From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia.
The Dongas road protest
group were a
protest group in
England noted for their
occupation of
Twyford Down outside
Winchester,
Hampshire. This was a protest
against the
M3 motorway extension which
would destroy some of the
environment there. The name Dongas
comes from the
Matabele word for Gully.
This had somehow been given by
Winchester locals to the drovers
tracks on Twyford Down.
After they were driven from
Twyford Down by bulldozers, they
moved to
Bramdean Common. They
constituted about twenty people in
their early twenties. The group
maintained an involvement in
various subsequent road protests (Solsbury
Hill, North Wales, Newbury), but
gradually morphed into a
semi-nomadic 'tribe', travelling
the South West of England on foot,
squatting various hill-forts and
putting on seasonal gatherings in
an attempt to reawaken a sense of
connectedness with the land. The
last of the nomadic Dongas were
travelling in Cornwall until the
end of 1999, after which some of
them moved to France to continue
their nomadic lifestyle.
