Blood, Sweat and Tears: Why former cricketer Henry Olonga is a Zimbabwean hero
Former Zimbabwe cricketer Henry Olonga torched a social media storm after saying he doesn’t consider himself a Zimbabwean anymore in a BBC video from Trent Bridge where he was analysing the Test match between Zimbabwe and England recently.
He did carry out another BBC interview in which he actually encouraged people to visit Zimbabwe.
“I’m not Zimbabwean anymore in a pure sense.“ Should people have been offended by these comments? Was he even truthful? In the days of social media and trolls and Zimbabwe’s compromised mainstream media it is easier to ride on a crest of unjustified anger.
Olonga was correct.
He clarified on his social media plages: “I hear there is a fuss about my citizenship comments on the BBC. Much ado about nothing. Zimbabwe decided for me not the other way around. Seeing as Zimbabwe refused to ratify my citizenship when my passport expired in 2006, even after previously renouncing Kenya and Zambia ( where I was born ) .
“They first forced me to renounce all other options and then took the only one I had left away. They left me stateless for 9 years. It was ultimately not my decision and would have happily remained a Zimbo. But I am a law abiding person so I am shut out by the rules.
“I am not allowed to be a dual national according to their rules so technically I am no longer Zimbabwean. I hope that clears it up so please familiarise yourselves with the facts before being so mean.
“Some people online ought to learn how to radiate good vibes – too much negativity and toxicity. Spread more love – the Almighty will be pleased.”
In an interview with The Telegraph he said he found some lyrics on his 2001 song “Our Zimbabwe” ‘triggering. He was admitting that his hair raising adventures in 2003 later affected his mental health.
In an interview with Lance Guma of Nehanda Radio Olonga revealed (August 2010) that: “Just recently I went to renew my passport. I don’t know if you know about the problems that are surrounding people who are trying to renew their passport and they were born outside the country or they have a stake to claim to another citizenship, well either way, now the thing that hurts me the most is I actually represented Zimbabwe at the highest level in my chosen sport which was cricket and in trying to renew my passport, they basically told me, in a manner of speaking – I’m simplifying this – that I’m not a citizen – which is just diabolical and that’s the thing that hurts the most.”
His passport is said to have expired in 2006 and he was unable to leave England without it for 9 years until he married his Australian wife, Tara, and moved to Australia where he is now a citizen.
One paper explained: ‘Olonga, then, remains in limbo, unable to leave Britain and wondering if he can accompany his wife to Adelaide for the birth of his child.’
The Zimbabwean newspaper said back then: ‘Although Olonga is now concentrating on a successful music career in the UK, he is upset that the Zimbabwean government has refused to renew his passport.’
‘“Zimbabwe has turned its back on me so to speak. I have attempted in vain to have my passport renewed, but without success. Therefore I have been forced to move on with my life in another country,” said Olonga.’
‘“In my heart I will always consider myself a Zimbabwean,” said Olonga, now happily living in London with his Australian wife.’
Olonga told Guma (about his autobiography “Blood, Sweat and Tears”) that: ‘I talk about going to school in Zimbabwe in the early 80’s, I talk about the politics surrounding that time.
“Of course when it was quite a turbulent time in Zimbabwe’s history – we had Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe at each other’s throats, we had the Gukurahundi massacres, then we fast forward into my career and finally my retiring at the World Cup of 2003 after mourning the death of democracy.”
He explained to Guma: “We were seeing politicians enriching themselves – the Willowgate scandal where these guys were buying cars and selling them for profit – I mean we’ve had so many corruption scandals in Zimbabwe I don’t need to go through the list but either way that made me a little angry and I started to think ‘geez someone’s got to speak out against this corruption… ultimately it was hearing a story about the Gukurahundi massacres in the Matabeleland region that I grew up in.
“You know I have memories of our teachers carrying guns… I was 25, 26 I got handed a dossier put together by the Catholic Commission for Justice which I’m sure you guys are familiar with and some of those stories just made my blood boil.”
“There was a story of these two girls who got gang raped by some Zimbabwe National Army forces for two days or so, it was a number of days and then they ended up being pregnant and then many months later, these soldiers returned and they just bayoneted these girls wombs open and the foetuses which were still moving, fell on the ground. My Lord – when I heard that I just thought what kind of country have I grown up in? What kind of country have I represented at the highest level?”
“I first heard of Henry’s brother Victor from a boy who transferred to my school around 1993 coming from Plumtree High School. Victor’s sporting prowess was legendary. He played for Zimbabwe later on. Younger brother Henry became the cricketer.
“There are few individuals whose talents mature so early, even during their High school years. Henry excelled as a musician, a tenor and lead singer and is one of the rare Artists and painters to obtain an A grade in A Level Art, yes, Cambridge.
“In local terms these would be the likes of Peter Ndlovu, Norman Mapeza and Alois BUnjira. Except in this case Olonga excelled outright in 3 unrelated fields.
Henry later had epic cricket battles with Sachin Tendulkar, arguably, the greatest cricketer there ever was.
Today that would be in soccer terms a local boy battling with, and sometimes embarrassing, Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo. Olonga embarrassed Tendulkar who then pulverized Olonga in the next battle.
An ex-teammate of Tendulkar said: “When Sachin Tendulkar got out while fending the ball (by Olonga), that night and till the time the next match…there was only one thing that was going on his mind. He could not sleep.”
In the next match Tendulkar got his revenge with record figures.
Olonga played for Zimbabwe in 2 World Cups. In 2003 the World cup was hosted by South Africa with some matches in Zimbabwe and Kenya.
From the war Robert Mugabe went to stay at State House, in the Avenues of Harare at independence. In the 1980s cricket was Mugabe’s vanity.
Harare Sports Club was just next door to him. He received a knighthood from the Queen of England for his reconciliation policies and for embracing British customs like cricket and tennis.
Cricket was led by Peter Chingoka. His brother Paul led Tennis. Their father had been a prominent policeman.
Mugabe’s wife Sally died in early 1990s after a long illness. He married his second wife Grace in 1995. Grace’s life remained a secret until the new millennium.
On the two occasions that I met her for the first time, tennis and cricket were both involved on a fanatic level. She had obviously been groomed to accept these refined tastes.
The first occasion was in the late 1990s when Byron and Wayne Black led Zimbabwe to an upset win in Australia against World class stars from the world circuit. In a best of 5 setup Zimbabwe needed last day wins to progress. They came from 2-1 down to win 3-2.
Obert Mandimutsira announced this shocking news on a Sunday morning, Zimbabwean time. He also announced the arrival time of the triumphant Black brothers from Australia.
My tastes were not as refined as Mugabe’s but I was a sportsman at heart. It was at the airport tarmac that we met Mai Mugabe herself and the Chingoka family. There was only a handful of us with the Black family and Cara Black, then a rising tennis player herself.
Mai Mugabe was not under heavy guard. Wayne Black arrived and I was invited by the mum to hope in the back of the truck with him and Cara and a few others to go their home for a braai Don Black, their father had been hard preparing.
Wayne was enjoying his Lion Lager beer that he bought in South Africa to celebrate. He was to explain the differences in beers by country and by continent. He had bought himself crocodile leather shoes in Australia. The guy was very very fond of his sister Cara.
When we got to their place in Mandara, Don Black was serving roasted drumsticks nicely marinated by his tennis court with Rudyard’s poem “If” pasted on it. He was a man of very few words with a great mane of white hair and a beard like Kenny Rodgers.
The next moment I met Grace would involve Henry Olonga more directly. A great Davis cup match between Zimbabwe and USA in Harare in 2002.
The year before Olong had released a duet with Bonny Deuschele called “Our Zimbabwe.” Somehow it was something closer to a better national anthem than the new one, which remains to this day.
Would the spirit of Mildura and the famous upset by the Black brothers be repeated against the USA? Byron Black promoted the sport of tennis from his teen years before his siblings joined him. His career abroad and in Davis cup international games had a huge following.
Byron had a nemesis in World number 1, Peter Sampras, whose records have only been broken by the current Novak Djokovic, Rafa Nadal and Rodger Federer. It was assumed Sampras’s records would never be broken.
Byron drew steadily towards his much awaited first win over Sampras at Wimbledon in UK. Their last match before the Davis Cup was by far the closest he came to winning, only to lose again. Hope remained that if the Davis cup match in Harare pitted the 2 surely Byron would win at home.
And so Sampras withdrew from the US lineup captained by John McEnroe the former champion. His replacement was Andre Agassi another World Champion with a booming first serve and a grunt to go with it.
A workmate and his girlfriend had tickets to the match only to change last minute plans. He offered the tickets to me and I invited my brother.
Henry Olonga was invited to open proceedings with “Our Zimbabwe” to steer up patriotism. City Sports centre was packed. There were drums. There were songs.
A hand nudged my arm gently and I looked back and saw two bodyguards in dark glasses. They just budged my hand walked past and there she was, Grace Mugabe herself walking in for the match.
Zimbabwe led 2-1 by the second day. What was left was for Zimbabwe to win just one match and beat the mighty USA.
Andre Agassi had won his tight match against one Wayne Black. He announced that if Byron played in the doubles there is no way he would match Agassi. And that’s what happened. Zimbabwe lost 3-2 at home, which was rare in those days.
All was set for Mugabe’s finest cricket hour: The 20023 Cricket World Cup, even though there was not enough food in the country and an economic crisis was becoming more pronounced.
A mass exodus of Zimbabweans left the country at this time. The Daily News was a prominent independent and influential voice founded in 1999 by Editor-in-Chief, Geoffrey Nyarota. Nyarota was selling 100,000 copies a day with a peak of 129,500. Things were bad in Zimbabwe.
The Cricket World Cup would hide Mugabe’s new peak of unpopularity. In 1999 he had lost his first election, a referendum for a new constitution. It is suspected he rigged all elections thereafter.
Jonathan Moyo a former government critic by now was Minister of Information and Publicity. He removed or untenably forced out almost all experienced media personalities. He controlled what people thought with a total media siege.
Political adverts like “Rambai Makashinga” (remain resolute), “Hondo yeminda” and others played after every song to support a chaotic, corrupt and violent land reform program. All dissenting voices were being silenced.
The year 2003 began with the firing of Geoffrey Nyarota, Moyo’s nemesis, by Simon Sipepa Nkomo, the Executive Chairman of ANZ who had replaced the impressive Much Masunda.
Nkomo had been the negative subject of an investigative journalism series by Nyarota in the Angwa City building scandal by Mining Industry Pension Fund (MIPF).
Vice President John Landa Nkomo’s brother, Sipepa was heading to prison until Trevor Carelse Juul, the key witness suddenly skipped the country. Somehow, ANZ made this man, the Executive Chairman with sweeping executive powers, which he exercised to fire Nyarota, the most successful Editor of the new millennium on daily sales. Zimbabwe has not had an equivalent replacement since.
In February, the World Cup rolled into town. Zimbabweans largely found cricket boring in One day or 5 day Test formats. Moyo backed the Warriors mens’ football senior team in their quest to qualify for a major tournament the first time.
By the end of the year qualification to the Africa cup of nations was confirmed, led spiritedly by Peter Ndlovu on the field, Sunday Chidzambwa on the bench and Jonathan Moyo in government circles providing financial backing, logistical and moral support with songs like “Go Warriors” playing on repeat on every station. Sport and politics were mixing well.
The Cricket World Cup was disturbed by Henry Olonga and Andy Flower’s statement before the match against Namibia. It read:
“We cannot in good conscience take to the field and ignore the fact that millions of our compatriots are starving, unemployed and oppressed. We are aware that hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans may even die in the coming months through a combination of starvation, poverty and Aids. We are aware that many people have been unjustly imprisoned and tortured simply for expressing their opinions about what is happening in the country. We have heard a torrent of racist hate speech directed at minority groups. We are aware that thousands of Zimbabweans are routinely denied their right to freedom of expression. We are aware that people have been murdered, raped, beaten and had their homes destroyed because of their beliefs and that many of those responsible have not been prosecuted. We are also aware that many patriotic Zimbabweans oppose us even playing in the Wc because of what is happening.”
“It is impossible to ignore what is happening in Zimbabwe. Although we are just professional cricketers, we do have a conscience and feelings. We believe that if we remain silent that will be taken as a sign that either we do not care or we condone what is happening in Zimbabwe. We believe that it is important to stand up for what is right.”
Andy Flower was indispensable. Olonga was sidelined on the basis of “poor form.” He would later be accused of treason. The highest profile protest against Mugabe took place before matches against Australia and England These 2 matches could bring in million in Zimbabwe Cricket Union’s coffers and into the economy.
Both players wore black arm bands as protest symbols.
Some of Zimbabwe’s matches would be played in South Africa if they qualified for the Super 6 stage. While ramifications were being formulated Zimbabwe unexpectedly qualified to the next stage due to rain in a crucial game featuring Pakistan.
Olonga and Flower travelled for these matches and the Olonga never returned to Zimbabwe. Flower came back once in 2023. Olonga moved to South Africa and then to England.
England refused to travel for their match in Harare. Australia came to Harare.
Was Henry Olonga and Flower correct in ‘mourning the death of democracy in Zimbabwe?’ Some 200 fans supported and wore their own black armbands to future matches.
Opinion was divided. Elections did not improve. Press freedom was never seen again. Although new independent papers came, there have always been accusations these are mostly partisan in ownership.
They never had the force or influence of Nyarota’s “The Daily News” from which he was fired in January 2003.
Radio was already on its last legs as experienced journalists found Jonathan Moyo’s working conditions untenable. Some ague listenership locally since then never recovered.
At the time of writing parliament had forced through legislation that demands a radio licence worth US$95 per year before licencing one’s car.
Pragmatically politicians realised the listenership perennial problem will never be resolved by these means. They made the best of a bad situation of their own making.
The opposition has been paralysed by lawfare.
“The Daily News” was itself shut down on September 11 2003.
It is very hard to argue against the conscientious objector. But Zimbabwe does not take kindly to his kind. For this he has been called an “Uncle Tom” or “Coconut, black outside and white inside. Democracy in Zimbabwe remains in the “Lost and Found” since about 1997.
