SAM MTUKUDZI 10 YEARS LATER: A case of what could have been

I remember meeting Sam Mtukudzi when he was still a wild eyed boy still went behind the ears.

What was clear though, was that there was something special about him. Still a schoolboy at Prince Edward High School, he exuded a value system that was a combination if what the institution provides and what he got from home

At the time he was working on his debut album Rume Rimwe. For a young man his age at the time, it had depth in personality and content. It was the least you could expect as he stood in the shadow of an iconic father in the now recently deceased Oliver Mtukudzi.

The album received critical acclaim and set Sam on his way to getting recognition as an artist in his own right. Yet, he remained grounded.

Meanwhile, he learned his craft. On top of that, he started working on the business end of art. Sam often told me that he thought he had a big future on that end of things. Sam was a fast and eager learner, ready to listen.

He started working on his second album and every so often he would invite me over. I watched his work ethic and creative process. At the time, I was also working on the design for the album, so it made sense to feel the creative energy.

As that happened, his tentacles as a performer were spreading far and wide. This was from not only performances on familiar stages but in the sticks too. Sam often joked with me about how at times he would leave his car at a town and the promoter would then drive him and the band into some back of beyond place where a large audience awaited him.

Even then he retained his boyish charm, wiser to the world by the day, but always ready to dive in like a kid.

The building blocks were coming together and the ideas around what the launch of Cheziya would be like were on fire.

That night before he died, we had talked about meeting the next day to lay out the strategy. Some corporates were interested.

It was not to be. Just around an hour and a half, two tops, after we talked he and his engineer Owen Chimhare would meet their end in a car accident.

What was left was the shell of something that was destined to be amazing. It felt like destiny before that day. Sam was going to be great and surpass even his illustrious father. This was the accepted position among many who had see him perform.

I remember weeping with Tuku. We knew what he was going to be. We knew what he was even by that time. The loss was not the same. He had lost his son, someone he had told me to have under his wing.

The searing pain of such a loss still holds true. Sometimes it is distant. At other times it is remarkably present.

There is the music, the ideas which I am sure would have been pivotal to shaping the industry. He was ready for the legacy building, one block at a time.

And there is the person many never really knew, who was so much more. A younger brother.