Sport
Landmark
Henry Olonga
born 1976
Zimbabwe's first Black cricketer, and the black armband protest
Landmark is level 2 of 4 in the Zimbabwe Hall of Fame: a first that opened a door, or the pre-eminent figure of their generation in this country. See how the levels work.
Why they are here
Zimbabwe's first Black Test cricketer, and the man who wore a black armband at the 2003 World Cup to mourn what he called the death of democracy in his country. He never played for Zimbabwe again.
Henry Khaaba Olonga was born in Lusaka to a Kenyan father and a Zimbabwean mother and was nineteen when he became the first Black cricketer to play a Test match for Zimbabwe, in 1995 — and the youngest player the country had capped.
He was a genuinely fast bowler in a side that had few, took a five-wicket haul against India, and is remembered by English supporters for a spell at Trent Bridge and by Zimbabweans for the win over India at the 1999 World Cup.
On 10 February 2003, before Zimbabwe's opening match of the World Cup they were co-hosting, he and Andy Flower issued a statement and took the field wearing black armbands, mourning, in their words, the death of democracy in Zimbabwe. It named the starvation, the torture and the silencing of dissent directly, and it was the only such protest by serving international sportsmen inside the country during Robert Mugabe's rule.
He was twenty-six. He was dropped, charged with treason — a capital offence — had his life threatened, and left the country in disguise after the tournament, moving to England. He never played international cricket again and has said he was aware at the time that he was ending his career.
He trained as a singer, works as a broadcaster and opera-trained vocalist in Australia, and has written about the decision. Andy Flower, who protested alongside him, had a long career afterwards; Olonga has noted without complaint that the cost fell very differently on the two of them.
He was a genuinely fast bowler in a side that had few, took a five-wicket haul against India, and is remembered by English supporters for a spell at Trent Bridge and by Zimbabweans for the win over India at the 1999 World Cup.
On 10 February 2003, before Zimbabwe's opening match of the World Cup they were co-hosting, he and Andy Flower issued a statement and took the field wearing black armbands, mourning, in their words, the death of democracy in Zimbabwe. It named the starvation, the torture and the silencing of dissent directly, and it was the only such protest by serving international sportsmen inside the country during Robert Mugabe's rule.
He was twenty-six. He was dropped, charged with treason — a capital offence — had his life threatened, and left the country in disguise after the tournament, moving to England. He never played international cricket again and has said he was aware at the time that he was ending his career.
He trained as a singer, works as a broadcaster and opera-trained vocalist in Australia, and has written about the decision. Andy Flower, who protested alongside him, had a long career afterwards; Olonga has noted without complaint that the cost fell very differently on the two of them.
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