Henry Olonga speaks and sings at Surf Club event

INTERNATIONAL cricketer and singing star Henry Olonga spoke to a room full of people at the Tea Gardens Hawks Nest Surf Club on Tuesday 23 June, by invitation from Tea Gardens’ St Andrews Anglican Church. 

Evangelist David Mansfield was also in attendance.

The beautiful winter morning was an amazing backdrop for an amazing life story, which started in Lusaka, Zambia, then Zimbabwe, and international exile in the UK, before finally Australia.

“My mother was a nurse, my father a doctor, and they naturally fell in love in a hospital in Zambia, however, we eventually discovered that he had a whole other, large family in Kenya,” Mr Olonga began.

He grew up at the Rhodes Estate Preparatory School in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) at a time of great upheaval in Africa, during the 1980s, which included the seizure of power by Robert Mugabe, and his ensuing 37-year regime.

While at school, Mr Olonga discovered talents and passions in several fields, chiefly dramatic arts and sports, where he was clocked at running 100metres in 10.6seconds.

“How do you know you’re good at something until someone points it out?” Mr Olonga said.

“You also realise how fast you can go when a king cobra is staring you down and a few seconds later you are a hundred metres away.”

Henry’s love of singing saw him try out for many musicals and plays in primary school, but he was always left out in the end.

In the boys’ high school, he was finally cast as a cowgirl in ‘Oklahoma’, and was told by the director that he was the ugliest girl they’ve ever had, while in a production of ‘Gondoliers’, he was the only kid who could hit the high notes, and followed it up with several more productions in high school.

A major choice came when he was offered a scholarship to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, at the same time as being picked for the Zimbabwe Test cricket team in his last year of high school.

Mr Olonga became the first black player on the Zimbabwe national team, and found himself at the Harare Cricket Grounds playing against the Pakistanis, who were the official world champions at the time.

His first bowl was, admittedly, inglorious, and he ended up tearing a major muscle while getting caught for throwing.

His cricketing career took Mr Olonga to India to work with international players, including Australians and South Africans, and one of his proudest sporting achievements was taking six wickets for 19 against England, and taking Sachin Tendulkar twice in one match – the first time was ruled ‘no ball’, but he did it again, officially, soon enough, in what became a game of redemption for Henry.

“Twenty-three years into his rule, Mugabe sent out the 5^th Brigade to ‘quell’ dissidents, and killed 30-50 thousand people,” Mr Olonga reflected on his growing awareness of the political situation back home at the time.

“Growing up in Africa, you’re struck by the struggle for life, also the great beauty of the place.

“School was 30km from the nearest town, and frequent power cuts left the night sky clear to see, leaving me to wonder the ‘big questions’, and seek answers.”

Sunday church, being a big part of his schooling, made the message clear, and made Mr Olonga feel good, leading him to make the commitment to be a devout Christian.”

“The 1990s saw corruption and stolen money in Zimbabwe, and the internet opened up for free speech,” Mr Olonga recalled.

“When the MDC (Movement for Democratic Change) voted not to let Mugabe become ‘President for life’, he retaliated by attacking the wealthy farmers – there were so many wrong things in Zimbabwe, and we wore black arm bands in protest in 2003.”

His political protest led to the loss of his career on the Zimbabwe national team, as well as serious death threats, and so he hid and fled into exile.

Mr Olonga spent 13 years in England, during which time he re-connected long-distance with Tara, whom he had met during his time in Australia.

Both happened to be recovering from knee surgeries at the same time, and their deepening communication led to a proposal.

“Tara had declared England to be ‘cold, wet, miserable and depressing’, and not just the weather, so we moved from London to Adelaide,” Mr Olonga said.

Mr Olonga has given back to his adopted community by commentating on cricket, coaching and umpiring youth cricket leagues, and still enjoys singing, which he claims to be his most rewarding work, along with his charity work with ‘Second Chances’, a prison ministry.

The morning was enhanced with several renditions of songs relevant to his message at times in the life-story, including a crooner medley to demonstrate his talents with ‘Blue Moon’ and ‘Moon River’, and ‘You Raise Me Up’ and ‘Bring Him Home’ to punctuate the periods when things seemed bleakest.

“I cherish travelling, and telling people about a God who’s crazy about them,” Mr Olonga said.

The finale of the morning was an operatic rendition of “The Lord’s Prayer”, which more than made up for the plethora of dad-jokes that peppered the speech throughout, bringing a sense of humour to a serious life story of standing up for one’s own beliefs in what is right.

By Thomas O’KEEFE