Tonga language (Zambia and Zimbabwe) Tonga language (Zambia and Zimbabwe) Tonga ("Chitonga"), also known as "Zambezi", is a Bantu language primarily spoken by the Tonga people who live mainly in the Southern and Western provinces of Zambia, and in northern Zimbabwe, with a few in Mozambique. The language is also spoken by the Iwe, Toka and Leya people, and perhaps by the Kafwe Twa (if they are not Ila), as well as many bilingual Zambians and Zimbabweans. It is one of the major lingua francas in Zambia, together with Bemba, Lozi and Nyanja. The Tonga of Malawi, which is classified by Guthrie as belonging to
Botswana–South Africa border the Limpopo River, and the border runs along the Limpopo to its confluence with the Shashe River, which is the tripoint with Zimbabwe. The western portion of the border from the Namibian tripoint to Ramatlabama was the border between British Bechuanaland to the south and the Bechuanaland Protectorate to the north. British Bechuanaland was constituted as a Crown Colony by proclamation in 1885, and incorporated the lands of the Tswana people situated to the south of the Molopo River, west of the South African Republic (the Transvaal) and not already part of the Cape Colony. The Tswana lands north of