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JOURNALIST and author Shepherd Mutamba who wrote the book Tuku Backstage, Oliver Mtukudzi’s tell-all biography, first published in 2015, has written a second edition to be published in Zimbabwe on Monday next week.
The new book, printed on gloss paper, is full colour throughout with 188 pictures, nearly all of them unseen before. The orientation of the book is A4 size landscape with 255 pages.
The first book covered 24 chapters. An additional 11 chapters have now been included in the second edition that also has three pages of references and Tuku’s milestones.
A comprehensive discography of Tuku’s music is included with a full list of titles of tracks, on every album, and the years of release from 1978 to 2016.
I photographed the entire book over a period spanning nearly a decade when I worked closely with Tuku as publicist. Darius T. Mutamba edited the pictures and designed the cover in Harare. Boutique Books of South Africa laid out the book and Digital Action printed it also in South Africa. The publisher is MhotsiUruka and ISBN 978-079747258-7.
The pictures capture some of Tuku’s key points in music but also familiarize the reader, fan and archivist with some of Tuku’s life experiences as a man, family man, husband, father, grandfather, brother, businessperson, and African.
I reckon the strength of the second edition is demonstrated by the manner that photographs trace and unpack Tuku’s life and colossal music and, in so doing, also elevate music photography in its literary form.
Almost every chapter is supported by a selection of pictures that express my own point of view as a photographer.
However, a wide spectrum of pictures, based on Tuku’s creative processes, dominate the book. A chapter titled ‘Photographing Tuku – The Body Language’ narrates my first-hand experience and the intricacies of photographing Tuku.
The book shows pictures of Tuku’s intense moments on stage. I interpret his body language to give his fans and readers an understanding of the meaning of some of his gestures, postures and facial expressions when he is communicating non-verbally during a song. My close work, of many years, with Tuku, as publicist, gave me a very firm handle on his music, meaning and body language.
I reckon that I captured Tuku’s moments of intense emotion more accurately because I gave myself time to understand his musical themes and how certain songs conversed with him and evoked particular reaction and body language. I was, thus, able to make out his body language in most of the songs that I was photographing. It was never a matter of pointing my camera and shooting just for the sake of a showbiz picture.
A passion for music photography and patience were also helpful in navigating to the depths of Tuku’s musicianship where many of my contemporaries, who have photographed him, have not reached.
An excerpt from the chapter ‘Photographing Tuku – The Body Language’ reads: ‘Tuku’s body language is more pronounced in the songs about death, prayer, party music and love; themes that dominate his repertoire. Whenever I captured the special moments of his body language during performances, the pictures conveyed the meaning of a song in a very vivid manner.’
I think the book is quite a bumper edition considering that it carries 188 pictures that illustrate Tuku’s life, work and music. It is a book that one can also read visually as a picture book. And so, if you put the narratives, music and photographs together, what you get is a multi-genre bumper volume.
Political issues, in the book, are more elevated in the manner that they speak to Tuku’s political circumstances, as a musician, particularly during the controversial era of former president Robert Mugabe.
Some of the exclusive pictures in the chapter ‘Politics’ show Tuku, at his premises on different occasions, hosting Mugabe’s special office aides and the top brass from the police, state security and the military; men widely viewed as Mugabe’s accessories to tyranny.
Tuku claims so strongly to be apolitical, why then did he surround himself so closely with so many of Mugabe’s feared men, from the police, state security and military sectors, whose offices acted against the will of the people of Zimbabwe?
The book expresses the political purpose of artists to keep our leaders in check. Our function, as artists, does not end because Robert Mugabe is out, Emmerson Mnangagwa is in. Musicians must be wary of leaders with crocodile tears. Writers must demand answers for what our leaders have done wrong. Poets must claim reforms and change for good governance of our people. Cartoonists must laugh at the leaders and their follies. We must disappoint bad leaders with art.
An excerpt from the chapter titled ‘Tuku Gave Mugabe Thumbs Up’ reads: Tuku finally chose 2016 to openly support president Robert Mugabe and the ruling ZANU PF party when the superstar went to entertain the dictator at a campaign rally held at the Robert Mugabe Square in Harare. Tuku’s association with president Mugabe and his wife Grace started with small gifts that the musician received from the First Family. The more gifts Tuku received, the closer he became to Zimbabwe’s ruler and the ruling party until such time, in 2016, that he could no longer keep the association with President Mugabe a secret.
A foreword to the book is written by David Mungoshi, an academic and author of ‘The Fading Sun’ and ‘Live Like An Artist’.
Mungoshi writes: Tuku Backstage, Shepherd Mutamba’s biography of Oliver Mtukudzi, may come over as somewhat voyeuristic to some. Mutamba is often accused of publishing privileged information in the book. Some readers even argue that, by divulging Oliver Mtukudzi’s closely guarded secrets and moral deficiencies, Mutamba betrayed his close association and the confidence of his one-time employer. Such readers do not want any sordid detail spoken about beyond certain cloistered circles. The truth of the matter, however, is that Oliver Mtukudzi forfeited his privacy when he became an internationally acclaimed musician. His life, music and politics are all fair game now. Despite the feathers that may be ruffled, I commend Mutamba’s book for fact, insight, depth and breadth of research. The book is very easily part of the social annals of our time and its impact is as engaging as it is electrifying. No matter what, Mutamba is entitled to his view of things. In this regard, he writes with clarity and openness in language that is often poetic and elevated.
In the introduction Mutamba writes: While I recognize the extent of time and hard work that went into the book, what is important is the vision that inspired me to write, in the first place, and present and preserve permanently, for posterity and history, Tuku’s monumental story, as I experienced it, in the form of a book. Significantly, Tuku’s story was being written for the very first time.
Below are some of the excerpts from the new chapters:
An excerpt from the chapter titled ‘Selby: The Follow-Up’ reads: Selby said that Tuku is his father and that they related well. He referred to Tuku as “daddy” throughout our conversation. “Daddy has never said to me that he isn’t my father. I’ve never heard him say that to me. He pays for my college fees. People, you’re failing to ask the right questions; why is it that I live with Tuku’s sister (in Eastlea) if I’m not Tuku’s son or in Highfield (Tuku’s childhood home)? When I was involved in a road accident daddy’s manager and my mother came together to see me at the Avenues Clinic.
In the first book Tuku vehemently denied Selby’s paternity.
The new book acknowledges recent efforts by Tuku and his daughters Selmor and Sandra, to repair their acrimonious relationship following their fallout in 2012 after Selmor slammed her father as a slipshod dad.
Away from Tuku’s secret life and politics, the second edition interrogates the music even more broadly than previously.
I added a chapter ‘Collection of Guitars’ that looks at Tuku’s different types of guitars in his collection. The chapter is complemented by photographs showing some of the guitars in Tuku’s collection.
An excerpt from ‘Dance, Fitness and Health – Researching Tuku’ reads: Tuku’s dances correlate with exercise, fitness and health. The routines that he executes, with extraordinary technique and passion, keep him fit and strong. Yet the intricacies of Tuku’s contemporary and traditional dances are often eclipsed by other aspects of his music as a songwriter, singer and guitarist. His dances, as a performance art form, transcend entertainment, aesthetics and symbolism in that the dances showcase a multiplicity of physical fitness exercises and health benefits. Dance is part of the broader storytelling of Tuku’s music. He partly uses it to entertain and visually and physically augment the lyrics of a song. The dances mean exactly what his lyrics denote. I studied Tuku’s dances and the benefits to fitness and health.
An excerpt from ‘Animal Symbolism’ reads: One of Tuku’s greatest strengths in all his creative work is the ability to use the animal symbolism in his songs and choreography. Animal symbolism might seem to be a mere stylish way in performances and compositions to impress and entertain audiences; yet it represents deeper cultural, artistic and sociolinguistic meaning in Tuku’s own story-telling. Symbolism is the soul of allegory in music with hidden meaning. Tuku also uses symbolism as a way of self-expression or when he wants to give a composition a different feel and open interpretation. Themes and lyrics, for many of his compositions, are built around the existence patterns of both wild and domesticated animals and birds too. Sometimes Tuku adapts riddles, formed around animals and birds, and uses them as symbols to convey messages. He also crafts into his music totems based on animals.
Both my books on Tuku demonstrate, without fear or favour, how we, as writers and music photographers, can elevate research, in diverse areas of music, and publish innovative books with inspiring stories and iconic photographs.
How are the readers and Tuku’s fans likely to receive the book?
The reception will be mixed because, as a writer and human being, I don’t share the same values with everyone and every reader. Some will love the book, others will hate it certainly. The first book angered Tuku’s fanatical admirers because of the unflattering comments that I made about his dark past and personality. But fear must not reside in our hearts as writers. If I am not brave I must stop writing because writing is not for cowards.
Will Tuku, himself, like the book?
If Tuku does not live in denial, anymore, he has no reason to dislike the book.
Is there money in book publishing in Zimbabwe? Why am I writing?
There is no money, whatsoever, publishing in Zimbabwe. I take financial risk whenever I publish in Zimbabwe because I am brave to publish in such an economic environment. But, at the end of the day, I don’t publish because I am looking for money; I am publishing because as a writer I am compelled to tell stories about our lives, circumstances and work and immortalize the narratives and photographs in book form and that to me is a huge and priceless responsibility.
Shepherd Mutamba
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