren and difficult-to-farm lands to allow for the construction of the Kariba dam, one of the world's largest man-made dams. The Tonga people are mostly concentrated in southern Zambia and northern Zimbabwe's Matabeleland, which is separated from Zambia by the giant lake. The Tonga people are believed to be Zambia's first Bantu settlers. The name Tonga means "independent," referring to the fact that the Tonga tribe did not have chiefs (traditional leaders) like other tribes before colonization. Tonga are Bantu people who speak Chitonga language.