In 1974 many thought that Muhammad Ali's career was over. Foreman was a younger, larger, and stronger man, who had never lost and was known for knocking out his opponents. Boxing promoter Don King convinced both men to fight for five million dollars apiece. He just had to raise the money. The offer came along with an invitation from Joseph Mobutu, the dictator of Zaire.
Visiting Africa was like returning home for Muhammad Ali. He was loved throughout Zaire. Admirers chanted, "Ali boma ye" (kill him Ali) as he passed. His warm reception was in contrast to the political and cultural alienation he, like many black people, experienced in the United States.
As a prelude to the fight an epic three day soul festival was organized. Top acts like the Spinners, Bill Withers, and James Brown were booked for the event. The promoters expected a huge audience of Americans to be in the country for the fight. Then, unexpectedly, Foreman got injured and the fight was postponed for six weeks. Without their anticipated audience, the performers and promoters decided to go ahead and put on the show for an all African audience.
Wonderful footage of the concert was released in a recent documentary, Soul Power, by the filmmaker Jeff Levy-Hinte (who was involved in When We Were Kings). A number of interesting African musicians performed, including Miriam Makeba and Manu Dibango, the Cameroonian horn player best known for Soul Makossa ( "mama-se, mama-sa, ma-ko-ma-ko-ssa"). In this clip, Dibango entertains the locals:
Visiting Africa was like returning home for Muhammad Ali. He was loved throughout Zaire. Admirers chanted, "Ali boma ye" (kill him Ali) as he passed. His warm reception was in contrast to the political and cultural alienation he, like many black people, experienced in the United States.
As a prelude to the fight an epic three day soul festival was organized. Top acts like the Spinners, Bill Withers, and James Brown were booked for the event. The promoters expected a huge audience of Americans to be in the country for the fight. Then, unexpectedly, Foreman got injured and the fight was postponed for six weeks. Without their anticipated audience, the performers and promoters decided to go ahead and put on the show for an all African audience.
Wonderful footage of the concert was released in a recent documentary, Soul Power, by the filmmaker Jeff Levy-Hinte (who was involved in When We Were Kings). A number of interesting African musicians performed, including Miriam Makeba and Manu Dibango, the Cameroonian horn player best known for Soul Makossa ( "mama-se, mama-sa, ma-ko-ma-ko-ssa"). In this clip, Dibango entertains the locals:
Many of the American musicians were touched to reconnect with the culture and music that was at the root of their own tradition. They realized, perhaps for the first time, that they were part of an august civilization that stretched across the centuries and across the globe. This realization lent the musicians and their work a newfound dignity and relativized the hegemony of America.
James Brown was the beating heart of the show. Old and sweaty, the true Godfather of Soul, James Brown took the stage last. Like Ali, many thought that he was over the hill. Rapping with the audience, he voiced his dismay at being asked to play the best of James Brown: "The best of James Brown is yet to come!"
At four in the morning on October 30, 1974, Ali and Foreman entered the ring in the hot and humid coliseum in Kinshasa, Zaire. Their fight is considered one of the best in the history of the sport. For seven rounds Ali took Foreman's most brutal punches as the crowd pleaded "Ali boma ye." Finally in the eighth round, Ali leapt from the ropes and landed two beautiful punches, which knocked his opponent to the mat to end the fight. The crowd rushed the ring and Ali was swept off. Within an hour the sky opened, a great rain poured down, and the coliseum was flooded.