With his gravelly voice and gentle guitar style, legendary Zimbabwean songwriter Oliver Mtukudzi captured the struggles and hope of everyday people in a country riven by periods of economic and political turmoil. His biggest hits—such as 1993’s “Neria”, 1997’s “Todii” and 2002’s “Ndakuvara”—were as generous as they were pointed, combining social commentary with jazzy arrangements and lulling guitar licks modelled on the plinking strains of the traditional mbira (thumb piano). Born in 1952, Mtukudzi grew up in an impoverished neighbourhood of the capital, Harare, when Zimbabwe was under white apartheid rule. He got into music with the encouragement of his parents and joined his first band in the late ’70s playing alongside Thomas Mapfumo, who was soon to be an equally huge musical figure across Africa. Tuku (as fans called him) released more than 60 albums before he passed away in 2019, and all the while he used his music and platform to advocate for unity, tolerance and important issues such as AIDS awareness.