Who would ever have thought the man responsible for underwriting the Rumble in the Jungle fight of 1974 is South Africa’s long-standing dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) ambassador Bene M’Poko.
This week I discovered that M’Poko’s life story is one of those best-kept secrets, unknown to much of the diplomatic corps itself.
On October 29, 1974, he arrived at the gladiator theatre in Kinshasa at 10pm the night before the fight the world was waiting to watch between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.
He had a ringside seat as he had assisted in organising the fight – as manager of City Bank in Kinshasa he had ensured the bank had guaranteed the fight for $5 million. He sat with 60 000 of his compatriots as they shouted “Ali Bomaye” – their war cry for a man they considered their own.
“The fight only started at 4am and we all thought Ali had no chance as he had not been training as hard as he should have. He had been preoccupied with realising his dream of being in Africa and spending time with Africans. But Ali was a genius and he clearly had a different strategy for this fight.
“We had attended regular parties with him, where he sat on the floor with us and would tell endless jokes, stories and recite poems. He did all the talking and we did all the laughing.
“But he could also be serious and would tell our politicians and government officials that black nations must rise and not rely on Western nations. He would tell them to look where he came from as they could do the same,” M’Poko remembers.
“He told us why he became a Muslim, as it was a religion that didn’t discriminate against people, and as a Muslim he felt free. As a Christian he had carried a slave master's name – Cassius Clay – but after conversion he became Cassius X and then Muhammad Ali.”
It was in Africa that Ali felt the most free and he adopted African dress and customs.
“In the first round of the great fight, his strategy was to frustrate Foreman and bring out the monster in him. For two rounds he kept talking to him, although even at ringside we couldn't hear what he was saying. Then he went to the ropes for a few rounds and, just imagine, in the middle of such a critical match he held Foreman's hold in the middle of the fight while motioning to the crowd to chant ‘Ali Bomaye’. He was an entertainer at heart,” M’Poko recalls.
“He had always told us that Foreman may have been big but he was slow, and Ali could see his punches coming. That enabled Ali to duck and dive and protect his body while Foreman exhausted himself. By the 6th round Foreman was exhausted, by the 7th he was finished, and the 8th was merely a formality.”
October 30, 1974 was one of the most exhilarating nights of M’Poko’s life as he watched an African-American become an African hero. His own life has been interwoven with America as he was one of only nine Congolese selected to attend US universities in 1965. He became president of the Student Union at Rockford College in Illinois.
One of the highlights of his US experience was representing student leaders in a presentation he made to Richard Nixon at the White House in 1968 on how to avoid campus unrest. From addressing Nixon at the White House to sitting ringside with Muhammad Ali in Kinshasa six years later, M’Poko made his mark. It’s a testament to his humility that not many of us know this story. And it's a testament to Ali that M’Poko has a red punching bag in his garage today.