Music icon Oliver Mtukudzi laid to rest in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s most successful and internationally renowned musician Oliver Mtukudzi who died on Wednesday at a local clinic from diabetes, ending a career that spanned four decades and 67 albums, was buried Sunday (January 27) in ceremony that befitted his status with most mourners singing and dancing to the tune of his songs.

Thousands descended to his home town village of Matziva carrying posters of Mtukudzi’s photos printed on them.

On Thursday, President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared him a national hero, a status that has been a preserve for ruling party elites and independence veterans.

South Africa Jazz Musician Steve Dyer said on the side that Africa and the world has lost a giant in music world and added that it’s a sad time but joy and solace must be found in the fact that his music lives on.

Mtukudzi’s music cut across generations and in his later years he produced duets with younger musicians, some of whom he nurtured at his arts centre in Norton, outside Harare.

He has produced songs with South African group Black Mambazo as well as Hugh Masekela, the trumpeter and singer known as the “father of South African jazz” who used his music in the fight against apartheid and died on the same day in 2018.

Mtukudzi, affectionately known as “Tuku” died at the age of 66.

Reuters