Bruce Ndlovu [email protected]
WHEN we look back on the life and death of the late Mgcini “Cal_vin” Nhliziyo, we can say obituaries are written too soon.
When Cal_vin tragically lost his life, almost six years to the day today, many, including this reporter, rushed to remember or, perhaps more fittingly, bury him, with their words.
Cal_vin was buried on 1 November, just a little over a week after he had tragically in a yet-unsolved hit-and-run incident that shook Bulawayo.
By the time dust was piled on his casket at Lady Stanley, thousands of words had been written, or spoken, about the rapper and his life.
This, however, is the problem with obituaries.
They serve as an act of remembrance for one that has not yet been forgotten. When thousands filed into the Bulawayo Amphitheatre on that November morning, it was still largely unbelievable that Cal_vin, that Luveve Boi, intwana kaManax, the Loxion Obama, was now amongst the ranks of those who had departed earth.
The wound was still so fresh most of those that attended the funeral had not yet processed that the man who they were burying had just left a gaping hole in their hearts.
Looking back, the eulogies and obituaries said and written on that day now sound unfit for that occasion.
Cal_vin had only been gone for a week and we were yet to truly miss him. Six years later, we have now truly felt the weight of his loss and the enormity of his absence. With the benefit of hindsight, it is perhaps it is time we
Of course, he truly missed most by those that were closest to him, his own flesh and blood. His mother misses her son, an energetic, gifted if not controversial, young men who she regarded as her son instead of her offspring. His children miss their father, who passed when they were still toddlers. His face they will only know from pictures and his voice they will come to get familiar with from the classic songs that he made.
Besides his family, his flesh and blood, Cal_vin is undoubtedly missed by the thousands of people who followed his music and career. It is sad that death, the ultimate final destination, has revealed the true value of Cal_vin as a personality and a performer.
When he was alive, it was quite easy to question his star status as a bona fide star. His naysayers argued that he did not have enough money to behave like a celebrity. He still lived in Luveve, they said, and his car was not the flashiest. Of course, it is understandable that this is the ordinary man and woman’s measure of stardom. This is, after all, the image of celebrity that Hollywood has packaged and distributed to the world from central Los Angeles in the part of the 19th century.
Yet, Cal_vin’s absence has shown that perhaps true celebrity is more than just bling and the freshest wheels. Perhaps a celebrity is a man who is not afraid to go head to head with a radio station and not only compare himself to Lovemore Majaivana and even make a song about.
Many a great song has been made since Cal_vin’s death. Young rappers are still making words bend, spitting out tongue-twisting verses that would make even the royal praise singers of old green with envy. Yet, none have had the same impact, or caught the imagination of the listening public like Cal_vin, who became perhaps the first rapper in the City of Kings to transcend the genre itself.
Perhaps that is the true measure of Cal_vin’s greatness. Not the cars he drove, the money he made or the material possessions he accumulated, but the conversations he continues to inspire, the music that refuses to fade and the void that remains impossible to fill. Six years later, Bulawayo is still searching for words to describe what it lost that October, and perhaps that is why the obituaries written in those first days now feel incomplete.
Perhaps, then, Cal_vin’s story should not be confined to the past tense. His life was cut short, but his music remains, carrying his voice to children who never knew him, reminding old fans of what they lost and challenging a new generation of rappers to carve their own paths. The wound may never heal completely, but time has given us a clearer understanding of its depth. And if six years of absence have taught us anything, it is that some stars do not need to be present to remain larger than life. Cal_vin was, and remains, one of one.
