Tuku: All we remain with are memories

By Silence Charumbira

It’s two years since the death of icon Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi – and man do we miss him.
A global superstar who had traversed magnanimous stages across the world, Tuku was for me one of the most consistent people that I have ever interacted with.
With Covid-19 decimating populations across the world, I can only imagine what his message would have been to his legion of fans. He was probably going to be starting off his shows with Tapera off his 2002 album, Vhunze moto.
He probably would belt out Neria for all bereaved wives who have lost husbands to Covid-19. Or would he have preferred Mabasa and Tarirai (Mhuri Yapera), seeing as there seems to be no slowing down in terms of Covid-19 related deaths?
The list of prophetic songs that are apt in our current situation and will remain relevant in ages to come is just endless. Such was Tuku, his discography has something for everyone, every time and everywhere.
Where I am currently residing in Maseru, Lesotho, Basotho sing along to his songs without understanding a single word. They treasure his music. They don’t care what it means. You can hear his hoarse voice booming from passing cars in the dead of the night. At first I thought most of the drivers were probably Zimbabwean. But no. Such was Tuku.
Yet, now all we remain with are memories.
We clutch to them like dear life itself. We cannot let go of such treasures. I remember like it was just yesterday when I was talking to him prior to his last trip to Maseru for the Lesotho Times Fanfest, to mark the organisation’s 10th anniversary in November 2018.
Prior to that conversation, our previous encounter had been in May 2012 when he gave me and veteran journalist Patrice Makova a tongue lashing for asking “how is the superstar feeling after Sam’s death”? we had touched a raw nerve.
The man frothed at the mouth. We went for close to two hours while the man was fuming. He would ask questions and answer them himself.
There was silence in the whole of Pakare Paye Arts Centre in Norton. All the staff seemed to have disappeared for the duration of his lengthy tirade.
“Ndiyani akakuudza kuti handina ropa nekuti ndiri superstar?” is the question which kept coming back.
He easily could have asked this question over 100 times.
He later sobered up after what had seemed to be a lifetime. The interview continued but the questions were now difficult to ask. We were now stepping on eggshells.
We were to come up with what was to become one of the few arts-related lead stories for The Standard newspaper.
I later learnt that this was the first time that Tuku had openly spoken about Sam two years after his premature death in an accident. Even the mangled wreck of his car had been kept at Pakare Paye and very few could talk Tuku out of removing it, I later learnt.
We were to have other brief chats afterwards but nothing serious. When I spoke to him in 2018, it was like we were the best of friends. While my intention was to interview him about the show, we ended up talking about the need for him to collaborate with younger artistes who were meant to perform at the same show with him.
He was excited about the idea of collaborating with younger artistes from South Africa and Lesotho. I also challenged him about collaborating with his long-time friend Tsepo Tshola aka The Village Pope.
He loved the idea and told me he was open to any suggestions and even said he was ready to work with anyone who was ready to work.
“Titsvagirei ikoko vanoda kushanda tiite basa racho (find those who are ready to work that side so that we can do the work).”
I was later to talk to Sho Madjozi, Amanda Black and Nasty C, who all seemed to like the idea but somehow thought they could not “rush” into such a project with a global star of Tuku’s magnitude.
But it was Tshola who was hit the hardest.
“Come to think of it, we have never thought it was urgent for us to do a collaboration,” he said soon after Tuku’s death.
I had lined up a trip for him to Harare in February to get into the studio with a few artistes but that was not to be. This all died with the Katekwe singer. He is irreplaceable. All we remain with are memories, both fond and sombre ones at that. Nhau/Indaba