Last week the world woke up to the shocking announcement that former world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali had died at the age of 74.
The iconic former world heavyweight title holder died late on Friday at a hospital in the United States (US) city of Phoenix, Arizona, where he had been admitted the previous day, suffering from a respiratory illness that was complicated by Parkinson’s disease.
An estimated 18, 000 people, including celebrities from across the world attended Ali’s funeral in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, yesterday (June 10, 2016).
I agree with outgoing US President Barack Obama (who himself took the world political stage by storm in 2006 by becoming the first African-American in the history of the United States of America after scooping the Democratic Party nomination), that ‘Muhammad Ali shook up the world.
And the world is better for it’.
And most fight fans worldwide would equally concur with former US President Bill Clinton in stating that Ali had been ‘courageous in the ring, inspiring to the young, compassionate to those in need, and strong and good-humoured in bearing the burden of his own health challenges’.
It is true that Muhammadi Ali – who became a symbol of Black Power – inspired millions of young people when still known as Cassius Clay, he defeated former world heavyweight champion Sonny Liston in a title fight in 1964.
That year I was among hundreds of miners’ children from various Mufulira Copper Mines (MCM) townships who filled the old Chawama open air cinema hall, which was located next to Shinde Stadium in Kantanshi, and watched in awe as a darting and swift-punching youthful Cassius Clay sent the fierce-looking and seemingly invincible Liston crashing to the canvass with a savage left hook.
That Madison Square title fight inspired many boys, including yours truly, to abandon the dusty football playing fields across the black mine townships for the boxing ring.
It is no exaggeration that the ‘Ali bug’ indeed spread like a veldt fire, particularly on the populous Copperbelt where the two mining companies – Roan Selection Trust (RST) and Anglo American Corporation (AAC) – had set up social welfare centres in African compounds as a way of keeping miners’ children off the streets, thereby helping to curb juvenile delinquency and other related social problems.
The scope of boxing competition also increased because the same situation prevailed in locations run by the Mufulira Municipal Council such as Chibolya, Kamuchanga and Kansunswa on the Mufulira-Kitwe Road.
Inter-district amateur tournaments, too, became the order of the day, thus offering miners’ and municipal workers’ children, who had never travelled anywhere outside their towns, opportunities to fight opponents before audiences in places like Chiwempala in Chingola, or Lwansimba in Kitwe, Chifubu Welfare Centre (Ndola), Mpatamato and Mikomfwa (Luanshya), or Lubengele Hall in Bancroft, as Chililabombwe was called by then.
Another contribution Muhammad Ali made to the growth boxing in the then Northern Rhodesia, is the impact his ringside team of coaches/trainers and managers (like Angelo Dundee and even charismatic promoter Don King) had on local boxing officials, including referees and judges.
Teachers, policemen, soldiers and social welfare workers, etc, soon took boxing up as a career.
Indeed, the emergence on the international boxing scene of Cassius Clay – who later renamed himself Muhammad Ali upon his conversion to Islam – radically transformed both amateur and professional boxing.
I recall the fact that in 1964 Zambia was able to send to the TokyoOlympic Games a crack squad that included the late Mufulira Wanderers FC and National Team captain Samuel ‘Zoom’ Ndhlovu, who was a keen boxer and trainer I n his formative years.
With the formation of the Amateur Boxing Association of Zambia (ABAZ) led by among others William ‘Bill’ Chanda as chairman and Ernest Mate as secretary, boxing in Zambia grew by leaps and bounds, producing world-beaters like the late Julius Luipa, Lottie Mwale, Charm ‘Shuffle’ Chiteule, David Nata and Timothy Feruka.
In 1968 Zambia also sent a strong team of pugilists to the First All-Africa Games (AAG) held in Brazzaville, Congo Brazzaville.
Similarly the country took part in the 1970 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games in Scotland.
Zambian boxers also featured in the terrorist-hit 1972 Munich Olympic Games in West Germany, and the delayed Second All-Africa Games in Lagos, Nigeria.
After that there was no looking back as Zambian boxers became regular and worthy title contenders at continental and international championships, thanks in no small measure to the impact Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali has had on a sport that has become one of the most competitive and lucrative games of our time.
But unfortunately boxing in Zambia seems to have faded away with Ali’s sudden retirement in 1981, which is why the emergence of female fighters in the likes of world champion Esther Phiri is a welcome development indeed.
As for Africa, Muhammad Ali will always be remembered for ‘blessing’ the continent with ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ World Heavyweight Title fight against George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire (Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1974.
I vividly remember how we spent nights away from our homes simply to wait for the Ali fights that often took place in the small hours of the day.
Those of us who did not have television sets would go to a neighbour’s house and wait all night for Ali’s televised title fights like the unforgettable ‘Thriller in Manila’ that he fought against ‘Smokin’ Joe Frazer in the Filipines.
Ali was born on January 17, 1942, the son of a sign painter in Louisville, Kentucky.
He was named after a prominent 19th Century slave abolitionist.
His prodigious boxing talent was match only a towering self-belief.
“I am the greatest,” he said, and who could doubt a man who won the World Heavyweight Championship three times.
Ali’s support for civil rights in the United States endeared him to millions of people across the world.
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