The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu
The accolades keep on coming for Zimbabwean music superstar Oliver Mtukudzi, with one of the biggest festivals in the continent and the world, South Africa’s Oppikoppi Festival, announcing that they would honour him at this year’s extravaganza.
Held every year in Limpopo province near the mining town of Northam, Oppikoppi started off focusing mostly on rock music, but gradually added more genres and now plays host to a complete mixed bag of genres.
The first ever band weekend at the OppiKoppi farm took place in May 1994 with Valiant Swart, Koos Kombuis and a few hundred people in the small bar. It has since grown substantially, with the addition of many new stages and thousands of people turning up each year. The festival is regarded by some as the primary influence in jump-starting the South African rock music movement in the late 90’s. Thousands of people still flock to the farm to camp out in the bush and enjoy simultaneous performances on 7 stages.
In 2008, the Daily Mirror ranked OppiKoppi as the 4th best music festival in the world.
This year, the festival announced that the veteran Zimbabwean musician will be their tribute artiste for this year’s festivities which will be held from 9 to 11 August.
“All too often we heap praise on others to realise our own appetite for self-indulgence,” the festival announced in a statement.
“It is at times such as these that words like legend, icon and stalwart are bandied about with no real relevance. On the other hand, sometimes the appreciation and tributes are sincere: Oliver Mtukudzi merits double helpings of love, thank you and legendary status belt-driven accolades. This year’s Oppikoppi tribute artiste started performing in Zimbabwe in 1977. That’s 41 years of Tuku Tunes.”
The organisers of the festival felt that given his extensive experience and large following across the continent, Tuku deserved to be honoured on one of the world’s most renowned festival stages. “His husky voice has become the most recognised to emerge from Zim and onto the international scene and he has earned a devoted following across Africa and beyond.
“With no less than 58 albums under the boxing belt (that Wikipedia knows of), here is a musician who, besides being a respected businessman, philanthropist and human rights activist, continues to tour and perform relentlessly, with incomparable style. The dust welcomes you, sir,” the statement read.
