Lucky Dube Wife and Children Jimmy Cliff Family

The Herald

He lived large, even, and carved a larger-than-life celebrity figure out of his music, but Lucky Dube'southward parentage largely remained a closely-guarded secret.
While his parentage might accept influenced his thinking and lyrics, Lucky Dube never made a public fuss out of his upbringing, probably because he feared it could touch his music career.

To those in his inner circles, the hit song Call back Me; gave probably the closest hint of his childhood.
You left for the metropolis many years ago
You promised to come up back,

Only you lot never,
Many years have gone past now
All the same no sign of you, Daddy
Mother died of a heart attack
Many years ago when she heard

That you were married again
Now, I'chiliad the just one left
In the family

Daddy where always you are remember me
In whatever you exercise I love yous

Daddy where always you lot are remember me
In whatever you do I dearest you
Chorus:

Wandering up and down
The streets of Soweto

No identify to telephone call my dwelling
I tried to observe you
Many years agone
Simply the woman you're married to was non practiced at all

Today, 5 years later on his decease, dubiety still surrounds the identity and parentage of the late South African reggae icon, born Lucky Philip Dube, amid revelations that he was born of a Zimbabwean male parent.
Although the issue of Lucky'due south parentage remained a guarded secret, save only to say that his parents separated before his birth, he could have been a member of the Chibwana family, who hail from Chiwundura communal lands in Gokwe.

Lucky was in 2007 killed past a group of thugs in what many believe to be a botched car-jacking attempt in Johannesburg.
The Herald recently tracked down the Chibwanas in Chiwundura and Gokwe, who affirmed that indeed Lucky Dube was one of their ain, although they never had an opportunity to meet him, save for a few letters exchanged in an endeavor to organise a reunion.
That never came to fruition considering he died before they could arrange anything, they say.

Speaking on behalf of the Chibwanas, in Chiwundura communal lands, Thomas said his blood brother Boniface Sivahle who was known in the area as Mujubheki, sired the reggae artiste.
"Mukoma vakaenda Joni kare vakanorova. Vakazodzoka  mushure mekunge vadhipotiwa nevarungu nenyaya yemhirizhonga, munhu aida zvemutsimba," (Boniface

joined the great trek to South Africa and lived there for a long time. He was yet deported in the late 1960's because of his vehement behaviour)

"Asi pavakadzoka, vakasvikotaura kuti vainge vasiya vana vavo vaviri, mukomana nemusikana, nemudzimai." (When he came back, he gathered the whole family and told united states he had left behind his two children in South Africa," he narrated.
He said Mujubheki, constantly talked about his children and had plans to bring them to Zimbabwe.
"One twenty-four hour period, he came back from the shops, literally flying waving a page from Parade magazine, shouting on top of his voice, "Machiona hither chikomana changu!

Tembo vemutsara vavakuimba, Zvino ndichakusvikirwa nani, kwamave nhai Mazvimbakupa! (That is my male child I have e'er been telling you almost! And come to call up of it, he is now a singer. How volition I be able to talk to you now Dube?)
"In the motion-picture show, was Lucky Dube and in that location is no manner he could take mistook someone else's son as his boy," Thomas recalled.

For years to come up the fading film plucked off from the Parade magazine was among the few possessions that Mujubheki guarded closely up to the fourth dimension of his death in 1997.

"When he came back from South Africa, he re-married, but he never had a kid with his wife.
"But you could tell that he was not a happy man. He needed to run across his son and tell him how sorry he was well-nigh his unceremonious departure from their life.
"He kept on hoping that my late brother's son, Nelson Chibwana (the artiste famed for the Mamoyo Follow Me striking vocal), would eventually lead him to his son."
Collaborating Thomas's story, Mujubheki's mother, Chiwaya Dube Chibwana, said his son spent the better function of his life in South Africa, only to resurface decades afterwards, claiming that he had left behind two children.

"Boniface, waiva chichoni cheJoni. Wakainda ukarova kwemakore, ndokuchidzoka achiti, mhai ndakasiya vana vangu.
"Kusvika pakufa kwake, vana ivava vaive vongogara varipamuromo. (Boniface spent the better role of his life in Johannesburg and when he came back he informed me that he had left behind his children whom he often talked about," said the visibly ailing octogenarian.
Although the doyen of reggae is long dead, the Chibwanas experience he remains one of their own.
Speaking from Gokwe, Boniface'south uncle Freddie Daniel Chibwana, reiterated the link between the late artiste and the Chibwanas.

"He (Lucky) died at a fourth dimension when efforts to re-engage him were now bearing fruits. However, we are non talking about it at present, because we believe there are financial gains to exist realised, but we are doing it for the records and future generations," he said.
Lucky Dube was born on August 3 1964 and was married to Zanele Mdluli, and they were blessed with three children.
One of the most successful African reggae artistes of his generation, Lucky cut a sprightly and warm-hearted figure on the earth phase.

Inspired by Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff's messages of black pride, and with a vocal style largely modelled on that of Peter Tosh, he pioneered a distinctively South African variant of reggae, which while non musically radical was lyrically progressive and politically informed. His songs were spiced with dashes of soul, gospel and the occasional ability-ballad flourish, merely also influenced past the local mode of mbaqanga ("township jive"), which he began recording in 1981.
Singing initially in Zulu and even Afrikaans, but later well-nigh exclusively in English language, he switched to reggae in 1984, and by the early 1990s had eclipsed Ivory Coast'southward

Alpha Blondy to become Africa'south biggest selling reggae artist. He found his first success exterior Africa in French republic in the late 1980s and so the United states of america, soon after establishing a devoted and very wide-ranging international fan base of operations through tireless touring.
Dube released more than twenty studio albums and was a frequent visitor to the Britain.

During his career, he visited Republic of zimbabwe iii times to stage shows. His debut bear witness was held at Rufaro stadium in 1988. In 1990 he had another show and two others in 2004 at the City Sports Centre in Harare and the Republic of zimbabwe International Merchandise Off-white Grounds in Bulawayo.
During his career, he toured the globe and shared the stage with renowned stars amongst them Maxi Priest, Sinead O'Connor, Peter Gabriel, Michael Jackson, Celine Dion and Sting to mention but a few.

Known as the "Shining Star of Reggae", Dube recorded more than than xx albums in a career spanning over two decades and was credited as one of the first artistes to introduce reggae in S Africa.

Sadly nearly everyone, who at one time tried to establish a rapport with Lucky Dube, is now dead, taking with them the shreds of evidence in the class of pictures, letters and e-mail, that could have shed more light on the outcome of his parentage.
"One of the Chibwanas, who had established a expert human relationship with Lucky, a former lawyer, who once worked for the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights is likewise expressionless
"You meet, the result is very frail considering nosotros are talking of dead people hither. In as much as we might have been making headway in solving the issue, we all of a sudden realise that nosotros are stuck in the same way.
"But of class, one thing that we don't doubt is that Lucky was a Chibwana," said Pastor Chibwana, in a telephone interview from his base in Gweru.

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Source: https://www.herald.co.zw/tracing-lucky-dubes-roots/