Rest in peace Tuku

Multiple Award winning Zimbabwean Musician Oliver MtukudziRIP

Yesterday afternoon I was catching up on work emails and updating my personal and business social media pages when I started coming across several tweets where people were asking if the legendary musician Baba Oliver Mtukudzi had passed on? I thought to myself that couldn’t be possibly be true infact the thought that came to my mind was who would be so cruel to start a joke of that nature? I mean this is social media and anything has been proven to be possible in the past.

I was anxious to confirm this discovery so I checked whatsapp and I had 2 unread messages from one of my friends and one the messages was a screenshot that confirmed that Musician Oliver Mtukudzi was indeed no more and his record label had confirmed the sad news via Twitter as well.

My Dad was not much of a musical person. He was a typical nerd and in a good and not goofy kind of way. He loved consuming information everyday of his life but I can tell you that out of his limited music collection Oliver Mtukudzi’s albums were his most loved. He bought his albums regiously. I would definitely say he shaped my love for local Zimbabwean music especially music by Shona artists.

My fondest memory of the impact Oliver Mtukudzi had on us was a trip to Victoria Falls that we once embarked on as a family. My Dad and his best friend ( Baba Tinashe) or George as everyone fondly knew him decided that they were going to sell a portion of their Old Mutual shares and take their families on vacation. Great idea right? Initially I was not keen on the idea at all. Imagine a trip with my two little brothers, the two love birds (my Mom and my Dad). All I could foresee was boredom, literally. I was in my teens at the time. Not the perfect excuse for my lack of enthusiasm but hopefully that explains a lot. Ki ki ki

I had a change of heart literally the day before the trip and decided to join my family. Before we left Bulawayo the first thing my Dad checked was that his latest Tuku Album was in the car. The album I believe had just been released.I am not sure but I think it was the Paivepo album. I tell you this album was on repeat to and from Victoria Falls. Just imagine!!! My brothers and I definitely ended up knowing all the songs in the entire album, back to back. I am pretty sure we could have sang it even in our sleep.

As kids that experience was not a great one. Well at the time we thought Dad was being selfish and could have played other songs. Something more fun and up beat. Little did we know. In hindsight you could say he immensely shaped our love for Tuku. From that day we were all automatically great fans and lovers of his music.

Oliver Mtukudzi will forever be known to the world as a legendary musician. To myself and the rest of the Zimbabweans mourning him he was a father. He was a peaceful giant. A unifier. A man who taught us wisdom through his music. From his track “Pss pss” where he is cautioning a young man to grow up and stop chasing all manner of women in the streets , to the track he dedicated to his wife Daisy that truly shows the depth of his gratitude and love for her, to the famous track ” Todii” which touched on HIV and it’s impact on families as well as ” Perekedza”. Who can forget “Neria” , a song that was a theme track to the movie Neria which featured the beautiful and legendary Jesese Mungoshi and highlighted the level of inequality between men and women in our African countries but moreso the disgusting manner in which widows were treated back in the day by our communities. The song was a cry for help while also comforting anyone who had lost a loved one.

In his music he shared with the world who we are as Zimbabweans warm, humble and family orientated folks. With every string on his guitar he shared a Zimbabwe many of us loves and remembered. Living in a foreign land has its challenges and at every gathering or family event where there’s Zimbabweans you just know Mtukudzi is on the playlist. His music took us back home and connected us to our loved ones no matter where we were in the world.

His music also spoke of love. That old school kind of love. The one our parents shared and I guess we all wanted to emulate. He was a great musician, a mentor to many I obviously believe. Many come and go without ever tapping and living their true potential but Tuku did more than just write and sing great music he showed the world who he was. That he did impecabbly so.

Rest in peace Baba. Zororai murugare. Mwari vaita kuda kwavo. Tinotenda nedzimbo dzamatisiya nadzo.