The Mailer Review/Volume 13, 2019/When We Were Kings: Review and Commentary: Difference between revisions

Madison Square Garden matchmaker Teddy Brenner, who knew a thing or two about such matters, said, “Actually, King didn’t promote the fight, al- though he did his best to make it seem that way. Video Techniques put it to- gether, with up front money from a British corporation and the rest from the government of Zaire. King was helpful in lining up the fighters, but the deal could have been made without him. For ten million dollars, which is what Foreman and Ali split, anyone could have done the job” (Hauser ). The five million dollars each fighter was paid in  is worth a total of roughly $,, now in  (CPI).

“Those Europeans were aggressive,” Leifer laughed. “I think it was a cou- ple of French guys who started it . . . long story short, by the time the session was over, there wasn’t a single flower left . . . What could they do? They weren’t going to shoot the foreign press corps. I pitied the poor press aide, though. I hope they didn’t shoot him!” (Leifer).

Born Joseph Desire Mobutu, upon seizing power with CIA help in , Mobutu became Mobutu Sese Seke Kuku Ngbendu waza Banga, which translates to, “the all-conquering warrior, who because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest leaving fire in his wake” (French). Like Don King, Mobutu was familiar with homicide. Six months after taking office, he had four former cabinet ministers hanged be- fore , spectators (French). In the film and in his book, The Fight, Mailer relates the unconfirmed tale of Mobutu’s detention cells beneath the Kin- shasa stadium and the summary execution of  unfortunates in order to deter crime during the festival.

in a vast country deprived of roads, health care, electricity, telephones, and often education has reverted to a brutishness not known since the s” (French).

Using other autocrats as role models, Mobutu’s personality cult had few rivals during his era. For weeks at a time, the press in Zaire was forbidden to mention any Zairian other than the president. “Mobutism” was cultivated, being described as, “The sum total of his actions . . . just as the sum total of Mao’s actions constitute Maoism.” A Zairian citizen related years later that the first  minutes of the day in elementary school required students to dance and shout the name of the president (French).

Unlike the open secret of Muhammad Ali’s dalliances, Mobutu’s sexual conquests were celebrated. Described as “looking like a sadist,” by Mailer, Mobutu fathered twenty-one children by official count. However, it should come as no surprise that he adopted driot de cuissage, the right to deflower, as local chiefs offered him virgins on his trips across Zaire. The practice was considered–-or required to be considered—an honor by the virgin’s family (Van Raybrouck  ).

Mobutu’s usefulness to Washington and Paris faded as the Cold War wound down. In , he briefly returned to importance as over a million Rwandan Hutus, many of whom had perpetrated mass genocide, fled into Zaire. Surviving Tutsis, of whom up to a million had been slaughtered, had, in a bizarre twist, assumed power. Mobutu reinstituted relations with France, who had been a major backer of the genocidal Hutus (French). Like boxing, the backstories of international politics are almost always ugly.

Nothing would be easier than to apply / hindsight in the year  to attack Muhammad Ali’s culpability in accepting five million dollars to fight in a country ruled by a brutal dictator whose crimes were well-known, especially given Ali’s even-then growing reputation as a crusader for human rights and humanitarian causes. At the time, however, Ali expressed nothing but appreciation, even awe, at Zaire’s very existence. “It don’t seem possi- ble,” he said, “but  million people run this country and not one white man is involved” (Goldstein ). As for the money coming from Mobutu and the dictator’s goal to promote himself and Zaire, Ali was only too happy to take it. “Countries go to war to get their names put on the map. And wars cost a lot more than ten million dollars” (Gast). As Ali told British challenger Joe Bugner in private before they fought the following year, “Whatever happens, boxing is like business” (Brunt ).

The same  self-righteous political correctness epidemic in our culture today could be applied to Ali’s embrace of the chant “Ali, boma ye”—Ali, kill him, by Zairian fans. In the context of the times, from his pre-fight antics to waving his glove to lead the crowd in the chant between rounds, it was all theater for Ali. Conversely, in what may be the film’s most poignant mo- ment, one day, while receiving a post-workout rubdown, Foreman reflected, quietly, “When I walk down the street, the kids follow me, some screaming, George Foreman, boma ye. I don’t like that. If they say anything about me, they should say George Foreman likes being here, George Foreman loves Africa, not George Foreman, kill him. I don’t like that” (Gast).

premature eulogy that is included in the film, representing the mood of the moment (Gast).

In Ali’s pre-fight dressing room, according to Mailer, there was tense si- lence, until Ali led his entourage in a half-hearted call-and-response prom- ising to dance. What Norman may not have heard was when, according to Bernie Yuman, who was also there, Ali first said to his shaky followers, “What’s the matter? This ain’t nothing but another day in the dramatic life of Muhammad Ali” (Hauser ). To this day, I’m not convinced by Mailer’s contention that Ali was terrified of Foreman. Norman may have been pro- jecting his own awe for Foreman on to Ali, as conveyed in his description of George hitting the heavy bag. But as Ali told the press earlier, “Us Black folks ain’t afraid of one another the way White folks is afraid of us” (Hauser ).