Rumble: Ali/Foreman and The Soul of '74

Great news: "Rumble: Ali/Foreman and the Soul of ‘74" was nominated for a Webby Award – and YOU, the people, get to vote in the People’s Voice Awards! LINK TO VOTE: https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2025/podcasts/individual-episode/history  Make your voice heard by voting for us by April 17th.  The episode “Coming Home to Africa… If James Brown Don’t Kill Us All” was nominated in the History category for Best Single Episode.  And what an episode it was: the overloaded plane, Bill Withers pulling a knife on James Brown, and all those many musicians of the diaspora jamming together at 36,000 feet as one big musical family. It’s a rare glimpse into a moment in time… that still resonates today.  Vote on or before April 17th! Encourage others to vote. Ali was the People’s Champ, and you are the People’s Voice.  From the whole team: thank you for your support!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do our heroes leave behind? Nico Ali-Walsh shares memories of his grandfather, The People’s Champ. George Foreman transforms after The Rumble in the Jungle, realizing that Ali “beat the devil” out of him. Hugh Masekela is finally able to return home to South Africa and his son, Selema follows in his footsteps. Fred Wesley can still play the trombone and will do so as long as he can. After Vietnam, the momentum behind the Civil Rights Movement seems to all but disappear. History moves on. What’s left is the legacy of these soul rebels. LITERARY REFERENCES “The Greatest, My Own Story”by Muhammad Ali (autobiography) “The Rumble in the Jungle” by Lewis Erenberg “Ali: A Life” by Jonathan Eig “The Fight” by Norman Mailer “Shadow Box” by George Plimpton  “Ringside: A Treasury of Boxing Reportage” by Budd Schulberg  “King of the World” by David Remnick OTHER REFERENCE MATERIALS “When We Were Kings” (Documentary by Leon Gast and David Sonenberg) “Soul Power” (Documentary by Jeffery Kusama-Hinte and David Sonenberg)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The infamous fight. Play by play. It's a punishing display of brutality and endurance. The avatars of America’s Culture War stand tall and fierce in the African ring. Foreman is fearsome, throwing haymaker after haymaker. Ali is classically savvy, inventing a new technique on the spot: The Rope-a-Dope. It’s all he can do to survive the onslaught of Foreman’s violence. This fight is considered by many to be the greatest sporting event of all time. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The show must go on! The Zaire ‘74 Music Festival is underway. The sounds of the diaspora grace the stage, united by the drum. Bill Withers stuns listeners with his raw talent. BB King wails on his guitar in one of his all-time best performances. Celia Cruz croons to the crowd, who finds an unexpected familiarity in her Afro-Latina rhythms. Miriam Makeba hypnotizes her audience and ties the whole ensemble together with her unifying spirit. And finally, James Brown emerges to close out the show. His performance makes history as he steps into the crowd and shares the mic with his fans under the rising sun; together they shout “I’m Black and I’m Proud”. This is the Soul of ‘74. LITERARY REFERENCES “The Rumble in the Jungle” by Lewis Erenberg “Hit Me, Fred” by Fred Wesley (autobiography)  “LATIN N.Y.” magazine, editor-in-chief, Diane Weathers “Lawdy Miss Clawdy: The True King of the ‘50s” by Lloyd Price and William Waller (autobiography) OTHER REFERENCE MATERIALS “When We Were Kings” (Documentary by Leon Gast and David Soneberg) “Soul Power” (Documentary by Jeffery Kusama-Hinte and David Sonenberg)  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stuck in Zaire, Ali stays busy winning The People to his side. Foreman remains sullen and sequestered. Don King keeps the hype going as the festival is ramping up, and all involved insist: The Rumble in the Jungle will happen. In the meantime, we recount the tragic history of Zaire's decolonization attempts and Pan-Africanism 2.0; the rapid rise and fall of beloved independence leader, Patrice Lumumba, and the role of the CIA and the Western World in all of it. The consequences of this corruption are tangible to the musicians, photographers and festival-makers, who experience first hand, Mobutu's tyrannical grip on his country.   LITERARY REFERENCES “The Greatest, My Own Story”by Muhammad Ali (autobiography) “By George” by George Foreman (autobiography) OTHER REFERENCE MATERIALS AP Archive: Syndicated Press Conference with George Foreman, June 23, 1974 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbJjZHf5xRo) AP Archive: Syndicated Press Conference with Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, September 20, 1974 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyZ9vHqOh1M) CIA Archives (Church Committee Report –– on Congo activities and Patrice Lumumba assassination)(https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/ir/pdf/ChurchIR_3A_Congo.pdf)      See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.