A tribute to Oliver Mtukudzi (Samanyanga)

As we look back…

As we look back in time
We can’t help but wonder…
Did we remember to thank you enough,
For all, you did for us?

You made us happy for so long, especially on darkest days.

You sang our stories.
You sang our pains.
You sang our hopes

In a time when Zimbabwe was wrecked by famine,
In a time when Zimbabwe was wrecked by AIDS, 
In times when Zimbabwe was in tyranny,
You always sang for a change.

Death is nothing at all. It does not count
Your journey has just begun.

We shall not stand at your grave and weep,
You are not there,
Heroes do not die
You are in a thousand winds that blow.

We will not grieve for you, you are now free
You could not stay again, another day
To laugh, to sing or to play again
You have found your peace…

Your time was too brief,
but we shall not lengthen it with undue grief
God wanted you now,
and he has set you free…

We’re thanking you now.
And we are hoping you knew all along,
How much you meant to us.

To Zimbabweans, your music made us find each other,
as Zimbabweans and nothing else, at home and abroad.
On the continent, your music made us all Africans. 

We gather,
to mourn and cry.
Our questions pointing,
at the clear blue sky.
asking why you were taken instead of this one or this other one,

The void cannot be filled –
We just hope that someday,
that someday the grief may fade,
But your mark will live on still.
For even with our heavy hearts,
We know that we’ve been blessed
To have been among the many whose the lives you touched
With warmth so infinite.

Fare thee well, dear son of the soil — the river winds and turns;
With you there is no death — there’s immortality.
This is immortality…

A giant has fallen

____A people’s person has departed

**Pako Pese wasakura wazunza**

Rest in power

Today we choose not to cry, but to celebrate a life well lived.