Calvin Dondo
Tales of Resilience
First Floor Gallery Harare (Harare)
Tales of Resilience
First Floor Gallery Harare (Harare)
First Floor Gallery Harare is proud to host Calvin Dondo’s first solo exhibition in Harare in almost a decade. The veteran photographer, is a legend among Zimbabwean photography community. He is both the father of contemporary photography in Zimbabwe but also as an advocate for the medium, who has persevered despite huge odds, to support emerging photographers in the country through Gwanza the photography festival he founded in 2002 and which ran for more than a decade.
It makes sense that the resilience that characterises Dondo’s work, can also be expressed through his choices subject matter. Few historical incidents in Zimbabwe speak to resilience as poignantly as the story of the Tonga people. More than 57,000 Tonga were uprooted and displaced by the construction of the Kariba Dam 1955-1959. And while the Dam was hailed as a technological wonder and progress for Zimbabwe, the human cost and legacy of destruction persists till today.
Dondo has been working with and documenting the lives and travails of the Tonga people in Binga for over twenty years. “Tales of Resistance” which features more than twenty photographs, represents just a small fraction of the many images he has taken over this period but gives us a poignant insight into the lives and emotional fortitude of the Tonga.
The exhibition is supported by a series of video documentaries about the Tonga and the story of the construction of Kariba Dam, told from different perspectives, ensuring that the history of the Tonga is not forgotten and their culture is respected and preserved.
Valerie Kabov
Curator
©2024
It makes sense that the resilience that characterises Dondo’s work, can also be expressed through his choices subject matter. Few historical incidents in Zimbabwe speak to resilience as poignantly as the story of the Tonga people. More than 57,000 Tonga were uprooted and displaced by the construction of the Kariba Dam 1955-1959. And while the Dam was hailed as a technological wonder and progress for Zimbabwe, the human cost and legacy of destruction persists till today.
Dondo has been working with and documenting the lives and travails of the Tonga people in Binga for over twenty years. “Tales of Resistance” which features more than twenty photographs, represents just a small fraction of the many images he has taken over this period but gives us a poignant insight into the lives and emotional fortitude of the Tonga.
The exhibition is supported by a series of video documentaries about the Tonga and the story of the construction of Kariba Dam, told from different perspectives, ensuring that the history of the Tonga is not forgotten and their culture is respected and preserved.
Valerie Kabov
Curator
©2024
“Kariba dam remains the worst dam resettlement disaster in African history”.- Jacques Leslie Deep Water (2005)
Tonga people trace their origins to Central Africa, arriving in Zimbabwe about 300 CE. Their forefathers favoured the riverine areas along the Zambezi, Kana, Mzola and Tshongokwe Rivers in Zimbabwe and Zambia. Due to high fertility grounds of the land, the tribe cultivated crops and reared livestock. Here they grew their crops in the rich soils along the water, supplementing this through gathering wild plants, hunting wild animals and fishing. They are a tribe that is regarded as peaceful and the early settlers also regarded them as wholesome and “entirely peaceful”.
The Tonga people were displaced from the shores of Zambezi River in 1959 when Kariba Dam was built and flooded their settlements. The area of their displacement stretched up from the valley to Binga district, Chirundu Kariba town, Mola as well as Victoria Falls. The majority of the population was moved upstream with communities split between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The forced resettlement resulted in serious disruptions of the socio-economic and cultural environment of the Tonga people and impacted relationships within and outside of the Tonga community. The Tonga were highly devoted in terms of spirituality and tradition and believed in a god that was presumed to have guided them in their daily lives. The visual representation of the god who lived by the Zambezi River was of a snake/fish and this spiritual being was concluded to have helped the tribe against the construction of the dam but to others this remains a myth. The devastation of Tonga communities caused rage and to date there have been no reparations made to compensate the Tonga for their displacement.
The video compilation, includes footage from the construction of the Kariba Dam where 196 construction workers lost their lives as well as the brief history of the Kariba Dam and impact of Zambezi River on Tonga People of Zimbabwe and Zambia, the dam being officially opened and Operation Noah that was funded to rescue wild animals and human beings during flood damages along The River.
Miriro Mwandiambira ©2024
Tonga people trace their origins to Central Africa, arriving in Zimbabwe about 300 CE. Their forefathers favoured the riverine areas along the Zambezi, Kana, Mzola and Tshongokwe Rivers in Zimbabwe and Zambia. Due to high fertility grounds of the land, the tribe cultivated crops and reared livestock. Here they grew their crops in the rich soils along the water, supplementing this through gathering wild plants, hunting wild animals and fishing. They are a tribe that is regarded as peaceful and the early settlers also regarded them as wholesome and “entirely peaceful”.
The Tonga people were displaced from the shores of Zambezi River in 1959 when Kariba Dam was built and flooded their settlements. The area of their displacement stretched up from the valley to Binga district, Chirundu Kariba town, Mola as well as Victoria Falls. The majority of the population was moved upstream with communities split between Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The forced resettlement resulted in serious disruptions of the socio-economic and cultural environment of the Tonga people and impacted relationships within and outside of the Tonga community. The Tonga were highly devoted in terms of spirituality and tradition and believed in a god that was presumed to have guided them in their daily lives. The visual representation of the god who lived by the Zambezi River was of a snake/fish and this spiritual being was concluded to have helped the tribe against the construction of the dam but to others this remains a myth. The devastation of Tonga communities caused rage and to date there have been no reparations made to compensate the Tonga for their displacement.
The video compilation, includes footage from the construction of the Kariba Dam where 196 construction workers lost their lives as well as the brief history of the Kariba Dam and impact of Zambezi River on Tonga People of Zimbabwe and Zambia, the dam being officially opened and Operation Noah that was funded to rescue wild animals and human beings during flood damages along The River.
Miriro Mwandiambira ©2024
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