Already at the end of January there was a review and planning workshop for Tonga.Online project held in Binga / Zimbabwe with members of Simonga and Maliko groups attending. Everybody applauded the participation at Parade in Linz / Austria as a major achievement for the promotion of Tonga music and culture. Some photos of the event in Linz were shown around and the Parade video documentary screened again with cheerful comments by Louis Maanje from Maliko. Copies of the documentary were handed over to both groups, Simonga and Maliko, and to some partners and stakeholders to appreciate their contributions and support.

Josiah Moyo: “A brief review of the Linz09 tour was shared during the review meeting, giving a view of the parade and the expectations of the entourage and the views of the Austrian people towards the Budima culture. After the meeting, the participants had a chance to see photos of the Linz parade and Mr. Louis Manje explained the Linz photos to participants.

A moment of silence was observed in honor of the late Keith Goddard. This was done at a video show which started after dinner. The participants braved to watch a 73 minutes video play. This DVD film is a compacted documentary of all the three days parade of which I urge everybody to take time to watch it. You will be thrilled to watch it over and over again, analyzing the performance, how people interacted and united not with language but with rhythm.

If you watch this DVD, yes you will strongly agree with inserts on the inside of the CD cover saying “I saw many happy and satisfied faces. People were interested and enjoyed it” by Balthasar Streiff/Hornroh. Michael Pilz actually summarized this video he said; “The beauty of this video is the confluent of different sound worlds and perspectives into one stream of positive energy in motion and in music. Its different approaches and qualities of filming are not defiance but on the contrary, they do reflect and underline the true character of parade as an adventure. What the video documentary reveals is that actually different parades were set up in one which moved sometimes parallel and some times even in the opposite direction in a cheerful, hilarious and pervasive way.”

Part of this DVD is a special tribute to Keith Goddard which lasts for four minutes. His dream come true, he slept a happy man. His expectations and desire were met. I quote his words. “I was more than I could have dreamed of. Their were moments of quite and others where musicians met, collided and passed each other. There were smiles on people’s faces; their were with musicians, surrounded by them, unseparated from them”. After a few months of saying these words, he passed on. Can we say, he was waiting for the parade to take place?”