Former Zimbabwe pacer Henry Olonga has revealed that years after retiring from cricket, he now sings on cruises, in small retirement villages, for school kids and in little bars, even if there are just three people present, as life has taken a massive turn for him over the past decade. Olonga always had a knack for music, and his song Our Zimbabwe was released at a time of political violence 24 years ago as the Robert Mugabe regime went about grabbing lands and invading farms. Olonga last played cricket in 2008, in a T20 tournament in New Zealand, and since then, he has gone on to try odd jobs. “One of the lines goes: ‘Though I may go to distant borders, My soul will yearn for this my home, For time and space may separate us, And yet she holds my heart alone.’ And then another is: ‘As we all stand to build our nation, This is our land, our Zimbabwe,’ Olonga said, as quoted by The Telegraph. “Literally some of the words in that song… they speak of where my life is now, but when I listen to the song again, it’s somewhat triggering,” Olonga added. Two years after releasing the song, he and former cricketer Andy Flower wore black armbands during the 2003 World Cup to protest at the ‘death of democracy’ in the nation. Olonga got death threats, was thrown off the team bus and forced to run away from Zimbabwe. “Our Zimbabwe was a call for Zimbabweans to work together. I try to be a peacemaker, but a lot of people think I’m the opposite. I don’t know why, but if you look at my lyrics, if you look at things I’ve done in my life, I think generally, I’m trying to inspire people for better outcomes,” Olonga said. “I’m not just wagging a finger at people, and that’s what the black armband protest was about; we can be better as a country, we can be better as politicians, we can be better as citizens,” Olonga added. This week, he will be at Trent Bridge working as a summariser for Test Match Special during their coverage of Zimbabwe’s first Test in England in 22 years, not long after his act of defiance. “It was a struggle, mate. I had this amazing platform, this springboard to then hopefully, you know, go on to record, and it all just came to nothing,” Olonga said while speaking about a reality show that he participated in, which shut down because of COVID-19. “It’s not necessarily the peak of music performance being on a cruise ship. Some people think that singers go to die on cruise ships. It’s like where you go when you haven’t made it anywhere else,” Olonga added. He was the first black Zimbabwe Test cricketer and the youngest as well, when he made his debut aged just 18. Olonga was 27 when he wore the black armband, a protest that began at Zimbabwe’s first group match in Bulawayo and continued throughout the World Cup. “I’ve been accused of being scared. I’ve been accused of being a chicken; that I should have stayed in Zimbabwe. The high commissioner pulled me aside. The first thing he said was: ‘Why are you denigrating the government of Zimbabwe?’ I thought: ‘My gosh, that’s a lovely way to say hello,” Olonga said. “I tried to be respectful. I excused myself, but he had that old-school mentality and thought I’d betrayed the country like no one else had ever done. And so the whole cricket, Zimbabwe’s political scene, was very triggering for me because the perception was that I was a troublemaker,” Olonga added.