• Home
  • Music
  • Celebrity
  • Travel
  • Voices
  • News
    • News
    • Sport
  • Recent Posts

    • Federal appeals court rules against Trump's travel...
      February 9, 2017
    • Rapper DMX inspires homeless group in surprise visit
      February 9, 2017
    • Beyoncé hit with over $20 million lawsuit by the estate...
      February 9, 2017
  • Like Us On Facebook

  • Home
  • Music
  • Celebrity
  • Travel
  • Voices
  • News
    • News
      • Sport
Browse Search Menu

Search

Browse

News collects all the stories you want to read
  • #ThanksObama
    #ThanksObama
  • Donald Trump
    Donald Trump
  • Fashion
    Fashion
  • Lifestyle
    Lifestyle
  • Technology
    Technology
  • Travel
    Travel


Editors

  • ACN Team
  • Africa Cable Network
African Celeb
4.8K

Zimbabwean music legend Oliver Mtukudzi dies at 66

Posted On January 23, 2019 Africa Cable Network 0

ShareTweetSubscribe

One of Zimbabwe and Africa’s most iconic musicians, Oliver Mtukudzi, died on Wednesday at age 66 after decades of rollicking, captivating performances won him devoted fans worldwide.

“It is difficult to accept, I have no words,” said musician and poet Albert Nyathi, who joined several other mourners at the hospital in the capital, Harare, where the star passed away. “What is left is to celebrate his life.”

Zimbabwe’s state-run Herald newspaper reported that Mtukudzi had “succumbed to a long battle with diabetes.”

With his distinctive husky voice, Mtukudzi had a career that stretched from white minority-ruled Rhodesia to majority-ruled Zimbabwe, producing a string of hits that spread his fame across Africa and eventually to an international audience.

Tuku, as he was widely known, avoided political controversy. The closest he came was with his 2001 song “Bvuma,” which in the Shona language means “accept that you are old” and was taken as a message to longtime leader Robert Mugabe to retire.

Paul Mangwana, a senior official with Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party, praised Mtukudzi for remaining “apolitical,” saying he supported calls for the singer to be buried at the national heroes’ acre, a shrine that is a preserve of ruling party elites.

“He was a nation-builder. Where it was necessary to criticize he would, and where it was necessary to praise he would,” Mangwana said at the hospital.

In a country where political tensions are high and party loyalties matter, Mtukudzi cut across the divide, singing at ruling party events but also performing at late opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s wedding and funeral.

“Today we said goodbye to a true patriot. Oliver Mtukudzi, your voice has given us comfort during difficult times, and will remain with us for posterity,” President Emmerson Mnangagwa said.

One of Mtukudzi’s biggest hits was “Neria,” a mournful song about the tribulations of a woman who was thrown into poverty when her husband died because customary law did not allow her to inherit his property. It was the title song of a movie of the same name.

In 1980, Mtukudzi celebrated Zimbabwe’s independence by singing the country’s new national anthem, “Ishe Komborera Africa” (God Bless Africa) with a reggae inflection.

He sang, played guitar and danced while directing a tight band of guitarists, keyboards, percussionists and dancers. He released more than 60 albums and made several successful international tours, performing in neighboring South Africa late last year.

He also was known for mentoring young Zimbabwean musicians. “He was like a father figure,” said MacDonald Chidavaenzi, a songwriter and producer.

Mtukudzi’s company in a statement called him a “national icon” as well as “a father, brother, grandfather, uncle, and above all a husband to his loving wife Daisy Mtukudzi.”

Mtukudzi wrote songs in a style that were a mix of Zimbabwean and South African rhythms that became known at “Tuku music.”

The ruling African National Congress in South Africa tweeted simply “Rest in peace.”

Comments
Post Views: 4,806
Loading…

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • FOLLOW US ON

  • Sponsored: GAP

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Cbbd1gPIxU
  • Popular Posts

    • 1
      A father bids farewell to twin babies and wife after…
      April 6, 2017
    • 2
      Sylvia Moy, Motown songwriter and producer, dies at age 78
      April 20, 2017
    • 3
      Mel B stylishly loving herself
      October 19, 2017



Browse

News collects all the stories you want to read
  • #ThanksObama
    #ThanksObama
  • Donald Trump
    Donald Trump
  • Fashion
    Fashion
  • Grammy
  • Lifestyle
    Lifestyle
  • Technology
    Technology


  • Connecting people of African descent. info@africacablenetwork.com

  • Recent Posts

    • Federal appeals court rules against Trump's travel...
      February 9, 2017
    • Rapper DMX inspires homeless group in surprise visit
      February 9, 2017
  • Newsletter

    Don't miss a thing!
    Sign up to receive daily news


  • Home
  • Music
  • Celebrity
  • Travel
  • Voices
  • News
    • News
    • Sport
Copyright © 2017. Africa Cable Network, Washington DC. All Rights Reserved.