The recently launched Very Tsonga beverage brand image is hard to ignore with all the bright and jolly colours posed in their range of wine, gin and tonic.
The founder of the brand, Mashudu Mfomande says that she was inspired by the VaTsonga fabric and the over emphasis of her son who always insisted to be treated a full blown Tsonga and not what people think he is.
This is one brand that represents well, the stature as well the warm spirit of Va-Tsonga people in being gracious, kind and solemnly respectful and generous.
The aim of it all Mashudu says is to promote individual cultural identity of Vatsonga and Machangana and build social cohesion of different tribes in South Africa and integration of other African tribes with the rest of the world as well as to educate South African’s, especially Vatsonga-Machangana to be proud of who they are by promoting the indigenous languages and heritage every day through food, fashion, music, arts and crafts
Bright colours symbolize lightheadedness, and what better way to be lightheaded over a nice bottle of wine, vodka or gin that presents light in colour.
She explains it as a Cultural Brand driving change and bringing together the old and the modern to an acceptable equilibrium while promoting language, culture and heritage through beverages, food, fashion, music, together with arts and crafts.”
Having worked as a human rights activist and an events planner who got tired of toitoing (protesting) when she opened a pub and a food joint selling traditional when she started initiating the beverage brand
“The idea came in 2013 where i had written a concept to promote art, culture, heritage and language for all cultures and tribes but was hard to take off through due to multicultural issues until I parked it one side to promote my own culture and in a way that worked. I thought what better way to show off my own culture than in a beverage brand.”
The Very Tsonga Brand is currently doing expose tours across Limpopo and Mpumalanga in the spirit of a Tsonga culture revival experience
Mashudu already comes with a background and knowledge of beverages having worked as an events planner in the past, therefore incorporating a variety of drinks with the aim of accommodating different people and their needs was not a hustle.
