The real demons of Mzansi
● About 20 months ago I was going to have lunch for this column with Rikhado Muziwendlovu Makhado, the artist known as Riky Rick.
He never made it. He succumbed to his demons, the ones he had been fighting for much of his life. Now the Riky Rick Foundation set up by his wife, Bianca Naidoo, has brought him back to life, or at least an AI-generated version of him, in a song called Stronger, which was released in June.
The idea was to use technology to generate a Riky Rick song to raise awareness of the mental health struggles that so many in South Africa face every day, often in quiet desperation. According to the South African Society of Psychiatrists, South Africa’s suicide rate is the 10th-highest in the world, with men being particularly vulnerable — male suicides outnumber female suicides by about four to one.
I decided I had to meet Bianca for a lunch by proxy. Riky’s death had haunted me for all this time and now I was being haunted by this AI version of my man Boss Zonke.
She is above all a private person, who has had to contend with so much pain, loss and guilt and a lot of it in the public eye. Born in Durban to a Zulu mother and an Indian father, she spent a few years after school travelling, working as an au pair in the US. Then she studied journalism, and later got into music production.
She had a true partnership with Riky — not only in their marriage, but in their broader family. He became a father to their own son and to her daughter from a previous relationship, and she was a key player in his production company and business.
“A year after our son was born, he asked me to join his team and that is how I got into this crazy industry. A lot of blessings in it,” Bianca says. “Even though it’s hard I could never see my life in any other way. We started out as friends. He was five years younger than me and at that stage I did not necessarily see myself being with someone so much younger than me. And I did not want the fact that I had a child to become a responsibility in his life at his young age.
“But we just had a good chemistry and it happened on its own. I would say the most amazing years of my life were the 10 years we were together, but it was always hard because when I met him he was a few weeks out of rehab. So I always knew about his struggle but I could see how hard he was working to overcome it. He was working every day but he did really well.”
We meet for brunch at Artistry, the multistorey café, theatre, venue and conceptual space in Fredman Drive, Sandton, created by J’Something and the hotel and apartment network Black Brick. It is a lovely, calming, rustic space packed with creative-looking people taking full advantage of the atmosphere on a Friday morning. I order avocado toast but Bianca says she does not eat in the morning. They hosted a listening party here to launch Stronger; I have to admit despite my reservations it sounds exactly like Riky.
Bianca is wearing a T-shirt with a picture of Riky Rick on it. On the back is a message: “Please believe in young people, give them as many opportunities as they need to prove themselves at any cost.” These are his words, as are Stronger’s lyrics, all constructed from his tweets and his messages. The song is above all hopeful.
Bianca says the ad agency TBWA suggested a mental health campaign based on Riky’s messages. “We had a very good relationship with TBWA over the years and we had done some projects with them. It started out as an idea of putting a song together with other artists, like a We Are the World type song.
“Once we got into it, we decided to take it to another level. Initially I was not comfortable with it because I wasn’t sure how it would be received. And then we got other people involved like Ganja Beatz, then Lebo went into the studio and re-enacted Riky, the way he rapped,” says Bianca.
“Then we took it to a company in Ukraine who put that in AI. It took us a good year going back and forth. I think I was the problem, I was just not happy, making changes all the time. The family came together, the teams got together and we launched the foundation with the track. And it’s been really well received.”
The proceeds of the song are all going to NGOs dealing with mental health. At last count there were 14-million impressions in the first two weeks, 59-million overall reach, 17-million radio impressions and 56,000 streams.
How does she make sense of everything 20 months later, and how did she cope?
“It is so hard to understand when you don’t suffer like that, and you are able to pick up and keep going … With Riky, clearly it was more intense than I could understand. But now I get it. I understand that it’s so real.
“Growing up we were not taught about mental health issues, we were told to just get on with it. I guess now I am in spaces where people are just going through it all the time and it’s real, and I’m fortunate enough to be able to make my own decision and take time out, being kind to myself and then being able to carry on.
“My kids have been a huge help. When I watch them and I see how they’ve got through the last 20 months, why would I feel sorry for myself? I have had great support from my family, Riky’s family, from our friends. It’s been really good. It’s still hard … but I am grateful for those things. I have also started therapy. I had never done therapy in my life, I never thought I needed it, but it’s changing my life, and it’s really helping me.”