Online Reporter
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
THE death of Mackay Tickeys in 2006 not only brought sadness and an outpouring of grief from the arts community in Zimbabwe but also sparked a revolt at Amakhosi Cultural Centre.
Tickeys had just returned from a triumphant stint in the United States, where he, Dr Chris Burns and Memory Kumbota had led the cast of Workshop Negative, Cont Mhlanga’s classic theatre production.
That play, one of Amakhosi’s signature productions, would be Tickey’s last bow, as he passed on soon after.
While his death was emotive enough, the obituary that followed from Amakhosi would push emotions over the edge.
“Tickeys celebrated his performing success by beer drinking, women and died a pale shadow of the township hero that he was, poor and penniless with nothing to show for his achievements . . . At the end of the day, people blame us as producers when they see an actor dying without anything. They tend to believe we swindle actors out of their earnings.”
The statement was later withdrawn, but the damage was done.
Insult had been added to injury and for some at Amakhosi, the obituary was a declaration of war from the centre’s director, Cont Mhlanga.
They immediately demanded their own pound of flesh and in the aftermath, Mhlanga had to go to court to bar some of his acolytes from coming to the legendary centre.
Mackay’s death and that obituary, was perhaps a sign of the times.
Amakhosi, even in those days, was on the wane and in the years that followed, its decline would accelerate as Cont approached the end of his career.
The sun had set on Tickeys and while some might have found it hard to believe at the time, it would not shine much longer for the legendary Amakhosi, that royal home of the arts in Bulawayo.
The reaction to his death, which included actual threats of grievous violence to Mhlanga, also revealed the depths of love that artistes harboured for Tickeys, who, to many would-be artistes, was the first superstar they had ever known.
The life of a township giant
For most people, Tickeys will always be remembered for his role as Sakhamuzi in Sinjalo, the classic Amakhosi production that captivated Zimbabwean audiences in 2002.
Chronicling the conflicts, triumphs and camaraderie between ordinary ChiShona and IsiNdebele-speaking Zimbabweans, Sinjalo was the first of its kind, venturing into territory many were afraid to tread.
With its mixture of slapstick comedy and moving depictions of real-life drama, Sinjalo was the pinnacle of Zimbabwean television, as Tickeys and his better-half, Fortune Ruzungude (Foromani), taught Zimbabweans how to laugh at and with each other.
However, for most of the city’s arts practitioners who had grown up in Makokoba in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Tickeys had long been a superstar, well before he snatched a gong for his exploits at the 2003 National Arts Merit Awards (Nama).
In Makokoba, the home of Amakhosi and a township regarded as the cradle of the local arts in Bulawayo, Tickeys had always been regarded as a superstar.
To many who eyed a career in the arts, he was a ray of hope in a township where life could be bleak at times.
“He was an inspiration to us,” said Raisedon Baya, who also bagged a Nama for his writing on Sinjalo.
“We grew up in the township in Makokoba and that was around the time when Amakhosi was at the top of their game. As we saw his star rise, he became a reference point because when someone asked you what you wanted to do in life, you’d tell them that you wanted to become like Mackay.
“One of the unfortunate things about our industry is that we quickly forget. They say out of sight and out of mind and I guess this applies to people like him. If we had a Hall of Fame, he would be on it. These are people who did this thing when no one thought it was possible.”
Local stage legend Memory Kumbota said that at the start of his career, his only wish was to share the stage with Tickeys.
“When my young eyes were first opened to the larger theatrical landscape, following my own training with the
Theatre Project, a Canadian University Services Organisation (CUSO) collaboration with the Bulawayo City Community Services Department, I encountered names like Dominic Kanaventi and Walter Muparutsa, who hailed from Harare.
“Locally, however, Mackay was our giant. He had multiple awards and accolades and was nationally well-respected. As highly talented as he was eccentric, I had always held a personal wish to share the stage with him.
“Later, when I started working with Amakhosi, I would constantly pester Cont Mhlanga about a chance to perform alongside uBhudasi, as Mackay was known among the artistes,” Kumbota said.
A selfless professional
Despite the damning obituary after his death, Cont Mhlanga would later reveal to Sunday Life that he counted Tickeys as one of the five greatest luminaries to emerge from Amakhosi.
While his death might have brought acrimony at Amakhosi, Mhlanga was in no doubt about the influence that his one-time protégé had on the growth of the centre.
“He was someone who mobilised people, which is something that I believe that the sector is currently lacking,” Cont revealed in 2018.
“We could land in any part of the world and he would ask, ‘Cont, who do you want us to see?’ It did not matter if it was a big star, the mayor or the biggest businessman in that city; he would just somehow get into their office and get you what you wanted.
“I remember when we did the Workshop Negative tour around the country and we did not spend a cent. You would just wake up the next morning and find that Mackay had somehow managed to get the mayor of that city to cover your hotel bill.”
While many young artistes might have adored him, Tickeys was known to humble himself and interact with them without giving the impression that he was the top dog.
“I got to work with him very closely on two occasions,” revealed Baya.
“Firstly, we had this drama club called Township Artistes. Mackay had left Amakhosi and he was working in Kwekwe. We went to a workshop with our drama club, and when he found out we were around, he literally left everything and came to be with us.
“He became a part of the training and shared his experiences with us. This was one of the humblest artistes that was ever produced by Amakhosi. He had no class bias and he would reduce himself to the level of whoever he was with, even though he was a hotshot actor.”
A flawed legend
The obituary written after his death was perhaps a sad full stop on a life that had given so much to the arts in Zimbabwe.
Those words left a bitter after-taste, as it led some to question the character and legacy of a man whose influence on the local arts was undeniable. Rumours of alcohol abuse and sometimes rowdy conduct would follow his death.
Kumbota, who some, including Mhlanga, always said resembled the late star, said despite his troubles, the late actor was an undeniable great.
“I miss him, but I am always with him because I now realise Cont was right about our resemblance. Even today, some people I meet call me Sakhamuzi, the popular character Mackay played on TV.
“Sometimes I do not correct them; I just wave and smile, knowing my brother would smile too and say, ‘Wena mfana, one day uzafela amacala ami,’ (You, young man, will one day take the blame for my problems). And wona aye manengi (his problems were numerous).”
For Baya, Tickeys was a man who was a master at separating his private and stage life. The two should thus be judged separately.
“He was one of the people who taught us to separate our lives on and off stage. He was two different people. When he was mixing and mingling with ordinary folk, he was Mackay Tickeys, always laughing and having a good time. When he went on stage, you could see the transition, the separation of the roles and the distinction between himself and the characters that he was playing,” said Baya.
