4 Years Since The Passing Of The Legend Tuku Mtukudzi

Tuku Legacy Lives

By Panashe Siziba

Oliver Mtukudzi, also known as ‘Tuku’, was born on 22 September, 1952 in Highfield, Zimbabwe. He was the first born in a family of seven siblings. Mtukudzi was from a musical family, as both his parents were singers. This meant he grew up in a musical environment where he started to develop the love of music. He had to grow up at an early age because of the passing of his father.

In 1975, Mtukudzi released his first album ‘Stop after Orange’ at the age of 23. Two years later, he collaborated with one of the Zimbabwean top musician Thomas Mapfumo at the famous group called Wagon Wheels. In 2001, he released a song called ‘Bvuma’.

Mtukudzi released more than sixty albums. In 2013, he released an album titled ‘Sarawoga’, in memory of his beloved son who died in a car accident in 2010.

One of Mtukudzi’s hit songs, titled ‘Neria’, was a song about the woman who was in poverty after the death of her husband as the customary law denied her to inherit his property. On 23 January 2019, Oliver Mtukudzi died of an undisclosed illness at Avenues clinic in Harare, Zimbambwe. May his soul continue to rest in peace.