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67 The origin of the name Binga The following morning, I leave my lodge to experience dawn by the lakeside and join several other creatures in the pomp and pageantry that marks the start of a new day. The distinctive call of the fish eagle announces the advance of the sun. It is a contented and expectant call. The fish that abound in the lake are its breakfast, its lunch and dinner. Fishermen are prohibited from fishing in this particular area. Super, our attendant, calls it maternity. This is where fish spawn. Just last night I was reading about various dangerous fish. The beautiful tiger fish is said to have teeth that are razor sharp. When removing the hook, use long nosed pliers and keep a very firm grip on the fish in the gill area. Don’t throw a tiger fish into the boat, it could bite someone. Even the beautiful ones do bite, eh! I commented to myself quietly. The next fish is the squeaker. Squeakers come out of the water with a characteristic squeaking noise. They have three very strong barbed fins that can close onto fingers if you grasp its body. This world is no home for the vulnerable and the defenceless. It’s the survival of the sharpest. Then there is the electric cat fish, the most dangerous. This is a mottled, bloated-looking barbed type of fish. It can push out up to 500 volts. Cut your line if you catch one lest it touches your body. There is nothing new in man’s discoveries, after all. Nature already has these things. I never imagined a fish could generate up to 500 volts, enough to light up Sankojana Rural Business Centre, Sankonjana School and Sankonjana Rural Health Centre. I should not end on a sad fishy note. There are less harmful fish that are safe to catch, either for sport or for the pot. This category includes bottlenose, bream, barbel and the ubiquitous matemba. Other birds join the fish eagle, each with its own song. About an hour from the break of dawn, the chirping from the song-birds is an overwhelming experience. Various insects bring in alto, tenor and unclassified sounds. A lone baboon performs an acrobatic stunt on a mopane tree and caps it with a cacophonous bark that reverberates down the smoke-covered valley. There are many fires burning inland and the smoke settles in the lower valleys. The rocks on the shore are reflected on the water. The fine breeze creates dancing reflections. An odd fishing rig can be seen returning home with a night’s catch of matemba. It’s now time for another encounter with Duncan Sinampande. Today I start with the name Binga. The Tonga word binga means to drive or 68 to lead. The man who got the name of Binga used to be under Chief Sikalenge, of the Banenge clan. When it was realised that Chief Sikalenge had too many people under his charge, a man was asked to lead some of these people and start a new chieftainship. The man who led these people was called Binga. The whole district is today named after that man. Sinampande points out that Binga became more famous at the time of colonisation, because he quickly endeared himself to the new white masters. “What does the name Tonga mean?” I ask inquisitively. Sinampande shakes his head and pleads ignorance on the meaning of the name. I tell him what Aeneas Chigwedere suggested as the meaning. It is derived from ‘donga wadonga’, meaning chaos. This suggests that the Tonga people did not have a centralised form of government like the Shona and the Ndebele. Instead, each chief and his people lived independently. Sinampande finds it difficult to disagree with the historian Aeneas Chigwedere. If anything, he confirms his assertion. Unlike in other districts of Matabeleland, there are no headmen in Binga. Sinampande identifies seventeen chiefs. However, he is not sure about Gavula. He divides these chiefs into the dialects they speak. The Chiwe dialect is spoken by the people of chiefs Siyabuwa, Mola, Sinampande, Sinamusanga, Sinakatenge, Sinamwenda; Siamupa, Sinansegwe and Sinakooma. All these chiefs, with the exception of Siyabuwa, used to live very close to the Zambezi River and were evicted during the construction of the Kariba Dam. The Chiwe dialect is spoken also on the Zambian side. The second dialect of Chinamwenda is spoken by the people under chiefs Sikalenge, Binga, Siansali and Siachilaba. The third dialect, Chinamalundu...

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