The Rumble’s Legacy: Ali’s Victory, Africa’s Rise, and the Unbreakable Spirit of Possibility

Ali in the build up to the greatest heavywieght title fight ever Neil Leif/SI | Neil Leif/SI

By John M. Rosenberg

Fifty-years ago I was the youngest ticket buyer at the Rochester, Minnesota Civic Center to watch via closed circuit satellite the Rumble in the Jungle between Heavyweight Champion George Foreman and four to one underdog Muhammad Ali, 7300 miles away in Kinshasa, Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Immediately following Foreman’s eighth round pirouette to the canvas after a five-punch combination from Ali I burst out of the arena and on to the city street excitedly calling out to an indifferent traffic cop that Ali had won.

The fight marked not only the greatest thrill of victory I will ever experience from a sporting event, but it also solidified an already growing bond that this Minnesota teenager had with Africa.

Prior to the fight the satellite feed showcased the stadium filled with Zairian dancers in polyrhythmic praise to their glorious leader, President Mobutu Sese Seko, who had lured the adrenalin-laced bout to Kinshasa by plopping down a $10 million purse. A gigantic paternalistic portrait of Mobutu in his trademark leopard-skin hat lorded over the arena below. The atmosphere, even from the other side of the globe, was thick, penetrating, spellbinding.

Mobutu, known as America’s favorite dictator, was not the first of his kind to host a sporting event as a public relations smokescreen, but the Rumble in the Jungle was the first global scale event for Africa.

That the fight even happened is somewhat of a miracle. The continent itself, much less Zaire, had no experience with satellite technology or hosting events of this scale. It was also improbable that a black American boxing promotor in the form of a brilliant but slippery ex-con named Don King, whose only prior experience was in having put together an exhibition boxing match in his native Cleveland, would bring the fight together.

Today it is hard to imagine the stature that boxing held in the sporting world for the better part of a century. The sweet science, as it is called, has several golden eras, of which the pinnacle is the Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman period of the sixties and seventies. With championship matches in places like Zaire, Malaysia, and the Philippines, it was a time when the title— heavyweight champion of the world lived up to its label.

To the Africans and to Ali himself, the fight was viewed as a homecoming. With his grace, skill and cunning Ali truly became one with the African people.

Of course, it was more than this fight that impelled my love of the continent. To me, Africa offered something different, away from the front-page headlines such as the Cold War and Watergate.

As I child I pored over the Colliers Encyclopedia year books that my parents had purchased at great expense for my older brothers. The early 1960s editions especially captured my imagination, flush with stories of brand-new nation states emerging on the world scene, one after another, like stars born in the molecular clouds of space. Each had their own George Washington, with names such as Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyere, Jomo Kenyata. I couldn’t help but wonder what these places and people so far removed from my American Midwest were all about.

Now a half century since the fight Africa has also provided me with a sense of encouragement, boasting a can-do attitude that, like Muhammad Ali, a five to one underdog in Kinshasa, is a story about overcoming the impossible. dd

In the coming decade Africa will see the largest economic growth of any continent. Its middle class is swelling. Its technological sector has tremendous potential and, unlike the Rumble in the Jungle when there were no African-owned satellites, 17 African nations have placed more than 60 operational satellites into orbit as of 2024.

To fully understand 21st century Africa one must grasp its dramatically different mindset from that of 1974. Africa’s time on the world stage has arrived, and its people no longer tolerate being told what to do, be it by dictators or the outside world. In the aftermath of the Rumble in the Jungle author Norman Mailer wrote that Ali won because he fought the way he wanted to… against the ropes, exactly where everyone, including Ali’s own manager, did not want him to be.

Like Ali, Africa battles the odds in a manner it sees fit. In the words of Ali, “Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”

John M. Rosenberg is the founder of Rossyln Group International and an expert on African affairs.