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Raymond Jaravaza/Gibson Mhaka
WHAT a coincidence!
SIXTY-SIX albums and he died at the age of 66 years and on the same day – 23 January, his best friend Hugh Masekela pioneer of jazz in South Africa, died.
Oliver Mtukudzi, one of Zimbabwe’s most renowned musicians, died on Wednesday afternoon at Avenues Clinic after a four-decade career.
Poet and musician Albert Nyathi described Mtukudzi as a unifier and one of the world’s finest and most distinctive musicians who fought for human rights, women and children’s rights as well as rights for the disadvantaged.
“I had a personal relationship with him and he used to call me umkhwenyana (son-in-law) and him being a father-in-law. What I can tell you is that he was a very humble musician, humble person who knew no tribe, who knew no race and who knew no creed, who only knew humanity and that’s what I remember him for. I also remember him singing happy birthday in 2015 while performing together in Spain and coming to my wife’s graduation, telling me a lot of things about life. At a personal level it hurts to know that he is gone.
“At international level it equally hurts because he is one person who I think was a unifier, someone who fought for human rights, women rights, children rights and rights for those who are disadvantaged. He was also a health hero, I remember him while in Geneva at a function we were invited by African ambassadors asking me who is a hero before telling me that health is wealth.”
Former radio presenter and actress, Tendai Chakanyuka, noted that the first time she met Tuku was at some function where he was performing.
“I told him I married into the Samanyangas and I became a daughter-in-law since.”
She said when she told him that the song ‘Nditendereiwo’ was her favourite and that he should sing it for her at her funeral, it became the beginning of a life-long joke.
“So that was our little joke every time we met. He would go, ‘daughter-in-law tiripamakwikwi ka ekuona kuti achaimbira mumwe ndiani. I have been playing that song since I got the news. I’m shattered,” she said.
Mtukudzi had long been depicted as a liberation singer whose message of social and political protest played an important role in shrugging off the yoke of colonial rule.
This narrative began to emerge even before Zimbabwe attained its Independence in 1980 as musicians of the time had found it expedient and desirable to add political notes in their lyrics.
In March 2003 the Time Magazine declared Mtukudzi ‘the People’s Voice’ describing him as a musician with an ability to “remind the powerful and the powerless of the possibility of change” through his timeless music.
One of the lowest points in Tuku’s life:
Losing his son Sam was arguably one of the lowest points in Mtukudzi’s life. Young Sam and his engineer, Owen Chimhare, died in a horrific car crash as they drove to Norton from Harare on 15 March 2010.
He was just 21 years.
Eight years after losing his son, Tuku reminisced on some of the good times he had shared with the budding musician.
“I discovered when he was the age of 10, when he invited me and his mother to his school. And on the programme I saw Sam was featuring under entertainment and I said ‘oh, oh, oh!’ And I saw my own amplifier being taken on stage, my own guitar being taken on stage and he played two songs or so. I thought this was a bit too early for my son, but what comforted me most was that he was playing his own compositions. I said. ‘Son, that amplifier and guitar are mine, next time don’t steal instruments’. From that time I saw the art in him and promoted it and not what I wanted him to be or what his mother wanted him to be (a pilot)”,” said Tuku.
Sam formed AY Band in 2006 and released his debut album with “Rume Rimwe” (2007) but occasionally joined his father on tour.
All was set for the public launch of his second album “Cheziya” to coincide with his birthday on April 1, 2010. Tragically, he died a fortnight before the event.
The Tuku family was shattered.
Tuku is survived by his wife Daisy, four children and two grandchildren.
Online Reporter