Talent Gore
A WOMAN has claimed that one of Oliver Mtukudzi’s biggest hit songs was penned as a dedication to the son they bore during a romance which started when she was just about 16.
Rosie Makumbe (69) claims in the song Hazvireve Rudo Handina, which was one of Tuku’s smash hits, the late megastar was referring to “our son Aaron.”
Makumbe claims the national hero was the love of her life and the memories of the time they spent together are what she remembers most of her past.
Such was Tuku’s impact on her, she told H-Metro, Makumbe decided not to get into any other romantic flirtations when their affair ended.
That explains, she said, why she has only one child.
She says she is a sister to Jack Sadza, the late great friend and manager of Tuku, whose death in a road accident led the legendary singer to pen one of his biggest hits, Jeri, in his honour.
Makumbe says she has no issues with the late Tuku and the only fight left for her was to ensure that her son gets the documents which show that, indeed, he “is Tuku’s son.”
That process has been going on for some time now and she is pleading with Tuku’s relatives to help her son to acquire a birth certificate which shows he is from the Samanyanga clan.
Interestingly, Aaron, who was born in 1979, also has interest in music.
Makumbe said:
“I remember vividly how Oliver would come to Jeri’s place and that is how we fell in love and I fell pregnant.
“Back in the day, I was very beautiful and I think that’s what attracted him to me. Pamvura yekugeza tainyatsokuwanza, yokumwa ndoyaiita shoma.
“He used to take me to his shows and our love was a fairytale, he was also the first person to take me on a train ride when he came to get me in Gweru where I had gone after I ran away from home.
“After that train ride, that is when he composed his song Right Direction arimo achiimba kuti usaseka akwira mbombera.
“Isusu takambofara, pamari taisaverenga mazuda (coins), we would count notes and since I was just a young lady hapana chaaisandiitira, haaa, mari takamboidya.
“After Tuku, I was never romantically involved with someone else, ndakabva ndafinhikana zvachose nemhaka yokuti the way our issue was handled did not sit well with me.
“I only have my one son.”
She said she tried to get the legendary musician to get a birth certificate for Aaron.
“When Tuku was still alive, I tried to get him to acquire a birth certificate for our child, but he would always claim that he was busy so I ended up putting my maiden name on his birth certificate.
“He once told me to bring the child so that he could teach him how to sing because he said that was the only thing that he was good at and was able to teach his son.
“My child was even taken to Alick Macheso so that he could teach him how to sing, and he went there three times.
“However, he was no longer able to go back because my child’s wife got sick and died.”