On October 30, 1974, Mohamed Ali and George Foreman took part in one of the biggest fights in the history of boxing, “The Rumble in the Jungle”, in Kinshasa, Zaire. The two boxers were vying for the title of world heavyweight champion.
" Ali bomaye ! The songs in Lingala, this October 30, 1974, resound in the Stadium of May 20 of Kinshasa. Understand "Ali, kill him". Cries that galvanize Mohamed Ali, opposed to George Foreman for a historic fight, with the title of heavyweight world champion at stake. The capital of the current DRC was, that year, the host city of this English boxing fight which will remain, long after, in the annals.
Born in Kentucky, United States, Mohamed Ali was as imbued with American culture and manners as any man of his generation. He nevertheless had a deep connection with Africa. THEAli's popularity on the African continent was not a detail: the boxer was an African in his personal struggles and his beliefs.
Never having been ashamed to defend his origins, his Muslim faith and to embrace his roots with tenacity, Ali was going to offer the continent its best score. His involvement in the civil rights movement's campaigns of the 1960s made him a role model for many Africans, who could identify with his causes and struggles.
Mohamed Ali identified himself as African. And at a time when the heroes of decolonization had forgotten their promises when they came to power, Africans decided to put all their hopes in the boxer.
Ali takes revenge
Mohamed Ali was regularly the favorite in his fights at that time. But on October 30, 1974, it was Foreman who took on this responsibility. Undefeated heavyweight world champion and considered by many to be unbeatable, Foreman had dominated opponents of the caliber of Frazier or Norton. Suffice to say that Ali looked like an outsider.
However, in front of thousands of spectators at the Tata Raphael stadium and in front of viewers around the world - around a billion people - Ali turned the tables with a K-O. in the eighth round, inflicting Foreman his first loss in 41 professional fights. Following this event, Ali refused to offer revenge to Foreman, despite a large public plebiscite.
This Zairian fight sounded like another revenge, that of Mohamed Ali, who had been stripped of his title in 1967 after refusing to join the American armed forces. Foreman had taken the opportunity to climb the ranks. When he took over the box in 1970, Ali went on to fight and lost against Joe Frazier, in turn beaten by Foreman. In full preparation for the fight in Kinshasa, Ali faces Norton. A rout.
For the public, Mohamed Ali is therefore in turmoil. He was then 32 years old and it is believed that his heyday is definitely behind him. Defying the best boxer of the moment, Foreman, he is undoubtedly the only one who thinks he can achieve the feat. The fight, initially scheduled for September 1974, was postponed. The two athletes train for several months in Zaire to get used to the climate.
A sporting ... and political issue
On D-Day, when the gong rings, Mohamed Ali surprises everyone by pushing George Foreman to his limits. While it was believed that Ali was going to defend and take no chances against the hard-hitting champion, he aims for Foreman's face without faltering. The latter, more lively at the end of the first round, does not seem worried. That's when Ali decides to provoke Foreman a little more.
Foreman could not have suspected it: younger, more enduring, he will take hits on the arms, on the body. But he continues to resist. Ali, for five more rounds, continues to deliver maximum blows to Foreman.
During the last two rounds of this legendary fight, Foreman is even taunted by Ali. His blows no longer hit the challenger. And in the eighth round, Ali decides to bombard Foreman with hooks to end the fight with a left hook and a straight right, defeating his opponent. Ali then regains his belt of world heavyweight champion.
In addition to combat, the latter also had a political stake. The West had animosity towards the Mobutu regime. Authenticity bothered a West who wanted to impose itself in the Congo to the point of choosing the clothes that the Congolese should wear.
Mohamed Ali played a lot on the anti-colonialist rope to put the public in the pocket: when George Foreman showed up with his companion dog in Zaire, he was assimilated to the former Belgian colonist. With 60 people in his pocket, present at the stadium that day, Ali could only win. Thanks to the promotion of the fight by Mobutu and the racial segregation that was rife in the United States, Kinshasa had become, for an evening, the capital of blacks around the world, with Mohamed Ali as champion.