Author promotes Tonga language

Saturday Leisure recently caught up with the writer who said he has teamed up with other writers to form their own association that pens Tonga books.
“Tonga is one of the languages that have been marginalised for a very long time and during my school days we used to be taught in IsiNdebele from Grade One up to Form Four.
“As Tonga writers we decided to form our own association and we are busy writing our own Tonga novels that can be used by our own children,” he said.
Mungombe said as a writer he started lobbying for the adoption of Tonga to be part of Zimbabwe’s education curriculum in 2000.
“When I started going to school in the 1980s we were being taught in Ndebele and the whole learning process was more challenging.
“With that in mind I told myself that           one day I was going to fight for my own language to be taught in different schools,” he said.
The writer said soon after completing his Diploma in Education in 1995 he started penning his Tonga textbook called Bwachalino.
“I started by writing a Grade One textbook in 1996 and in this textbook I was                mainly focusing on the basics of Tonga language.
“As we speak, I have seven textbooks that are part of the Zimbabwean curriculum and these books are used by all the grades,” he said.
Bwachilino textbooks were meant to be part of the Zimbabwean education curriculum in 2006.
“It took me more than five years lobbying for these books to be part of the Zimbabwean education curriculum.
“When the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture accepted my proposal they gave me standards to follow and I was given the green light to write set books to be used in Binga high schools,” he said.
The writer said a number of Tonga writers are busy penning books that are going to be used in Binga schools.
“Our aim as writers is to promote our language that has been marginalised for a very long time so we are working on a number of books.
“This move will in turn help us preserve our culture that is slowly being eroded by the western cultures,” he said.
The writer said he was born in 1972 in an area called Siachilaba in Binga.
“I developed an interest in writing Tonga from the time I was still at primary school in 1984.
“By then I was doing my Grade Five at Siachilaba Primary School,” he said.
Mungombe said he later developed a passion to write novels at secondary school.
“After completing my primary school I proceeded to Manjolo Secondary School,” he said.
The writer said as students they encouraged each other and that’s when he started writing short stories.
The writer said he continued nurturing his writing skills up to the time when he completed his Diploma in Education in 1995.
“I later decided to write my own books soon after completing my education as I now understood the importance of teaching children their mother language at school,” he said.