Sam Mtukudzi (April 1, 1988 – March 15, 2010) was a Zimbabwean musician. He was the son of the late singer

Oliver Mtukudzi Oliver "Tuku" Mtukudzi (22 September 1952 – 23 January 2019) was a Zimbabwe, Zimbabwean musician, businessman, philanthropist, Human rights activists, human rights activist and List of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador f ...

Early life and career

After graduating high school, Sam joined his father on tours playing the saxophone and a guitar. In

Harare Harare ( ), formerly Salisbury, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Zimbabwe. The city proper has an area of , a population of 1,849,600 as of the 2022 Zimbabwe census, 2022 census and an estimated 2,487,209 people in its metrop ...

, he had his own jazz-influenced band called Ay Band with whom he recorded his debut album, ''Rume Rimwe'', in 2008. He also had recorded two

solo album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century ...

s. The elder Mtukudzi introduced Sam as "the future" to appreciative crowds at a British nightclub in late 2009.

Death

In the early hours of Monday, March 15, 2010, Sam and his

sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a sound recording, recording or a Concert, live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization (audio), equalization, Dynamic range ...

, Owen Chimhare, died in a car crash while traveling back to Norton near Harare. Their Tata pickup truck, driven by Chimhare, struck a bridge just before the

Kuwadzana Kuwadzana is a residential suburb in Harare, Zimbabwe. It was originally known as Parkridge Fontainebleau. It lies on the city's western border, just south of the main Harare-Bulawayo road. In the 1980s, Kuwadzana was selected for slum upgrading o ...

Extension off-ramp along the Harare-Norton road. The vehicle veered off the road, rammed into the right side of the bridge's guard rails, and plunged into the

river bank In geography, a bank is the land alongside a body of water. Different structures are referred to as ''banks'' in different fields of geography. In limnology (the study of inland waters), a stream bank or river bank is the terrain alongsid ...

below. Inspector Tigere Chigome, a national

Traffic Police Traffic police (also known as traffic officers, traffic enforcement units, traffic cops, traffic monitors, or traffic enforcers) are units and Law enforcement agency, agencies who enforce Traffic#Rules of the road, traffic laws and Road traffic ...

spokesman, explained in the news that the accident happened at 1:20 am. Both Mtukudzi and Chimhare died of

head injuries A head injury is any injury that results in trauma to the skull or brain. The terms ''traumatic brain injury'' and ''head injury'' are often used interchangeably in the medical literature. Because head injuries cover such a broad scope of inju ...

on the scene. Sam Mtukudzi was an ambassador in the Dance4Life initiative whose national concept owner is Students Partnership Worldwide in

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

(SPW Zimbabwe). The initiative seeks to fight HIV and the stigma surrounding it through music and dance. It is being run in several countries namely South Africa,

The Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

, UK, US and

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among others. Mtukudzi was identified as an ambassador by Luckmore Jalisi from SPW Zimbabwe due to his youthfulness as well as his focus and maturity in music. His father Oliver Mtukudzi died on January 23, 2019. The burial occurred on January 27, 2019.

References

1988 births 2010 deaths Zimbabwean guitarists Road incident deaths in Zimbabwe 2010 in Zimbabwe {{Zimbabwe-musician-stub