Brian Rusike was dead for nearly two months before his decomposing body was found at his Gunhill home in Harare, Zimbabwe.
People who had tried to contact the Zimbabwean singer thought he was out of the country.
For two months, the legendary instrumentalist and singer behind the country’s best-known love song was dead and no one knew until his remains were discovered by a friend who decided to scale the musician’s wall after failing to reach him.
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Post-mortem results would later reveal that Rusike of the famous singing group Pied Pipers had died from a heart attack.
Many wondered why his body was not discovered for months after he had died. It would later emerge that the famed musician had lived a secluded life since leaving his Zimbabwean wife, Amai Thoko. Rusike didn’t even allow his closest relatives to visit him since moving to Gunhill, reports said.
Born on September 11, 1956, Rusike was one of Zimbabwe’s top musicians who gallantly played his music within the country’s borders and abroad.
Starting off as a bass player with a three-piece band Stardust in the 70s, Rusike went on to play the keyboards as a member of the Pied Pipers.
Consisting of six members, Rusike wrote many classic songs for this group including Fatherland, We As One, Kure Kure, Makwiro and Manana.
His famous composition, however, remains Ruva Rangu, which was said to be Zimbabwe’s best-known love song with over 200 groups doing cover versions of the song. The popular Ruva Rangu dominated charts in the 80s and 90s.
“In fact, the song became more popular than Brian himself. Even some of those who did the cover versions of Ruva Rangu say that they never met Brian Rusike in person,” an article on The Standard said.
The vocally gifted musician later fell off with Pied Pipers and joined Talking Drum, which became famed for hit albums African Journey and Red Sun.
Travelling around the world, Rusike, by 1996, had met his second wife Janet, who worked for UNESCO.
“Janet lavishly showered him with a white convertible BMW and a house in one of Harare’s poshest suburbs, Gunhill. He became a recluse and was living in seclusion,” the report by The Standard added.
When his decomposed body was found two months after his death in 2018, fans and the music fraternity took to social media to express their shock and sadness.
Though he largely stayed away from social life in his last years, his friends, family and the Zimbabwean people do agree that he worked hard to preserve the country’s rich musical legacy and they will never forget that.
