Botswana dancers perform at Lwiindi Gonde ceremony

The Makiri-kiri dancers from Botswana stole the show of the local dancing groups when they performed at the Lwiindi Gonde Traditional Ceremony of the Tonga people.

The ceremony is held annually at Gonde, west of Monze town to thank the ancestors for their good harvest.

The ceremony involves a visit to Gonde, a think shrub where the first Chief Monze who was a rain-maker is believed to have disappeared from at a place now regarded as a shrine. His body was never seen.  The second Chief Monze who was called Nchete Ilya mabwe meaning the King who eats stones who also a rain-maker is buried there. A visit to this place considered scared is lead by a team of spiritual-possessed women and men clad in black. Visitors to the shrine are supposed to be bare-feet. Women have mensuration are not allowed to visit the shrine.

Tradition has it that the present chief Monze descended from a long line dating from the 17th Century. The chief is a spiritual and cultural leader with considerable influence.

Vice president Guy Scott greeting the Chief

The current Chief Monze, Mangunza came to the throne in 1990. He hosts the Lwiindi Gonde Traditional Ceremony that attracts Tongas from all over the country every year in the month of July.

The Tonga people mainly occupy Southern province and there are believed to be the original Inhabitants in Zambia. There are said to have been in Southern province for for at least 600 years.

Zambia’s Vice president Guy Scott graced this year’s Lwiindi Gonde Traditional Ceremony on Monday, July 6, 2014.