By Fortunate Gunde
KARIBA – Traditional leaders in Kariba are being urged to unite and conduct a single cultural ceremony to seek calm waters and peace around Lake Kariba, amid concerns from residents about increasingly uncoordinated ritual activities along the lake.
The call comes as Kariba communities grapple with a complex mix of cultural beliefs, a history of displacement, and increasing encounters between people and wildlife. The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority reported that Kariba was among the country’s human-wildlife conflict hotspots in 2025, with crocodiles, elephants, and other wildlife posing risks to communities.
Lake Kariba also claimed 97 lives when the Mbuya Nehanda ferry capsized on September 11.
Elder Francis Gadzikwa of Nyamhunga 1 said traditional leaders should work together to restore cultural order and address growing concerns regarding human-wildlife conflict and spiritual practices around the lake.
“Chiefs must put their heads together to pray for calm waters and peace in Kariba,” Gadzikwa said in an interview with New Ziana.
He said the Tonga people and traditional leaders, including Chief Nyamhunga, historically regarded the Zambezi River and its surrounding environment as culturally significant.
“When the dam was built in 1959, white settlers used to pour silver coins while discussing it. That means they understood our culture and did what was supposed to be done,” Gadzikwa said.
He said the construction of the Kariba Dam transformed the community’s relationship with the river. The dam, built between 1955 and 1959, flooded large areas of the Zambezi Valley and displaced about 57,000 Tonga people in Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Gadzikwa recalled a time when residents experienced fewer encounters with wildlife.
“We could swim from Irvin and Johnson, now called Pama, to Mandebvu Island without encountering crocodiles or hippos,” he recalled.
He noted that residents now encounter numerous and uncoordinated spiritual practices along the lakeshore.
“If we go to the lake, we see hens, sweets, and other items that we never saw in the past. We see some white-garment churches performing certain rituals, and traditional healers conducting different practices as well,” Gadzikwa said.
He cited offerings allegedly left around Lake Harvest Harbour as evidence of what he considers inadequate traditional oversight.
“There are sweets, rice, eggs, and hens spread everywhere. This shows that control is now too weak,” he said.
Another resident, who requested anonymity, said the proliferation of rituals had become a concern among some community members.
The resident said traditional leaders should coordinate any ceremony rather than allowing multiple groups to conduct separate rituals.
“They should appease the spirit of this place, saying, ‘This water which you use, may you please make it calm so that peace reigns again in Kariba,’” she said.
Lake Kariba remains central to local fishing, tourism, and wildlife conservation. Its shoreline also poses documented risks from crocodiles and hippos, particularly for fishing communities.
Tonga cultural beliefs associated with the Zambezi, including traditions surrounding Nyaminyami, remain an important part of Kariba’s cultural identity, although spiritual explanations for natural events differ from scientific ones.
