Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi (22 September 1952 – 23 January 2019) was a Zimbabwean musician, businessman, philanthropist, human rights activistand UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Southern Africa Region. Tuku was considered to have been Zimbabwe’s most renowned and internationally recognised cultural icon of all time.

Mtukudzi grew up in Highfield, a poor neighborhood in Salisbury (modern-day Harare) in Southern Rhodesia, as the eldest of six siblings. While both his parents sang in a choir, they were initially not supportive of his continued interest in music, consequently breaking his first homemade guitar.

In 1975, at the age of 23, he released his debut single, “Stop After Orange.” Two years later, he began performing with the Wagon Wheels, a group that featured another highly influential musician, Thomas Mapfumo. Although his tenure with the band was relatively short-lived, he landed his first major hit with 1977’s “Dzandimomotera,” a song that reflected the black population’s struggles under white-minority rule of what was then still the country of Rhodesia. By 1978, he had left the Wagon Wheels, taking several of the band’s musicians with him to form his new backing group the Black Spirits.