Beyond The Ring

Mohammad Ali, to an extent, is another child in raised to fulfil the Black Prophetic Tradition. Along with Malcolm, Elijah and MLK, his life can be viewed through the same racial lens.

Like them, he was extremely charismatic, confident, and most importantly offensive. His views, words and actions were offensive in every sense of the word. They stood out in the white world dominated by so-called 'Uncle Toms'. He saw the power in his blackness, he revels in his 'negritude'. "I'm young, I'm handsome, I'm fast, I'm pretty and can't possibly beat”, this statement sums up his entire persona. He was unapologetically black.

He was born in a world where sports was perhaps the only avenue given to young black men to excel at. Naturally, he was drawn to it because of the allure of the so-called equal playing field. A chance to become parallel, at least inside the ring. However, sports was not only about competing. Sports had a life beyond the rules and the rings, it was a perfect microcosm of society itself.  His fights represented the tensions that the world itself was ensnared in. The fight of blacks Vs. white, freedom vs. domination, good vs. evil. That is why Ali is heralded as a symbol of freedom, not just in the USA but in the global south.

Sports was perhaps the only opportunity given to him because they needed him to perform. It was an event created for white entertainment. Enjoyment at the expense of black souls. It was, in a sense, a continuation of white exploitation, they were still serving the white man's interest. They were only relevant until they held that white interest. They were all marionettes. But not Ali, he was the "bad n*****r", the outcast and yet he called himself  'the greatest'. He was as captivating as he was frightening in Jim Crow's America. As Caliban said, “you taught me language but now know how to curse”. Ali used his body to deliver the worst blows to white superiority. While Malcolm and MLK used their words, his medium transcended the boundary set by racially charged language. He messages resonated throughout the global south 

CLR James described sports as an art form. If movement is the highest form of communication, Ali was singing with every punch he threw. Sports was an art form, and he knew how to paint a damn good painting. Each punch thrown in his "Rumble In The Jungle" resonates with the anger and the frustration that he felt. His body and how it was used to defeat his opponents was the song of victory, redemption, power that the black people had been singing all along. To watch him win was as cathartic as it was frustrating. It was the victory that the black people ought to be given and yet, how much longer did they have to wait for that victory outside of the ring?

We won Rumble In The Jungle, but when are we going to win the ‘other’ fight?