December 18, 2024 • 57 mins
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.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
On the first day of summer June twenty first, nineteen
seventy four, the heavyweight champion of the World, George Foreman,
sits for a rare press conference to share his thoughts
about his upcoming title fight, aka the Rumble in the Jungle.
Foreman tells the gathered sports.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Writers, there is a fight, supposedly. I don't believe that
fights really take place until they actually happen, so there's
a chance, like everything, that things don't exist.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Turns out Foreman's casual prediction, his strange hesitation, was seemingly prescient. Indeed,
their original fight, scheduled for September twenty fourth, didn't exist
because Foreman suffers the cut over his eye thanks to
his sparring partner, and thus the Ali Foreman title fight
is rescheduled for a little over five weeks later, and
(00:54):
so on September twentieth, at yet another press conference, this
time in Zaire, George Foreman breaks the bad news.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I was very discouraged when the accident happened. A lot
of things run through your mind, especially five million dollars.
But then too, like Muhammad Ali, I think George Foreman.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Has paid his dues.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
We fought all around the world and thrilled a lot
of fans, and I thought it was only right that
we should have a great performance here in a country
where we have so much in common with the people.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
In that brief moment, Foreman, speaking of himself in the
third person, lets his mean, mugging guard down. He tells
reporters that he also wants to bring pride and glory
home to the people of Africa. Yet when Foreman says it,
he sounds more like he's selling a timeshare to retirees.
It's a small but telling crack in the mask he
(01:50):
wears to cover his sensitive soul, and to the observant eye,
it's clear George Foreman has got something on his mind.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
In the fighting. Your headspace is probably the most important thing.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
That's the legendary rock photographer Lynn Goldsmith, who flew on
that fateful flight to kinshasa to shoot the music festival,
and she stayed to cover the heavyweight title fight. She
tuned into the mental battle between the two boxers, knowing
that it would be key in the title bout to come,
and she saw a great meaning in that elbow to
(02:25):
Foreman's face, the one that caused the fight postponement.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
I think that shook him up, just his speign partner.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
You know, bare deep laceration to the thin skin of
the face can be serious in boxing and.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Over the eye, I mean, you know that can open
up during a fight.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Foreman feels for the first time in a long time,
he is vulnerable. At the press conference, Foreman knows he
needs to defend himself from Ali, who uses sportswriters as
foot soldiers for his narrative. While Foreman feels the pressure
of this moment, Muhammad Ali is feeling quite the opposite.
He's out and about winning over the people of Zaire,
(03:07):
and when it came to hanging.
Speaker 5 (03:09):
Out, Foreman much less so I don't remember seeing Foreman
at all.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
That's the view from both photographer Lynn Goldsmith and Gary Stromberg.
Gary says Ali's presence and Foreman's absence further endears Ali
to the high profile artist, his famous friends and musicians
who finally arrive in Africa. Once they're in Conshasa, Ali
(03:33):
gets to spend time with Bill Withers at breakfast, hold
press conferences with James Brown, and afterward hang out with
the R and B singer and songwriter Eda. James it
seems like Ali has all the cool people on his side.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
They were drawn to him as opposed to Foreman. And
I mean there was everybody was for Ali. Nobody was
for Foreman among the musicians that I was aware of.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Meanwhile, there's Foreman who shows up in Zayir with his
German shepherd that looks just like the police dogs the
Belgians turned loose on the people of the Congo. Things
like that don't make it hard to see why the
people of Zaire are also rooting for Ali. Muhammad. Ali
seems to make new fans whenever he goes out in public,
like when he goes out jogging. The locals cheer him on.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Just rolling through the street in a bus or in
a vehicle, and the people on the roadside.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
To them, he feels like they're champion. The most excited
are the young kids. They run alongside the people's champ
as he jogs.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
They join him. They'd run with him, the joy on
their faces.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
And these joyful kids would shout at their champ.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Ali boom ayey Ai boye Ali Boomaye.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
Any time where there was more than a few people
that they would start chanting that it was everywhere Ali Bumaye,
which is Ali kill him, which is heal so strange.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
But Ali loves it, and Lynn Goldsmith recalls how Ali.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
He seemed to be as happy as when you would
run with the kids.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Cheers, they're elated faces. They seem to counter the self
doubts that visit Ali in his darker moments. Lynn Goldsmith
got a glimpse of those doubts through the lens of
her camera.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
I was around him when he was very contemplative, not talking,
and you might almost say he looked depressed. I have
pictures where he'ssed. I mean, that's what I felt. And
so I can't really explain him because he's very very
good at putting on a face.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
That face, that persona he's able to put on it
masks his fears. Yet Ali still has to overcome those
doubts all the same. To do that, Ali relies on
the people's belief in him.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
He just connect not just as a fighter, but everything
that he stood for. What a courageous guy he was
standing for principles and willing to give up, you know,
everything for his principles.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
And that ultimately is why they call him the People's champ.
Welcome to Rumble, the story of Ali Foreman and the
(06:21):
Soul Music of nineteen seventy four. I'm your host zarn Burnett,
the third from iHeart Podcast and School of Humans. This
is Rumble. Previously on Rumble.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
He pulls out a knife and he's walking down the
aisle enraged. He's going after James Brown.
Speaker 6 (06:43):
I remember people coming down out to playing Bill Withers
and the the Spenders and the poet Sister Slids.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
It was so many people bb king oh that it
was unbelieved.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
There was an entire troop of African dancers in costume
surrounding the plane welcoming up.
Speaker 7 (07:01):
I was dancing my way to the bus because I
was so happy to be in my motherland, Afrika.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
George's eye ain't cut that bad.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
It ain't the cut he's afraid of.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
It's me.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I'm in shape and he ain't.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
You saw how fat he is. He's about to lose
his title.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
In the nineteen sixties and seventies, so much of what
Americans believe about Africa they learn from movies, TV shows,
or the nightly news, all of which play up the violence,
the dangers, and the deep dark jungles. So when this
planeload of Americans arrives in Zayre. It's quite the culture
shock seeing Zaiir with their own eyes, smelling the aromas
(07:45):
dancing in the air, listening to the sounds of the city,
and the music drifting out of windows, the folks stepping
off the plane and can Shasa find a much different Africa.
Speaker 5 (07:55):
I'll tell you one little side story. The people in
Zayre are very poor and clothing is a big issue.
The government puts out a bolt of cloth per person
every month, enough cloth to make an outfit out of
either a dress or a shirt or a pair of pants.
And everybody in Zaire was entitled to one bolt of
(08:18):
cloth per month. This very cheap, thin cottonly twenty yards
worth per person.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Mabutu's monthly gift of free fabric for his people checks
a few boxes. It's functional, tangible, and necessary.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
The general population of Zaire, this was the only way
that they could clothe themselves.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
The gift in air quotes is also a weapon of
soft power. It's good pr that.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
Every month the images on the bolt of cotton were
of Mabutu with some kind of expression in an artistic way,
very bright colors.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
However, the free bolts given out for September nineteen seventy four.
The normal Mabutu emblazoned cloth is replaced by a special
rumble in the jungle.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Addition, do you see people wearing the bolt of clothing
from that month, which was really wonderful. It was a
dark blue background with boxing gloves over the entire display,
and then in the middle of that was a huge
boxing glove with an image of Ali and an image
of Format side by side. And it came in three colors.
(09:25):
It was chartruse yellow, it was pink, and it was
I think turquoise blue was the third color. Bright colors,
and everybody anxiety was wearing something made out of that cloth.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Imagine a nation dressed in the faces of two black champions.
It's undeniably a cool visual.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
I took a bolt to that cloth home with me
and I cut it up and I made it into
an art piece. I have a beautiful art piece with
the picture of Ali and Foremant in the boxing gloves.
I love it. It's my favorite piece of art I have.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
We posted a picture on the School of Humans Instagram
if you want to take a look. Boo UTO's gift
to his people is memorable, iconic even and its symbolism
on a grand scale in service to the dictators slash kleptocrat.
It's meant to tell a story, or rather to obscure
a story. At the time of the Rumble in the Jungle,
(10:17):
many Zayreans still remember the nation they almost had, that
is before the West stole it from them and left
Mabutu in charge. And that nation would have looked very
different because that nation was the dream of Patrice La Mumba.
He was part of a generation of young, idealistic African
(10:38):
leaders who envisioned a bold future for their newly independent nations.
Speaker 6 (10:43):
Kwame and Kroma and Patrice Lamumba, those two were the
top lights in terms of American negroes looking at Africa.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
As my Pops recalls, back in the sixties in the US,
the civil rights movement suffered devastating losses. The people bore
witness to the assassinations of Malcolm Martin, Luther King, Junior
MegaR Evers, those are just the most famous names. There's
also the murder of the four young black girls killed
by a bomb placed in an Alabama church, and there's
(11:11):
the disappearance of freedom writers in Mississippi and the assassinations
of numerous activists across the country. In short, there was
all kinds of violence in the US. Meanwhile, at that
same time, across the Atlantic in Africa, a generation of
young leaders steps forward, men not asking for nor demanding power.
(11:33):
They are power. They are the leaders. And to Black
Americans most notably, the young African leaders are confident.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
They were very proud, decisive, non confrontational. They could be
proud and decisive without being belligerent. And you felt all
their power, and you also felt all the support that
the countries had for them. They both had proud bearings,
you know, none of that had in hand kind of shit.
They made you proud to see them.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
It was very much the spirit of the times, a
new sense of black pride, and black folks in the
US very much notice what's going down in Africa.
Speaker 8 (12:10):
The US had consistently let black people down in this country.
After Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, after they're assassinated,
I think that black people were searching for a sense
of whole, a sense of connection, especially in the nineteen seventies,
and connection included linking oneself to the African continent and
(12:36):
what that would look like the concerts iEAR seventy four
I think was part of that.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
That's the voice of Veronica Lippencott. She directs the Africana
Studies program at Hofstra University in New York. We asked
doctor Lippincott about the Congo's transformation from the colonial era
to its liberation.
Speaker 8 (12:56):
We can't have this conversation about what took place in
post World War two, during that decolonization period in Sub
Saharan Africa without mentioning and stressing the importance of how
white supremacy plays into this all. You know, just this
belief that white people are superior than all other races.
Speaker 9 (13:19):
You know, the white.
Speaker 8 (13:20):
Supremacy justified European colonialism in Africa, and I think we
can't lose sight of that.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Well, the civil rights movement is heating up in the
US from the late nineteen fifties into the early sixties.
A bold, rather infectious, unifying spirit is also connecting the
peoples of Africa. This spirit transcends the borders drawn by
the European colonists, those lines on the map that disregard
tribal boundaries and that sever cultural structures and traditions. This
(13:52):
new organically African spirit is called pan Africanism. Only now
this is pan Africanism two points. For the original Pan Africanism,
think Marcus Garvey and his Back to Africa movement in
the nineteen twenties and thirties and its famous ship, the
Black Star. Line with Pan Africanism two point zero. It's
(14:13):
Africa born and Africa focused, and it comes into its
own as the people begin to cast off the shackles
of the West. This new vibe is best exemplified by
this generation of determined, young African born leaders, and consequently
many folks back in Black America grab onto this infectious,
(14:33):
empowering spirit that's sweeping the continent.
Speaker 6 (14:36):
My cousin Dorita her son al named his son Alfred
in Kuma Tucker.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
You know that's not when we were adopting.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
In the mid to late sixties. My pop's a team
curious about the wider world. He watched the nightly news
just like his neighbors. He was informed by the American
media of the day, which meant consequently, I.
Speaker 6 (14:58):
Had surprisingly little interest in Africa. My interest only was historical.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Hearing that now surprises me, knowing my pop says I do.
But looking back. He has his own take on his
adolescent disinterest in Africa, and he's also still mad at
the Africans because he knows European slave catchers ain't that fast.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
See the thing is, I never felt like I was
part of Africa because I couldn't know white people come
to and catch me. So I know there's some Africans
who caught me and turned me over. So I had
no romantic idea about Africa.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I'm from New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Aside from my pop's lingering resentments about slavery, as he
watched the news as a boy in New Jersey, he
found the rush of newly liberated African nations captivating.
Speaker 6 (15:47):
They would show you the new president. They would show
you the queen when she was giving him that sovereignty
and all that kind of shit. And then we followed
the emerging nations as they came forward, each one. So
in Kruma and god Jomo Kanyata in Kenya, Ben Bella
in Algeria, La Mumba in the Congo, we would follow
all them, just as you follow a baseball team.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Well, he's a kid, and this sudden wave of liberation
and leaders is all so new that folks aren't yet cynical.
Speaker 6 (16:18):
Everybody felt good because it showed that we were making
progress to being a civilized world. Now these people are
no longer going to be enslaved in their own countries,
you know.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Now they're free.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
But of course the new power dynamic isn't that simple.
And the West, the former colonial powers, never give anything.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Away for free.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
There always has to be something in it for them.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
Of course, the hamstrung them with all kinds of bullshit,
and then they left a quick, corrupt strong man in place.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
For the Congo. That would be Mabutu. Doctor Veronica Lippencott
is the daughter of Kenyans. However, she was born and
raised in the US and based on that cultural perspective.
Much like my pops. She also recalls learning from her
(17:12):
parents about the young Ghanaian leader who had helped make
Pan Africanism popular, made it real, made it a guiding
philosophy for the newly independent nations of Africa. That man's
name is Quame in Kruma. He was the young leader
of the newly liberated Ghana. But not only that, he.
Speaker 9 (17:31):
Was really seen as the leader of Africa in many.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Ways because Kuame and Kruma lived the struggle.
Speaker 9 (17:37):
He's studied in the United States.
Speaker 8 (17:40):
He came back to Ghana and he had a vision
for what.
Speaker 9 (17:44):
Was then called the Gold Coast, which is now Ghana.
Speaker 8 (17:46):
And keep in mind, this is a territory that was
very wealthy due to its gold and its cocoa and
its diamonds.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
West Africa is one of the most resource rich regions
of the world. The country's coal names reflect this. There's
Ghana previously known as the Gold Coast, There's the Ivory
Coast or in French the Cote Devoir Lands of seemingly
endless wealth. After World War Two, the European powers recognized
(18:15):
that their colonial possessions could no longer be held by force.
One of the first to gain their freedom, Ghana.
Speaker 8 (18:21):
Becomes politically independent in nineteen fifty seven.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Ghana is at the vanguard of the coming wave of
liberation when it joins the Community of Nations. Its independence
is a major world event.
Speaker 8 (18:34):
We had Martin Luther King and Richard Nixon. They came
to the independence ceremony. This was the time of a
lot of really great optimism.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Quame and Kruma's plans for his new nation and the
African continent draw inspiration from the USA.
Speaker 8 (18:51):
He felt that there was a strength in numbers, and
he recognized Africa's place in the international state system, and
he believed that a United States of Africa was a
way to bring the continent together.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
ANEO conferences for it in Kruma is ultimately unsuccessful, in
part due to the Cold War and its geopolitical alignments,
and in part because of his own devolution as a leader.
In Kruma's ambitious reforms are kneecapped by a failing economy.
After surviving multiple assassination attempts, he represses his political opponents
(19:31):
and names himself President for life. The hero of the
liberation movement becomes an authoritarian ruler. But the Pan African
spirit behind his ideas continued to wash across the continent,
renewing Bond's cleansing past wrongs, and in one dramatic year,
(19:52):
the near majority of former European colonies in Africa all
win their independence.
Speaker 8 (20:00):
Teen sixty was known as the Year of Africa. It
was an important watershed moment in the history of Sub
Saharan Africa. You know, particularly the fact that the number
of independent countries increased that year from five to twenty
two and namely, the countries that gained political independence that
year included the French colonies of Congo, Rezaville, Burkina Faso.
Speaker 9 (20:21):
Back then it was known as Upper Volta.
Speaker 8 (20:23):
Benin, Chad, Cot Bois, Cameroon, Gabon, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Mali, Mauritania, Nigers, Senegal,
Somalia and Togo. And in terms of the former British colonies,
that year included Nigeria as well as Somalia, and then
of course the Belgian colony of Congo Leoport.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
That year, it's a staggering list. By the end of
the decade, the vast majority of African nations secure independence
from colonial rule. This moment marks the turning point, a
hinge of history. However, it was also a bittersweet triumph.
It's one step on an arduous road, one traveled by
(21:06):
a group of weary souls who've struggled toward freedom for decades,
some would say for centuries.
Speaker 8 (21:13):
I think it's important to keep in mind that there
was a long history of resistance that led up to
nineteen sixty, you know. And also I think it's important
to note that the events of that year would have
been impossible, but for decades of determined resistance to colonial rule.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
One man stands out among the bright lights of this
resistance movement coursing through the continent. His name Patrice Lumumba.
Speaker 7 (21:44):
I loved him, Are you kidding?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Dancer for James Brown, Lowla Love enthusiastically remembers Lumumba.
Speaker 7 (21:51):
I've seen the footage of him standing up and being
so outspoken about taking his country back from this little
tiny country, Belgium, that was pulling all the natural resources
out and having the people slaughtered mutilated just to fill
the pockets of the King of Belgium. Okay, so he
(22:15):
stands up and he basically says no more, and they
don't want to hear that.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
The scene plays out like this. There's a Belgian state
event on June thirtieth, nineteen sixty to mark the handover
of power to the newly independent nation of the Belgian Congo.
Speaker 8 (22:30):
So on that day of political independence, you know, he
had the Belgian king gives this really sort of tone
death patronizing speech, singing the praises of his granduncle, King
Leopold the Second.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
The Belgian king is King Badwin and his great granduncle
is King Leopold the Second, who by the way, is
roundly condemned for his atrocities against the Congolese people. Under
his rule, Belgians massacred and brutalized the people on a
truly astounding scale. The numbers defy comprehension, and estimated ten
(23:06):
million Congolese people died during his reign. King Leopold was
a truly horrific man of history, up there with the
worst that you can name, which is why any praise
of him soured the Independent ceremony. Anyway, back to the
podium and this moment in time, the young Congolese man
(23:27):
Patrice Lumumba strides up to the mic.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
He was a.
Speaker 8 (23:31):
Scheduled to speak that day, and he gives this fiery
impromptu speech.
Speaker 9 (23:35):
He attacks the Belgians.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
He verbally runs down the equally young Belgian King Badwin,
who's just finished speaking. This proud young black man speaks
his truth to power. La Mumba says, quote, we.
Speaker 10 (23:50):
Who were elected bized the both of your representatives, representatives
of the people, to guide our native land. We who
have suffered in body and soul from the colonial oppression,
we tell you that henceforth, all that is finished with
the Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed in Our
beloved country's future is now with the hands of its
(24:12):
own people.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
The crowd thrills at this idea. Their future is in
their hands. After a pause, La Mumba continues, the.
Speaker 10 (24:21):
Congo's independence is a decisive step towards the liberation of
the whole African continent. Our government of National and popular
unity will service country. I call on all Congolese citizens, men,
women and children to set themselves resolutely to the task
(24:42):
of creating a national economy and ensuring our economic independence.
Eternal glory to the fighters for national liberation. Long live
independance and African unity. Long live the independent and sovereign Congo.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Young King bad One is not expecting such fiery words,
No one did.
Speaker 8 (25:04):
You can imagine the Belgian king was stunned. He actually
turned red.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
This moment also signals the birth of real freedom for
the people of the Congo.
Speaker 8 (25:13):
Most European journalists were shocked by his speech. You know,
even the Western media criticized him. Time magazine even wrote
that his speech was a vicious attack and this really
signaled the beginning of the end for La Mumba.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
La Mumba makes it clear that things will never be
the same. He is not going to be a mouthpiece
for the West. No, he plans to lead his country
toward real liberation and a future of their choosing. This
arrangement is not at all what the Belgians expect.
Speaker 8 (25:45):
Belgians really thought they would stay in that region and
rule for at least another one hundred plus years, So
that speech was quite significant, and it really speaks to
the fact that the Belgians, and I would say this
for all Western states at that time, really couldn't imagine
(26:07):
or believe that Africans could be politicized in any way.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
That paternalistic attitude comes through loud and clear, because Belgians
and other colonizers believed in their hearts that they were
superior to those savage negroes who they believed could not
govern themselves. Instead, the West expects these emerging African nations
to remain bound to their former colonial masters and to
(26:32):
continue laboring for their various resourced extraction infrastructures. They expect
that they will still be exploited, just with a new
black leader who gets to hold the whip. This becomes
the new post liberation trend, first a liberator, then an autocrat.
In the Congo's case, the autocrat is Mabutu.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
But be that as it may. At that point we
didn't know that, so we were celebrating.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
The African liberation movement still ignites the hopes of Black Americans,
men and women, young and old, who were locked in
their own fight for freedom. But in the halls of
US power in politics, those same new African nations were
seen as fresh markets, rich in resources and labor, and
just learning to make their way in the world. Growing
(27:22):
up learning about our world, my pops made sure I
always understood how power.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
Operates America is we tend to be extortionist. We want
you to take a hook, but at odd price, and
that's not how that works.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
So as these fledgling nations begin achieving independence, America seeks
to capitalize, even if it means undermining them. But why
why would America destabilize democracies, the very types of government
it claims to champion throughout the Cold War? Short answer, fear,
or rather the Red scare. The fear of communism is
(28:00):
so great that American presidential administrations from both parties see
these newly established African countries as wins or losses on
the Cold War scoreboard. The fear that all these Third
World discontents might suddenly elect Kamis for their leaders drives
the West and their secretive plots to regain power by
(28:22):
propping up corrupt African leaders. That's the shorthand version you
might hear in a history class. But my pops, he
isn't buying that.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
I never believed that they had any fear of the Rids.
Speaker 6 (28:33):
Since we won World War Two, I don't think any
American president has ever been afraid. It's just I think
they used fear to mobilize support for unpopular positions.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
This fear of a red planet gave America carte blanche
to squash opposition on the domestic and international fronts. Consider
the parallel cases of Cuba and the former Belgian Congo
in nineteen sixty Both had recently won independence. Both nations
appealed to the United States for help to establish a healthy,
(29:04):
functioning democracy, and both times the US said big nope.
Veronica Lippincott frames this strategic rejection as part of a
larger US power grap.
Speaker 8 (29:16):
This overactually fear, which was imagined in many ways. But
you know, a lot of people lost their lives in
the midst of that, you know, and that was you know,
central to Cold War politics. These proxy wars, particularly the CIA,
they decided who was going to rule, who was going
to be in power.
Speaker 9 (29:33):
And if the US didn't like them, they would be
taken out of power.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Instead of acting as a lighthouse of democracy in nineteen
fifty nine, in nineteen sixty, the Eisenhower administration treats international
relations as if it.
Speaker 8 (29:46):
Was just this game essentially, and so the threat of
anyone who was expressing their self determination for their country
and has a vision for their country is seen immediately
as a threat.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Go check the archives of declassified US government files to
see what kind of intelligence American spies were delivering during
the Cold War. It may not surprise you to learn
the US helped quash the spirit of Pan Africanism two
point zero and to do that, the CIA enlisted le
Mumba's enemies to shall we say, eliminate the threat. Now,
(30:25):
no clear execution order is ever given to the CIA
by President Eisenhower. Instead, the kill order is implied. No
one actually needs to say the words. Based on the
Church Committee report on the CIA's activities overseas. We know
that President Eisenhower meets with his National Security Council on
(30:45):
August eighteenth, nineteen sixty. Alan Dulles, the long serving head
of the CIA, says he's convinced they're witnessing a quote
classic communist takeover in Africa, and according to intelligence coming
in from the Congo, quote, there may be little time
in which to take action to avoid another Cuba can't
(31:06):
have another fidel. The next day, the director of CIA's
covert operation sends a cable to field agents in the Congo.
The messages quote, you are authorized to proceed with operation.
On August twenty sixth, Alan Dallies sends a follow up
cable to the Leopold station officer offering a cash reward
(31:27):
of one hundred thousand dollars to insure Lamumba's removal. The
head of the CIA covert operations would later testify that
it was his quote belief that the cable was a
circumlocucious means of indicating that the president wanted Lamumba killed.
A Little more than a week later, on September fifth,
(31:47):
nineteen sixty, acting with the full backing of the CIA,
President Kasavubu removes Patrice Lamumba as Prime Minister. His partner
in that coup Mabutu Seesi Siku.
Speaker 8 (32:00):
He was actually chief of staff of the first Congolese
National Army, appointed by Patrice Lamumba.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Exactly one day after the coup and the CONGO, the
CIA station officer cables Washington with news that the head
of the Army, Mabutu, is quote serving as an advisor
to a Congolese effort to eliminate La Mumba. A kill
kit with a specifically designed poison is delivered to CIA
agents to accomplish the dark deed, but before that can
(32:30):
be used, Patrice Lamumba is captured, handed over to Congolese
forces who kill him on their own.
Speaker 8 (32:37):
About two hundred days after DRC became politically independent, he
was assassinated.
Speaker 7 (32:43):
The next thing you know, he disappears and Mabutu arises.
Speaker 6 (32:47):
We knew the CIA had killed Lamumbu, so whoever they
put in is going to be their man. And that's
why it was when when Mabutu was the one that emerged,
I knew he was the CIA's choice.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
As low Love puts it, the writing was on the wall.
Speaker 7 (33:03):
There still getting what they were getting before, but with
a black face in front, just.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Like how the season of assassinations of great leaders in
the US during the nineteen sixties bled out the energies
of the movements those men led. In that same way,
the murder of Patrice Lamumba kills not only the man
but his movement.
Speaker 7 (33:23):
As you really need to go check out Patrice Lamumba.
He was a force and a voice that was so
powerful and just bringing the people together to stamp in
solitude united.
Speaker 9 (33:36):
They just cut it off.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
As a result, a dark cynicism emerges in the Congo.
This is when any real and lasting hope for a
brighter future begins to die.
Speaker 8 (33:47):
The US didn't realize how significant Lamumba's assassination was, especially
for Africans, and I would say broadly the African asp
because the outrage that was expressed after Lamumba's assassination. I
don't think the US government thought they would get such
(34:09):
a global response and reaction.
Speaker 6 (34:12):
So as a result, we got blocked out of most
of Africa because of how we treated La Momba, because
nobody else trusted us.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
But what if there had been a United States of Africa,
A Union of nation states, free to determine its fate,
supported by its own vast resources, indivisible and uncorrupted by
outside forces.
Speaker 8 (34:34):
It would have been really interesting to know what would
have happened if in Kruma's vision was realized, but it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Unfortunately, Instead, Ghana and the Congo take much different paths,
and there is no United States of Africa.
Speaker 9 (34:50):
With Lamumba out of the way, who do you get
in place? You get Muvutu. You know who's the biggest.
Speaker 8 (34:56):
Kleptocrat you can imagine? So and we do the bidding
of the United States. Has it lined his pockets. He
stole from his people millions of millions of dollars, put them.
Speaker 9 (35:07):
In Swiss banks.
Speaker 8 (35:08):
And you know, while his peoples are completely impoverished.
Speaker 9 (35:12):
You know, it's horrible, It's absolutely horrible.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
You could say Mabutu represents the lost promise of the
newly liberated Africa. There was once so much hope for
what could take shape in the postcolonial nations, but instead
came Mabutu. He and others like him lay the groundwork
for the corruption and cruelty, the resource theft and exploitation
(35:43):
that still ravages the nations of Africa today.
Speaker 6 (35:47):
To me, he was so nakedly opportunistic and devoid of honor.
All to honor he had was by parroting what Lemmba
had already said, none of which he believed the people
he was talking to believed, So he would say that
to them and then go back and do what he
wanted to do. And that's why he stayed in power
(36:07):
so long. All he wanted was power.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
In Mabutu Zayir, the very fabric of reality is handed
out to the public along with those bolts of fabric
designed to venerate the dictator. You see, when he comes
to power, Mabutu remodels everyday life for the people. He
says it's in order to create his idea of their
postcolonial African identity. At the heart of all of his efforts,
(36:31):
Mabutu wishes to create a new story for Zayir. That's
because above all, Mabutu is a storyteller. Long before he
had any dreams of power on the global stage, Mabutu
made his living as a journalist. Telling stories was literally
his day job. Thus, he recognizes that a new African
story is something urgently needed to repair and rebuild what
(36:54):
the former European colonists have left behind to help shed
those harmful racist narratives of colonialism. Mabutu's stated goal is
to reimagine the former Belgian Congo as a new nation
and as a new culture, while also reconnecting it to
the country's long lost African past. This is how he
(37:15):
will prepare his people for their new glorious future. He
calls his program of African re education Authenticite. It's rather
ironic that the word is still French, but Mabutu's new idea,
Authenticite is a laudable goal. The idea is.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
That supposedly everyone's getting back to their African roots.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Yet there are few who have the skills or training
to make it happen. To provide these stories of the
past and construct Mabutu's plans for the future, there's no
real professional class. This is due to the fact that
very few black Zayrians graduated college in the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 8 (37:54):
I've seen different numbers, but anywhere from about twenty university graduates.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Twenty as in less than two dozen. That's insane. And
that's also how sometimes just one man can make a
big difference in such a chaotic moment of change, especially
when that one man has so little competition and has
no moral limitations. After Mabutu deposes his predecessor and he
(38:19):
takes power, he institutes a wave of social changes to
foster and create this new spirit of nationalism. For instance,
Mabutu issues a sweeping declaration that the people's names from
back in the days of Belgian rule are now officially illegal.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
Mabutu had outlawed many of their names because they were
French names and they had to find African names.
Speaker 8 (38:46):
He orchestrated this campaign to rid the country of any
sort of lingering vestiges of colonialism, and that included the names.
Speaker 4 (38:54):
Right.
Speaker 8 (38:55):
So we have actually my parents' best friends, the close
family friends of ours, you know, they when they were
living in the United States and they had to, you know,
change their their names and city.
Speaker 9 (39:06):
Names were changed.
Speaker 8 (39:07):
So Leoville was then renamed Kinshasa.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Aka the location for the festival and the Rumble in
the Jungle. This same name change mandate is also how
Joseph Desire Mabutu becomes Mabutu, sees Cikukoko and Bandu Waza
Banga and It's also how the Belgian Congo became Zayir.
But it isn't just the names that Mabutu demands be changed.
(39:32):
He intends to redefine absolutely every aspect of Zaire and
culture for his people. He also changes his appearance to
make it appear more authentique as well. His new look
makes it clear to his people that Mabutu is putting
the Kaibash.
Speaker 9 (39:48):
On Western style clothing.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
And by extension, Western influence. So instead Mabutu starts to
wear those.
Speaker 8 (39:56):
Mause style tunics that you saw a lot of political
actors at the time wearing.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Mabutu tops off this new look with a very African
coated leopard skin toque. The hat helps give him a
distinctive look. It's the new look for a sub Saharan
African strong man, animal prints and designer sunglasses. It's on
par with the iconic world leaders like Chairman Mao or
Fidel Castro. But Veronica Lippencott believes Mabutu's true motivations for
(40:26):
his change in dress was less to do with his
affinity for the look of communist leaders.
Speaker 8 (40:32):
But I think he just did this as a way
to in some way separate himself a little bit from.
Speaker 9 (40:39):
The long arm of the US state.
Speaker 8 (40:41):
Bhutu is all about Bibutu, and however he can gain
support and consolidate his power, I think he would do that.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Another way to consolidate his power is to turn the
learned and the intelligentsia into another tool of his agenda.
Mabotu reforms the non existent university system and he establishes
new universities, and he changes the curriculum so that classes
now teach stories he prefers, and so that he can
also indoctrinate young Zayirians with pro Mabutu propaganda.
Speaker 8 (41:13):
I think that speaks to his skill set, you know,
to create this narrative and rewrite history. That's that's the
playbook of an authoritarian. You know, when they recreate history.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
If you replace troublesome facts with more pleasing fictions. The
trouble is there's still the ache of the present moment,
there's still people's lived reality, and no story can ever
quell hunger pangs.
Speaker 8 (41:38):
I think that he believe that people would find it compelling.
But when you see a man with millions and millions
of dollars and you're living in abject poverty. I'm sure
the Congoese people questioned him, but they didn't have a.
Speaker 9 (41:52):
Voice for so long to express their outrage, so to speak.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
That's because, unfortunately Mabutu's promised path to reconnect his people's
roots with the realities of their modern African identities, all
the name changes, new fashions, old stories, and fake new history.
It leads not into redemption and rebirth. Instead, it leads
the people into a life of brutal, systemic repression. Violence
(42:18):
becomes the preferred tool Mabutu wields to build his nation
in his image and maintain order under his rule, and
mabutu soldiers have plenty of guns to persuade the people.
Speaker 4 (42:30):
I remember very clearly the militia there with the guns
and their helmets because it was hot out, so to
see these people in helmets and years or whatever. As
an American, it's very strange to see militia at the
airport with guns.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Along with those men with guns that seem to be
everywhere and anywhere. In the weeks just before the festival
and the fight. There are also the these giant billboards
looming over the people. They advertised the upcoming rumble in
the jungle from high over the streets of kinshasa One
billboard reads a fight between two blacks in a black nation,
(43:14):
organized by blacks and seen by the whole world. That
is a victory of Mabutism. The messages are in French,
but the influence of the Soviet era sloganeering is clear.
Great national pride underscored by a persistent threat of repressive violence.
Speaker 5 (43:32):
This was a dictatorship out and out, you know, and
people were terribly fearful of this guy. You could feel it.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
While Gary Stromberg cherishes the time he spends his pr
guy for the festival in Zayir, that same role puts
him squarely up against Mabutu's people.
Speaker 5 (43:49):
I knew Mabutu's reputation. I knew that underneath the stadium
they had used to torture people, that there were hundreds
of people that supposedly had been slaughtered there. So you know,
I wasn't aware of detail, but I was aware there
was a danger and that the military they don't speak English.
It's not an English speaking country, so you hear conversations
(44:09):
that you don't understand. You see military people talking to
each other. You don't understand. That was an ominous feeling.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Lynn Goldsmith also heard the dark rumors of a torture
pit hidden under the stadium remade into the venue for
the three day music festival and the heavyweight title fight.
Speaker 4 (44:26):
A number of people had their pockets picked, journalists or
people who were there, right, and supposedly Mabutu had all
the known pickpockets arrested, lined up and shot. Now did
I see that? No? But did that rumor run, whether
(44:51):
it was a rumor or not, did that bit of
information run amongst all of us.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
You bet your ass did. And as Lyn Surmi the time.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
Who knows if they were really guilty or not. But
it didn't matter to him, because what mattered to him
was that while all this press was there, there wouldn't
be any more pickpocketing. There wouldn't be any more crime
while press was there. But that was really radical. It
(45:21):
seemed more like in the movies, but no, it was
real life.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
While Mbutu presents one face to his people, he offers
a very different face to his Western guests. It's a
visage of strength, safety, stability, and above all, it's meant
to convince outsiders that Zayr is worthy and ready for
foreign investment.
Speaker 4 (45:43):
He wanted to bring money into his country, and I
can't blame him for wanting to initiate business in a
country that's fighting to survive, just in terms of food.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
You can change your hat and change the people's names,
change how people dress, change the names of the cities
and the country, change all you like, but Mabutu Zayir
was still no different than exploitation by the former Belgian masters. Also,
let's be even more real about it. Looming over everything
is the very real possibility that while all the eyes
(46:20):
of the world are on the Congo and all the
powers that be in the nation are focusing on Zaire
seventy four and the rumble in the jungle, some well
armed rebel forces might decide it's the perfect time to
stage a bloody coup.
Speaker 5 (46:35):
I tried to keep blinders on and not think about
what else was possible.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
I didn't know that much about the politics of everything,
you know. What I knew was that this would bring
attention to a certain part of the world that struggles,
and when it brings attention, it brings corporate money, okay,
And so it would be really exciting because there would
(47:01):
be such a focus right on those people, on the
situations that they live in. I really felt that they
they were suppressed from who they were.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
You see, thanks to her camera lens, Lynn could see
through Mabutu's hype.
Speaker 4 (47:20):
I felt that about Mabutu's kind of agenda. I didn't
think it was really about claiming your blackness, your africanness,
your truth. Some of that was great, but I felt
it was more this individual man's power trip.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
She could see Mabutu's penchant for violence momentarily hidden from view,
there just below the surface of his performance as a beloved,
benevolent ruler hosting an event designed to impress his international guests.
Speaker 4 (47:52):
There was an event at the stadium before the festival.
It was daylight and they were all there. I have pictures.
Al Lee was there, Don King was there, George Foreman
was there. But one of the African groups started singing
a song.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
Of course, Lynn had her camera with her.
Speaker 4 (48:14):
I did get pictures and stuff, and I followed Mabutu
as he walked around the stadium waving his cane. He
had this kind of cane and he had like this
leftward type hat.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
At one point, Mabotu gives an order and a cadre
of armed men storm into the stadium.
Speaker 4 (48:35):
All these soldiers come out of nowhere, turn their guns
on this group as well as on the crowd.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
Assault rifles are pointed at the boxers, the press, and
the stars of the show as the young military men
scan for some unseen threat.
Speaker 4 (48:52):
I remember me and a German photographer were like, whoa
you know? And we stepped back and they had to
wait for Mabutu to give a signal. It was pretty scary.
I'd never seen anything like him, so that's my strongest
memory of Mabuchu.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Why does Mabuchu arrange this terrifying flex of his power,
Simple because he can, which is also the very same
reason why he sets his romantic sights on Lynn Goldsmith.
Speaker 4 (49:28):
Mabutu found out where I was staying in my hotel
and kept doing his best to get me to have
dinner with him, to go here or there with him. Remember,
he didn't want any of his constituents, if that's what
she want to call them, to deal with any kind
(49:49):
of whiteness. But he was definitely after me because it
was scary.
Speaker 1 (49:55):
There are very few things that are scarier than saying
no to.
Speaker 4 (49:59):
A horny You know, you didn't know what a no
would mean. Were you gonna disappear?
Speaker 1 (50:05):
That cold, unshakable fear she felt slithering up her spine.
Speaker 4 (50:10):
That's that was why I wasn't going to lunch with Mabu.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
Lynn Goldsmith was lucky she somehow avoids Mabutu during her stay.
But this is not the case for the people who
live in Zaiir. They are stuck with him. Meanwhile, there's
James Brown's dancer, Low the Love. She's never been to
Africa before and for her, all of this just feels
very exciting.
Speaker 7 (50:33):
First of all, you have to understand we got anything
and everything we wanted at that hotel. We were there
for like to me, it was a long time, but
whatever we needed we were taken care of.
Speaker 9 (50:44):
And that's never happened.
Speaker 1 (50:46):
She's used to traveling with James Brown and let's just
say the godfather of Saul was not generous or you
know what, we can just say it. The man is cheap.
Speaker 7 (50:55):
When we toured with James Brown, he only took care
of the accommodations when you work. So if we're on
the road for a whole week, so our last performance
is a Sunday night. We get on a bus, we
go to the next town. If we get there on
Monday or Tuesday, we're responsible for our accommodations and our food.
Speaker 3 (51:12):
Here we are in Africa, and it's.
Speaker 7 (51:15):
The first time I don't have to pay for my
accommodations and food.
Speaker 5 (51:20):
It was Heaven.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
So how does Lola Love enjoy her trip to Heaven?
Speaker 7 (51:25):
I got to go to the marketplace and meet the
different people.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
However, Lola has another dictator keeping tabs on her, namely
her boss.
Speaker 7 (51:35):
But James Brown. He does not like his entourage to
go out because he was strictly a businessman. If you
would have gotten hurt and couldn't perform, that's a show.
Speaker 1 (51:48):
Thus, James Brown keeps his band under a de facto
house arrest.
Speaker 7 (51:53):
I'm still very new and I keep hearing all these
you can't do this, you can't do that. So I
kind of walked around the hotel until Fred Wesley. He
was like, he's going out. He's the band leader. He
could do whatever he wants, right, He says, Lolla, is
there anything that you want me to get while you're out?
I said, yes, Hugh Masekela, I want to meet him.
Speaker 1 (52:12):
And Fred Wesley, well, he delivers for Lola.
Speaker 7 (52:15):
Love and he comes back to the he says, Lola,
I met Hugh.
Speaker 9 (52:18):
He's going to give you a call.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
That call becomes a means of escape from James Brown's
house arrested.
Speaker 7 (52:24):
But not only that, and because of you, I got
to go to the Vice President's dinner.
Speaker 3 (52:30):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
James Brown's band leader, Fred Wesley remembers how.
Speaker 6 (52:35):
Every night they will have dinner at somebody's house that
had money, the politicians of Conshasta.
Speaker 3 (52:42):
They will have dinner somewhere that you could eat.
Speaker 4 (52:44):
The food.
Speaker 3 (52:45):
You wouldn't know what you were eating, but it was
good to you.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
And so at the Vice President's dinner, Fred Wesley brings
Lola Love on Hugh Masekela's invitation. But then when her boss,
James Brown catches sight of her.
Speaker 7 (53:00):
And James Brown looked up and he saw me there
because nobody would be there but James Brown.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
The godfather of soul, is not happy to see her.
But luckily, Love of Love has Fred on her side
that had.
Speaker 6 (53:11):
To take care of her because she was so open
and so free that James would easily take advantage of her,
you know. And so I felt like I had to
protect her from that and from other things too, from
other people they could take advantage of her.
Speaker 3 (53:25):
You know. I didn't want anything bad happened to anybody,
but especially Hut.
Speaker 1 (53:29):
It's an unfortunate truth of humanity. Too often those with
power take advantage of those without. Thankfully, Fred make sure
that doesn't happen to Lull the love.
Speaker 6 (53:39):
She was a sweet girl that I want to make
sure that she came out of it all right. But
we had a great time that night and we ate
some great food. We didn't know what we were eating, and
we had some great beer. I had never had beer
like that before, you know, but it was unbelievable. The
whole experience was a zaire Kshata was unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (54:04):
Mabutu's well orchestrated parade of pleasures, his advertisements of his power,
do work to obscure the obvious truth. His global celebration
of blackness and unity, community and music, strength and excellence
is all being paid for by the same old exploitation
of Africans. His celebration of Pan Africanism is being put
(54:27):
on by a CIA backed puppet. The longer one stays
in kinshasa the more obvious. Mabutu's charade becomes his spectacle
is being paid for by the same Western interests who
never actually left Africa. Ultimately, Mabutu is just a corrupt
man who's cosplaying as an African liberation leader. He's a
(54:47):
lie in a leopard skin hat. Of course, none of
this bothers George Foreman curiously, though it doesn't seem to
bother Muhammad Ali much either. Both boxers are hyper focused.
They keep their eyes on the prize and miss the
reality beneath the billboards. The poverty gets obscured by all
the sumptuous state dinners and the red carpet treatment. Because
(55:10):
to these two boxers, their upcoming bout feels far bigger
than the land which will host the next great super fight.
On the next episode of Rumble.
Speaker 5 (55:30):
When George Foreman gets cut in training, the music festival
has to go on.
Speaker 11 (55:35):
A supercultural festival bringing together Latin American, Afro American and
African dancers and singers will get underway here on Saturday.
Speaker 8 (55:43):
Our stories are coming through the lyrics, are coming through
lived experience or coming through the rhythms.
Speaker 7 (55:49):
All of a sudden, I had this burst of energy
and all I wasn't tired when it was four o'clock
in the morning, I wanted to dance some more.
Speaker 6 (55:57):
That's when I realized who Bill woodleswould He could really
sing and he could really play the guitar figure with
the highlight of the whole festival.
Speaker 12 (56:10):
Rumbell is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
Rumble is written and hosted by Zarren Burnett. The third
produced and directed by Julia chriscal Sound designed by Jesse Niswanger,
em scoring by John Washington. Original music composed by Jordan
Manley and TJ. Merritt. Series concept by Gary Stromberg. Executive
(56:31):
producers are Jason English, Sean Titone, Gary Stromberg, Virginia Prescott,
el C Crowley, and Brandon barr Our. Senior producer is
Amelia Brock, Production manager Daisy Church, fact checker Savannah Hugley.
Legal services provided by canoel Hanley PC. Additional production by
Claire Keating, Casting director Julia Chriscau. Casting support services provided
(56:56):
by Breakdown Express.
Speaker 11 (56:57):
Episode ten cast Abraham Amka as Muhammad Ali, John Washington
as Patrice La Mumba, Anthony Brandon Walker as George Foreman.
Special Thanks to Lewis Ehrenberg. Check out his book Rumble
in the Jungle. It's a great resource. Also thanks to
Jonathan I for.
Speaker 12 (57:16):
His book Ali a Life.
Speaker 1 (57:18):
And finally thanks to.
Speaker 11 (57:20):
Zarenz pops Zeke who grounds this material like no one else.
If you like the show, let us know, like subscribe,
leave five star reviews.
Speaker 12 (57:29):
It really helps.
Speaker 11 (57:31):
Also check out our show notes for a full list
of reference materials.
On the first day of summer June twenty first, nineteen
seventy four, the heavyweight champion of the World, George Foreman,
sits for a rare press conference to share his thoughts
about his upcoming title fight, aka the Rumble in the Jungle.
Foreman tells the gathered sports.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Writers, there is a fight, supposedly. I don't believe that
fights really take place until they actually happen, so there's
a chance, like everything, that things don't exist.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Turns out Foreman's casual prediction, his strange hesitation, was seemingly prescient. Indeed,
their original fight, scheduled for September twenty fourth, didn't exist
because Foreman suffers the cut over his eye thanks to
his sparring partner, and thus the Ali Foreman title fight
is rescheduled for a little over five weeks later, and
(00:54):
so on September twentieth, at yet another press conference, this
time in Zaire, George Foreman breaks the bad news.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I was very discouraged when the accident happened. A lot
of things run through your mind, especially five million dollars.
But then too, like Muhammad Ali, I think George Foreman.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Has paid his dues.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
We fought all around the world and thrilled a lot
of fans, and I thought it was only right that
we should have a great performance here in a country
where we have so much in common with the people.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
In that brief moment, Foreman, speaking of himself in the
third person, lets his mean, mugging guard down. He tells
reporters that he also wants to bring pride and glory
home to the people of Africa. Yet when Foreman says it,
he sounds more like he's selling a timeshare to retirees.
It's a small but telling crack in the mask he
(01:50):
wears to cover his sensitive soul, and to the observant eye,
it's clear George Foreman has got something on his mind.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
In the fighting. Your headspace is probably the most important thing.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
That's the legendary rock photographer Lynn Goldsmith, who flew on
that fateful flight to kinshasa to shoot the music festival,
and she stayed to cover the heavyweight title fight. She
tuned into the mental battle between the two boxers, knowing
that it would be key in the title bout to come,
and she saw a great meaning in that elbow to
(02:25):
Foreman's face, the one that caused the fight postponement.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
I think that shook him up, just his speign partner.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
You know, bare deep laceration to the thin skin of
the face can be serious in boxing and.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Over the eye, I mean, you know that can open
up during a fight.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
Foreman feels for the first time in a long time,
he is vulnerable. At the press conference, Foreman knows he
needs to defend himself from Ali, who uses sportswriters as
foot soldiers for his narrative. While Foreman feels the pressure
of this moment, Muhammad Ali is feeling quite the opposite.
He's out and about winning over the people of Zaire,
(03:07):
and when it came to hanging.
Speaker 5 (03:09):
Out, Foreman much less so I don't remember seeing Foreman
at all.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
That's the view from both photographer Lynn Goldsmith and Gary Stromberg.
Gary says Ali's presence and Foreman's absence further endears Ali
to the high profile artist, his famous friends and musicians
who finally arrive in Africa. Once they're in Conshasa, Ali
(03:33):
gets to spend time with Bill Withers at breakfast, hold
press conferences with James Brown, and afterward hang out with
the R and B singer and songwriter Eda. James it
seems like Ali has all the cool people on his side.
Speaker 5 (03:46):
They were drawn to him as opposed to Foreman. And
I mean there was everybody was for Ali. Nobody was
for Foreman among the musicians that I was aware of.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Meanwhile, there's Foreman who shows up in Zayir with his
German shepherd that looks just like the police dogs the
Belgians turned loose on the people of the Congo. Things
like that don't make it hard to see why the
people of Zaire are also rooting for Ali. Muhammad. Ali
seems to make new fans whenever he goes out in public,
like when he goes out jogging. The locals cheer him on.
Speaker 5 (04:17):
Just rolling through the street in a bus or in
a vehicle, and the people on the roadside.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
To them, he feels like they're champion. The most excited
are the young kids. They run alongside the people's champ
as he jogs.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
They join him. They'd run with him, the joy on
their faces.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
And these joyful kids would shout at their champ.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Ali boom ayey Ai boye Ali Boomaye.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
Any time where there was more than a few people
that they would start chanting that it was everywhere Ali Bumaye,
which is Ali kill him, which is heal so strange.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
But Ali loves it, and Lynn Goldsmith recalls how Ali.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
He seemed to be as happy as when you would
run with the kids.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
Cheers, they're elated faces. They seem to counter the self
doubts that visit Ali in his darker moments. Lynn Goldsmith
got a glimpse of those doubts through the lens of
her camera.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
I was around him when he was very contemplative, not talking,
and you might almost say he looked depressed. I have
pictures where he'ssed. I mean, that's what I felt. And
so I can't really explain him because he's very very
good at putting on a face.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
That face, that persona he's able to put on it
masks his fears. Yet Ali still has to overcome those
doubts all the same. To do that, Ali relies on
the people's belief in him.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
He just connect not just as a fighter, but everything
that he stood for. What a courageous guy he was
standing for principles and willing to give up, you know,
everything for his principles.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
And that ultimately is why they call him the People's champ.
Welcome to Rumble, the story of Ali Foreman and the
(06:21):
Soul Music of nineteen seventy four. I'm your host zarn Burnett,
the third from iHeart Podcast and School of Humans. This
is Rumble. Previously on Rumble.
Speaker 5 (06:37):
He pulls out a knife and he's walking down the
aisle enraged. He's going after James Brown.
Speaker 6 (06:43):
I remember people coming down out to playing Bill Withers
and the the Spenders and the poet Sister Slids.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
It was so many people bb king oh that it
was unbelieved.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
There was an entire troop of African dancers in costume
surrounding the plane welcoming up.
Speaker 7 (07:01):
I was dancing my way to the bus because I
was so happy to be in my motherland, Afrika.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
George's eye ain't cut that bad.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
It ain't the cut he's afraid of.
Speaker 5 (07:13):
It's me.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I'm in shape and he ain't.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
You saw how fat he is. He's about to lose
his title.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
In the nineteen sixties and seventies, so much of what
Americans believe about Africa they learn from movies, TV shows,
or the nightly news, all of which play up the violence,
the dangers, and the deep dark jungles. So when this
planeload of Americans arrives in Zayre. It's quite the culture
shock seeing Zaiir with their own eyes, smelling the aromas
(07:45):
dancing in the air, listening to the sounds of the city,
and the music drifting out of windows, the folks stepping
off the plane and can Shasa find a much different Africa.
Speaker 5 (07:55):
I'll tell you one little side story. The people in
Zayre are very poor and clothing is a big issue.
The government puts out a bolt of cloth per person
every month, enough cloth to make an outfit out of
either a dress or a shirt or a pair of pants.
And everybody in Zaire was entitled to one bolt of
(08:18):
cloth per month. This very cheap, thin cottonly twenty yards
worth per person.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Mabutu's monthly gift of free fabric for his people checks
a few boxes. It's functional, tangible, and necessary.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
The general population of Zaire, this was the only way
that they could clothe themselves.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
The gift in air quotes is also a weapon of
soft power. It's good pr that.
Speaker 5 (08:43):
Every month the images on the bolt of cotton were
of Mabutu with some kind of expression in an artistic way,
very bright colors.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
However, the free bolts given out for September nineteen seventy four.
The normal Mabutu emblazoned cloth is replaced by a special
rumble in the jungle.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Addition, do you see people wearing the bolt of clothing
from that month, which was really wonderful. It was a
dark blue background with boxing gloves over the entire display,
and then in the middle of that was a huge
boxing glove with an image of Ali and an image
of Format side by side. And it came in three colors.
(09:25):
It was chartruse yellow, it was pink, and it was
I think turquoise blue was the third color. Bright colors,
and everybody anxiety was wearing something made out of that cloth.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Imagine a nation dressed in the faces of two black champions.
It's undeniably a cool visual.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
I took a bolt to that cloth home with me
and I cut it up and I made it into
an art piece. I have a beautiful art piece with
the picture of Ali and Foremant in the boxing gloves.
I love it. It's my favorite piece of art I have.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
We posted a picture on the School of Humans Instagram
if you want to take a look. Boo UTO's gift
to his people is memorable, iconic even and its symbolism
on a grand scale in service to the dictators slash kleptocrat.
It's meant to tell a story, or rather to obscure
a story. At the time of the Rumble in the Jungle,
(10:17):
many Zayreans still remember the nation they almost had, that
is before the West stole it from them and left
Mabutu in charge. And that nation would have looked very
different because that nation was the dream of Patrice La Mumba.
He was part of a generation of young, idealistic African
(10:38):
leaders who envisioned a bold future for their newly independent nations.
Speaker 6 (10:43):
Kwame and Kroma and Patrice Lamumba, those two were the
top lights in terms of American negroes looking at Africa.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
As my Pops recalls, back in the sixties in the US,
the civil rights movement suffered devastating losses. The people bore
witness to the assassinations of Malcolm Martin, Luther King, Junior
MegaR Evers, those are just the most famous names. There's
also the murder of the four young black girls killed
by a bomb placed in an Alabama church, and there's
(11:11):
the disappearance of freedom writers in Mississippi and the assassinations
of numerous activists across the country. In short, there was
all kinds of violence in the US. Meanwhile, at that
same time, across the Atlantic in Africa, a generation of
young leaders steps forward, men not asking for nor demanding power.
(11:33):
They are power. They are the leaders. And to Black
Americans most notably, the young African leaders are confident.
Speaker 6 (11:41):
They were very proud, decisive, non confrontational. They could be
proud and decisive without being belligerent. And you felt all
their power, and you also felt all the support that
the countries had for them. They both had proud bearings,
you know, none of that had in hand kind of shit.
They made you proud to see them.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
It was very much the spirit of the times, a
new sense of black pride, and black folks in the
US very much notice what's going down in Africa.
Speaker 8 (12:10):
The US had consistently let black people down in this country.
After Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, after they're assassinated,
I think that black people were searching for a sense
of whole, a sense of connection, especially in the nineteen seventies,
and connection included linking oneself to the African continent and
(12:36):
what that would look like the concerts iEAR seventy four
I think was part of that.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
That's the voice of Veronica Lippencott. She directs the Africana
Studies program at Hofstra University in New York. We asked
doctor Lippincott about the Congo's transformation from the colonial era
to its liberation.
Speaker 8 (12:56):
We can't have this conversation about what took place in
post World War two, during that decolonization period in Sub
Saharan Africa without mentioning and stressing the importance of how
white supremacy plays into this all. You know, just this
belief that white people are superior than all other races.
Speaker 9 (13:19):
You know, the white.
Speaker 8 (13:20):
Supremacy justified European colonialism in Africa, and I think we
can't lose sight of that.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Well, the civil rights movement is heating up in the
US from the late nineteen fifties into the early sixties.
A bold, rather infectious, unifying spirit is also connecting the
peoples of Africa. This spirit transcends the borders drawn by
the European colonists, those lines on the map that disregard
tribal boundaries and that sever cultural structures and traditions. This
(13:52):
new organically African spirit is called pan Africanism. Only now
this is pan Africanism two points. For the original Pan Africanism,
think Marcus Garvey and his Back to Africa movement in
the nineteen twenties and thirties and its famous ship, the
Black Star. Line with Pan Africanism two point zero. It's
(14:13):
Africa born and Africa focused, and it comes into its
own as the people begin to cast off the shackles
of the West. This new vibe is best exemplified by
this generation of determined, young African born leaders, and consequently
many folks back in Black America grab onto this infectious,
(14:33):
empowering spirit that's sweeping the continent.
Speaker 6 (14:36):
My cousin Dorita her son al named his son Alfred
in Kuma Tucker.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
You know that's not when we were adopting.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
In the mid to late sixties. My pop's a team
curious about the wider world. He watched the nightly news
just like his neighbors. He was informed by the American
media of the day, which meant consequently, I.
Speaker 6 (14:58):
Had surprisingly little interest in Africa. My interest only was historical.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Hearing that now surprises me, knowing my pop says I do.
But looking back. He has his own take on his
adolescent disinterest in Africa, and he's also still mad at
the Africans because he knows European slave catchers ain't that fast.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
See the thing is, I never felt like I was
part of Africa because I couldn't know white people come
to and catch me. So I know there's some Africans
who caught me and turned me over. So I had
no romantic idea about Africa.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I'm from New Jersey.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Aside from my pop's lingering resentments about slavery, as he
watched the news as a boy in New Jersey, he
found the rush of newly liberated African nations captivating.
Speaker 6 (15:47):
They would show you the new president. They would show
you the queen when she was giving him that sovereignty
and all that kind of shit. And then we followed
the emerging nations as they came forward, each one. So
in Kruma and god Jomo Kanyata in Kenya, Ben Bella
in Algeria, La Mumba in the Congo, we would follow
all them, just as you follow a baseball team.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Well, he's a kid, and this sudden wave of liberation
and leaders is all so new that folks aren't yet cynical.
Speaker 6 (16:18):
Everybody felt good because it showed that we were making
progress to being a civilized world. Now these people are
no longer going to be enslaved in their own countries,
you know.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Now they're free.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
But of course the new power dynamic isn't that simple.
And the West, the former colonial powers, never give anything.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
Away for free.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
There always has to be something in it for them.
Speaker 6 (16:44):
Of course, the hamstrung them with all kinds of bullshit,
and then they left a quick, corrupt strong man in place.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
For the Congo. That would be Mabutu. Doctor Veronica Lippencott
is the daughter of Kenyans. However, she was born and
raised in the US and based on that cultural perspective.
Much like my pops. She also recalls learning from her
(17:12):
parents about the young Ghanaian leader who had helped make
Pan Africanism popular, made it real, made it a guiding
philosophy for the newly independent nations of Africa. That man's
name is Quame in Kruma. He was the young leader
of the newly liberated Ghana. But not only that, he.
Speaker 9 (17:31):
Was really seen as the leader of Africa in many.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Ways because Kuame and Kruma lived the struggle.
Speaker 9 (17:37):
He's studied in the United States.
Speaker 8 (17:40):
He came back to Ghana and he had a vision
for what.
Speaker 9 (17:44):
Was then called the Gold Coast, which is now Ghana.
Speaker 8 (17:46):
And keep in mind, this is a territory that was
very wealthy due to its gold and its cocoa and
its diamonds.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
West Africa is one of the most resource rich regions
of the world. The country's coal names reflect this. There's
Ghana previously known as the Gold Coast, There's the Ivory
Coast or in French the Cote Devoir Lands of seemingly
endless wealth. After World War Two, the European powers recognized
(18:15):
that their colonial possessions could no longer be held by force.
One of the first to gain their freedom, Ghana.
Speaker 8 (18:21):
Becomes politically independent in nineteen fifty seven.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Ghana is at the vanguard of the coming wave of
liberation when it joins the Community of Nations. Its independence
is a major world event.
Speaker 8 (18:34):
We had Martin Luther King and Richard Nixon. They came
to the independence ceremony. This was the time of a
lot of really great optimism.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Quame and Kruma's plans for his new nation and the
African continent draw inspiration from the USA.
Speaker 8 (18:51):
He felt that there was a strength in numbers, and
he recognized Africa's place in the international state system, and
he believed that a United States of Africa was a
way to bring the continent together.
Speaker 1 (19:08):
ANEO conferences for it in Kruma is ultimately unsuccessful, in
part due to the Cold War and its geopolitical alignments,
and in part because of his own devolution as a leader.
In Kruma's ambitious reforms are kneecapped by a failing economy.
After surviving multiple assassination attempts, he represses his political opponents
(19:31):
and names himself President for life. The hero of the
liberation movement becomes an authoritarian ruler. But the Pan African
spirit behind his ideas continued to wash across the continent,
renewing Bond's cleansing past wrongs, and in one dramatic year,
(19:52):
the near majority of former European colonies in Africa all
win their independence.
Speaker 8 (20:00):
Teen sixty was known as the Year of Africa. It
was an important watershed moment in the history of Sub
Saharan Africa. You know, particularly the fact that the number
of independent countries increased that year from five to twenty
two and namely, the countries that gained political independence that
year included the French colonies of Congo, Rezaville, Burkina Faso.
Speaker 9 (20:21):
Back then it was known as Upper Volta.
Speaker 8 (20:23):
Benin, Chad, Cot Bois, Cameroon, Gabon, Madagascar, Central African Republic, Mali, Mauritania, Nigers, Senegal,
Somalia and Togo. And in terms of the former British colonies,
that year included Nigeria as well as Somalia, and then
of course the Belgian colony of Congo Leoport.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
That year, it's a staggering list. By the end of
the decade, the vast majority of African nations secure independence
from colonial rule. This moment marks the turning point, a
hinge of history. However, it was also a bittersweet triumph.
It's one step on an arduous road, one traveled by
(21:06):
a group of weary souls who've struggled toward freedom for decades,
some would say for centuries.
Speaker 8 (21:13):
I think it's important to keep in mind that there
was a long history of resistance that led up to
nineteen sixty, you know. And also I think it's important
to note that the events of that year would have
been impossible, but for decades of determined resistance to colonial rule.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
One man stands out among the bright lights of this
resistance movement coursing through the continent. His name Patrice Lumumba.
Speaker 7 (21:44):
I loved him, Are you kidding?
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Dancer for James Brown, Lowla Love enthusiastically remembers Lumumba.
Speaker 7 (21:51):
I've seen the footage of him standing up and being
so outspoken about taking his country back from this little
tiny country, Belgium, that was pulling all the natural resources
out and having the people slaughtered mutilated just to fill
the pockets of the King of Belgium. Okay, so he
(22:15):
stands up and he basically says no more, and they
don't want to hear that.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
The scene plays out like this. There's a Belgian state
event on June thirtieth, nineteen sixty to mark the handover
of power to the newly independent nation of the Belgian Congo.
Speaker 8 (22:30):
So on that day of political independence, you know, he
had the Belgian king gives this really sort of tone
death patronizing speech, singing the praises of his granduncle, King
Leopold the Second.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
The Belgian king is King Badwin and his great granduncle
is King Leopold the Second, who by the way, is
roundly condemned for his atrocities against the Congolese people. Under
his rule, Belgians massacred and brutalized the people on a
truly astounding scale. The numbers defy comprehension, and estimated ten
(23:06):
million Congolese people died during his reign. King Leopold was
a truly horrific man of history, up there with the
worst that you can name, which is why any praise
of him soured the Independent ceremony. Anyway, back to the
podium and this moment in time, the young Congolese man
(23:27):
Patrice Lumumba strides up to the mic.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
He was a.
Speaker 8 (23:31):
Scheduled to speak that day, and he gives this fiery
impromptu speech.
Speaker 9 (23:35):
He attacks the Belgians.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
He verbally runs down the equally young Belgian King Badwin,
who's just finished speaking. This proud young black man speaks
his truth to power. La Mumba says, quote, we.
Speaker 10 (23:50):
Who were elected bized the both of your representatives, representatives
of the people, to guide our native land. We who
have suffered in body and soul from the colonial oppression,
we tell you that henceforth, all that is finished with
the Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed in Our
beloved country's future is now with the hands of its
(24:12):
own people.
Speaker 1 (24:13):
The crowd thrills at this idea. Their future is in
their hands. After a pause, La Mumba continues, the.
Speaker 10 (24:21):
Congo's independence is a decisive step towards the liberation of
the whole African continent. Our government of National and popular
unity will service country. I call on all Congolese citizens, men,
women and children to set themselves resolutely to the task
(24:42):
of creating a national economy and ensuring our economic independence.
Eternal glory to the fighters for national liberation. Long live
independance and African unity. Long live the independent and sovereign Congo.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Young King bad One is not expecting such fiery words,
No one did.
Speaker 8 (25:04):
You can imagine the Belgian king was stunned. He actually
turned red.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
This moment also signals the birth of real freedom for
the people of the Congo.
Speaker 8 (25:13):
Most European journalists were shocked by his speech. You know,
even the Western media criticized him. Time magazine even wrote
that his speech was a vicious attack and this really
signaled the beginning of the end for La Mumba.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
La Mumba makes it clear that things will never be
the same. He is not going to be a mouthpiece
for the West. No, he plans to lead his country
toward real liberation and a future of their choosing. This
arrangement is not at all what the Belgians expect.
Speaker 8 (25:45):
Belgians really thought they would stay in that region and
rule for at least another one hundred plus years, So
that speech was quite significant, and it really speaks to
the fact that the Belgians, and I would say this
for all Western states at that time, really couldn't imagine
(26:07):
or believe that Africans could be politicized in any way.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
That paternalistic attitude comes through loud and clear, because Belgians
and other colonizers believed in their hearts that they were
superior to those savage negroes who they believed could not
govern themselves. Instead, the West expects these emerging African nations
to remain bound to their former colonial masters and to
(26:32):
continue laboring for their various resourced extraction infrastructures. They expect
that they will still be exploited, just with a new
black leader who gets to hold the whip. This becomes
the new post liberation trend, first a liberator, then an autocrat.
In the Congo's case, the autocrat is Mabutu.
Speaker 6 (26:53):
But be that as it may. At that point we
didn't know that, so we were celebrating.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
The African liberation movement still ignites the hopes of Black Americans,
men and women, young and old, who were locked in
their own fight for freedom. But in the halls of
US power in politics, those same new African nations were
seen as fresh markets, rich in resources and labor, and
just learning to make their way in the world. Growing
(27:22):
up learning about our world, my pops made sure I
always understood how power.
Speaker 6 (27:27):
Operates America is we tend to be extortionist. We want
you to take a hook, but at odd price, and
that's not how that works.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
So as these fledgling nations begin achieving independence, America seeks
to capitalize, even if it means undermining them. But why
why would America destabilize democracies, the very types of government
it claims to champion throughout the Cold War? Short answer, fear,
or rather the Red scare. The fear of communism is
(28:00):
so great that American presidential administrations from both parties see
these newly established African countries as wins or losses on
the Cold War scoreboard. The fear that all these Third
World discontents might suddenly elect Kamis for their leaders drives
the West and their secretive plots to regain power by
(28:22):
propping up corrupt African leaders. That's the shorthand version you
might hear in a history class. But my pops, he
isn't buying that.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
I never believed that they had any fear of the Rids.
Speaker 6 (28:33):
Since we won World War Two, I don't think any
American president has ever been afraid. It's just I think
they used fear to mobilize support for unpopular positions.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
This fear of a red planet gave America carte blanche
to squash opposition on the domestic and international fronts. Consider
the parallel cases of Cuba and the former Belgian Congo
in nineteen sixty Both had recently won independence. Both nations
appealed to the United States for help to establish a healthy,
(29:04):
functioning democracy, and both times the US said big nope.
Veronica Lippincott frames this strategic rejection as part of a
larger US power grap.
Speaker 8 (29:16):
This overactually fear, which was imagined in many ways. But
you know, a lot of people lost their lives in
the midst of that, you know, and that was you know,
central to Cold War politics. These proxy wars, particularly the CIA,
they decided who was going to rule, who was going
to be in power.
Speaker 9 (29:33):
And if the US didn't like them, they would be
taken out of power.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Instead of acting as a lighthouse of democracy in nineteen
fifty nine, in nineteen sixty, the Eisenhower administration treats international
relations as if it.
Speaker 8 (29:46):
Was just this game essentially, and so the threat of
anyone who was expressing their self determination for their country
and has a vision for their country is seen immediately
as a threat.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Go check the archives of declassified US government files to
see what kind of intelligence American spies were delivering during
the Cold War. It may not surprise you to learn
the US helped quash the spirit of Pan Africanism two
point zero and to do that, the CIA enlisted le
Mumba's enemies to shall we say, eliminate the threat. Now,
(30:25):
no clear execution order is ever given to the CIA
by President Eisenhower. Instead, the kill order is implied. No
one actually needs to say the words. Based on the
Church Committee report on the CIA's activities overseas. We know
that President Eisenhower meets with his National Security Council on
(30:45):
August eighteenth, nineteen sixty. Alan Dulles, the long serving head
of the CIA, says he's convinced they're witnessing a quote
classic communist takeover in Africa, and according to intelligence coming
in from the Congo, quote, there may be little time
in which to take action to avoid another Cuba can't
(31:06):
have another fidel. The next day, the director of CIA's
covert operation sends a cable to field agents in the Congo.
The messages quote, you are authorized to proceed with operation.
On August twenty sixth, Alan Dallies sends a follow up
cable to the Leopold station officer offering a cash reward
(31:27):
of one hundred thousand dollars to insure Lamumba's removal. The
head of the CIA covert operations would later testify that
it was his quote belief that the cable was a
circumlocucious means of indicating that the president wanted Lamumba killed.
A Little more than a week later, on September fifth,
(31:47):
nineteen sixty, acting with the full backing of the CIA,
President Kasavubu removes Patrice Lamumba as Prime Minister. His partner
in that coup Mabutu Seesi Siku.
Speaker 8 (32:00):
He was actually chief of staff of the first Congolese
National Army, appointed by Patrice Lamumba.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Exactly one day after the coup and the CONGO, the
CIA station officer cables Washington with news that the head
of the Army, Mabutu, is quote serving as an advisor
to a Congolese effort to eliminate La Mumba. A kill
kit with a specifically designed poison is delivered to CIA
agents to accomplish the dark deed, but before that can
(32:30):
be used, Patrice Lamumba is captured, handed over to Congolese
forces who kill him on their own.
Speaker 8 (32:37):
About two hundred days after DRC became politically independent, he
was assassinated.
Speaker 7 (32:43):
The next thing you know, he disappears and Mabutu arises.
Speaker 6 (32:47):
We knew the CIA had killed Lamumbu, so whoever they
put in is going to be their man. And that's
why it was when when Mabutu was the one that emerged,
I knew he was the CIA's choice.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
As low Love puts it, the writing was on the wall.
Speaker 7 (33:03):
There still getting what they were getting before, but with
a black face in front, just.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Like how the season of assassinations of great leaders in
the US during the nineteen sixties bled out the energies
of the movements those men led. In that same way,
the murder of Patrice Lamumba kills not only the man
but his movement.
Speaker 7 (33:23):
As you really need to go check out Patrice Lamumba.
He was a force and a voice that was so
powerful and just bringing the people together to stamp in
solitude united.
Speaker 9 (33:36):
They just cut it off.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
As a result, a dark cynicism emerges in the Congo.
This is when any real and lasting hope for a
brighter future begins to die.
Speaker 8 (33:47):
The US didn't realize how significant Lamumba's assassination was, especially
for Africans, and I would say broadly the African asp
because the outrage that was expressed after Lamumba's assassination. I
don't think the US government thought they would get such
(34:09):
a global response and reaction.
Speaker 6 (34:12):
So as a result, we got blocked out of most
of Africa because of how we treated La Momba, because
nobody else trusted us.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
But what if there had been a United States of Africa,
A Union of nation states, free to determine its fate,
supported by its own vast resources, indivisible and uncorrupted by
outside forces.
Speaker 8 (34:34):
It would have been really interesting to know what would
have happened if in Kruma's vision was realized, but it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Unfortunately, Instead, Ghana and the Congo take much different paths,
and there is no United States of Africa.
Speaker 9 (34:50):
With Lamumba out of the way, who do you get
in place? You get Muvutu. You know who's the biggest.
Speaker 8 (34:56):
Kleptocrat you can imagine? So and we do the bidding
of the United States. Has it lined his pockets. He
stole from his people millions of millions of dollars, put them.
Speaker 9 (35:07):
In Swiss banks.
Speaker 8 (35:08):
And you know, while his peoples are completely impoverished.
Speaker 9 (35:12):
You know, it's horrible, It's absolutely horrible.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
You could say Mabutu represents the lost promise of the
newly liberated Africa. There was once so much hope for
what could take shape in the postcolonial nations, but instead
came Mabutu. He and others like him lay the groundwork
for the corruption and cruelty, the resource theft and exploitation
(35:43):
that still ravages the nations of Africa today.
Speaker 6 (35:47):
To me, he was so nakedly opportunistic and devoid of honor.
All to honor he had was by parroting what Lemmba
had already said, none of which he believed the people
he was talking to believed, So he would say that
to them and then go back and do what he
wanted to do. And that's why he stayed in power
(36:07):
so long. All he wanted was power.
Speaker 1 (36:09):
In Mabutu Zayir, the very fabric of reality is handed
out to the public along with those bolts of fabric
designed to venerate the dictator. You see, when he comes
to power, Mabutu remodels everyday life for the people. He
says it's in order to create his idea of their
postcolonial African identity. At the heart of all of his efforts,
(36:31):
Mabutu wishes to create a new story for Zayir. That's
because above all, Mabutu is a storyteller. Long before he
had any dreams of power on the global stage, Mabutu
made his living as a journalist. Telling stories was literally
his day job. Thus, he recognizes that a new African
story is something urgently needed to repair and rebuild what
(36:54):
the former European colonists have left behind to help shed
those harmful racist narratives of colonialism. Mabutu's stated goal is
to reimagine the former Belgian Congo as a new nation
and as a new culture, while also reconnecting it to
the country's long lost African past. This is how he
(37:15):
will prepare his people for their new glorious future. He
calls his program of African re education Authenticite. It's rather
ironic that the word is still French, but Mabutu's new idea,
Authenticite is a laudable goal. The idea is.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
That supposedly everyone's getting back to their African roots.
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Yet there are few who have the skills or training
to make it happen. To provide these stories of the
past and construct Mabutu's plans for the future, there's no
real professional class. This is due to the fact that
very few black Zayrians graduated college in the nineteen fifties.
Speaker 8 (37:54):
I've seen different numbers, but anywhere from about twenty university graduates.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Twenty as in less than two dozen. That's insane. And
that's also how sometimes just one man can make a
big difference in such a chaotic moment of change, especially
when that one man has so little competition and has
no moral limitations. After Mabutu deposes his predecessor and he
(38:19):
takes power, he institutes a wave of social changes to
foster and create this new spirit of nationalism. For instance,
Mabutu issues a sweeping declaration that the people's names from
back in the days of Belgian rule are now officially illegal.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
Mabutu had outlawed many of their names because they were
French names and they had to find African names.
Speaker 8 (38:46):
He orchestrated this campaign to rid the country of any
sort of lingering vestiges of colonialism, and that included the names.
Speaker 4 (38:54):
Right.
Speaker 8 (38:55):
So we have actually my parents' best friends, the close
family friends of ours, you know, they when they were
living in the United States and they had to, you know,
change their their names and city.
Speaker 9 (39:06):
Names were changed.
Speaker 8 (39:07):
So Leoville was then renamed Kinshasa.
Speaker 1 (39:11):
Aka the location for the festival and the Rumble in
the Jungle. This same name change mandate is also how
Joseph Desire Mabutu becomes Mabutu, sees Cikukoko and Bandu Waza
Banga and It's also how the Belgian Congo became Zayir.
But it isn't just the names that Mabutu demands be changed.
(39:32):
He intends to redefine absolutely every aspect of Zaire and
culture for his people. He also changes his appearance to
make it appear more authentique as well. His new look
makes it clear to his people that Mabutu is putting
the Kaibash.
Speaker 9 (39:48):
On Western style clothing.
Speaker 1 (39:50):
And by extension, Western influence. So instead Mabutu starts to
wear those.
Speaker 8 (39:56):
Mause style tunics that you saw a lot of political
actors at the time wearing.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Mabutu tops off this new look with a very African
coated leopard skin toque. The hat helps give him a
distinctive look. It's the new look for a sub Saharan
African strong man, animal prints and designer sunglasses. It's on
par with the iconic world leaders like Chairman Mao or
Fidel Castro. But Veronica Lippencott believes Mabutu's true motivations for
(40:26):
his change in dress was less to do with his
affinity for the look of communist leaders.
Speaker 8 (40:32):
But I think he just did this as a way
to in some way separate himself a little bit from.
Speaker 9 (40:39):
The long arm of the US state.
Speaker 8 (40:41):
Bhutu is all about Bibutu, and however he can gain
support and consolidate his power, I think he would do that.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Another way to consolidate his power is to turn the
learned and the intelligentsia into another tool of his agenda.
Mabotu reforms the non existent university system and he establishes
new universities, and he changes the curriculum so that classes
now teach stories he prefers, and so that he can
also indoctrinate young Zayirians with pro Mabutu propaganda.
Speaker 8 (41:13):
I think that speaks to his skill set, you know,
to create this narrative and rewrite history. That's that's the
playbook of an authoritarian. You know, when they recreate history.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
If you replace troublesome facts with more pleasing fictions. The
trouble is there's still the ache of the present moment,
there's still people's lived reality, and no story can ever
quell hunger pangs.
Speaker 8 (41:38):
I think that he believe that people would find it compelling.
But when you see a man with millions and millions
of dollars and you're living in abject poverty. I'm sure
the Congoese people questioned him, but they didn't have a.
Speaker 9 (41:52):
Voice for so long to express their outrage, so to speak.
Speaker 1 (41:57):
That's because, unfortunately Mabutu's promised path to reconnect his people's
roots with the realities of their modern African identities, all
the name changes, new fashions, old stories, and fake new history.
It leads not into redemption and rebirth. Instead, it leads
the people into a life of brutal, systemic repression. Violence
(42:18):
becomes the preferred tool Mabutu wields to build his nation
in his image and maintain order under his rule, and
mabutu soldiers have plenty of guns to persuade the people.
Speaker 4 (42:30):
I remember very clearly the militia there with the guns
and their helmets because it was hot out, so to
see these people in helmets and years or whatever. As
an American, it's very strange to see militia at the
airport with guns.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Along with those men with guns that seem to be
everywhere and anywhere. In the weeks just before the festival
and the fight. There are also the these giant billboards
looming over the people. They advertised the upcoming rumble in
the jungle from high over the streets of kinshasa One
billboard reads a fight between two blacks in a black nation,
(43:14):
organized by blacks and seen by the whole world. That
is a victory of Mabutism. The messages are in French,
but the influence of the Soviet era sloganeering is clear.
Great national pride underscored by a persistent threat of repressive violence.
Speaker 5 (43:32):
This was a dictatorship out and out, you know, and
people were terribly fearful of this guy. You could feel it.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
While Gary Stromberg cherishes the time he spends his pr
guy for the festival in Zayir, that same role puts
him squarely up against Mabutu's people.
Speaker 5 (43:49):
I knew Mabutu's reputation. I knew that underneath the stadium
they had used to torture people, that there were hundreds
of people that supposedly had been slaughtered there. So you know,
I wasn't aware of detail, but I was aware there
was a danger and that the military they don't speak English.
It's not an English speaking country, so you hear conversations
(44:09):
that you don't understand. You see military people talking to
each other. You don't understand. That was an ominous feeling.
Speaker 1 (44:15):
Lynn Goldsmith also heard the dark rumors of a torture
pit hidden under the stadium remade into the venue for
the three day music festival and the heavyweight title fight.
Speaker 4 (44:26):
A number of people had their pockets picked, journalists or
people who were there, right, and supposedly Mabutu had all
the known pickpockets arrested, lined up and shot. Now did
I see that? No? But did that rumor run, whether
(44:51):
it was a rumor or not, did that bit of
information run amongst all of us.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
You bet your ass did. And as Lyn Surmi the time.
Speaker 4 (45:01):
Who knows if they were really guilty or not. But
it didn't matter to him, because what mattered to him
was that while all this press was there, there wouldn't
be any more pickpocketing. There wouldn't be any more crime
while press was there. But that was really radical. It
(45:21):
seemed more like in the movies, but no, it was
real life.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
While Mbutu presents one face to his people, he offers
a very different face to his Western guests. It's a
visage of strength, safety, stability, and above all, it's meant
to convince outsiders that Zayr is worthy and ready for
foreign investment.
Speaker 4 (45:43):
He wanted to bring money into his country, and I
can't blame him for wanting to initiate business in a
country that's fighting to survive, just in terms of food.
Speaker 1 (46:00):
You can change your hat and change the people's names,
change how people dress, change the names of the cities
and the country, change all you like, but Mabutu Zayir
was still no different than exploitation by the former Belgian masters. Also,
let's be even more real about it. Looming over everything
is the very real possibility that while all the eyes
(46:20):
of the world are on the Congo and all the
powers that be in the nation are focusing on Zaire
seventy four and the rumble in the jungle, some well
armed rebel forces might decide it's the perfect time to
stage a bloody coup.
Speaker 5 (46:35):
I tried to keep blinders on and not think about
what else was possible.
Speaker 4 (46:39):
I didn't know that much about the politics of everything,
you know. What I knew was that this would bring
attention to a certain part of the world that struggles,
and when it brings attention, it brings corporate money, okay,
And so it would be really exciting because there would
(47:01):
be such a focus right on those people, on the
situations that they live in. I really felt that they
they were suppressed from who they were.
Speaker 1 (47:15):
You see, thanks to her camera lens, Lynn could see
through Mabutu's hype.
Speaker 4 (47:20):
I felt that about Mabutu's kind of agenda. I didn't
think it was really about claiming your blackness, your africanness,
your truth. Some of that was great, but I felt
it was more this individual man's power trip.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
She could see Mabutu's penchant for violence momentarily hidden from view,
there just below the surface of his performance as a beloved,
benevolent ruler hosting an event designed to impress his international guests.
Speaker 4 (47:52):
There was an event at the stadium before the festival.
It was daylight and they were all there. I have pictures.
Al Lee was there, Don King was there, George Foreman
was there. But one of the African groups started singing
a song.
Speaker 1 (48:12):
Of course, Lynn had her camera with her.
Speaker 4 (48:14):
I did get pictures and stuff, and I followed Mabutu
as he walked around the stadium waving his cane. He
had this kind of cane and he had like this
leftward type hat.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
At one point, Mabotu gives an order and a cadre
of armed men storm into the stadium.
Speaker 4 (48:35):
All these soldiers come out of nowhere, turn their guns
on this group as well as on the crowd.
Speaker 1 (48:43):
Assault rifles are pointed at the boxers, the press, and
the stars of the show as the young military men
scan for some unseen threat.
Speaker 4 (48:52):
I remember me and a German photographer were like, whoa
you know? And we stepped back and they had to
wait for Mabutu to give a signal. It was pretty scary.
I'd never seen anything like him, so that's my strongest
memory of Mabuchu.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Why does Mabuchu arrange this terrifying flex of his power,
Simple because he can, which is also the very same
reason why he sets his romantic sights on Lynn Goldsmith.
Speaker 4 (49:28):
Mabutu found out where I was staying in my hotel
and kept doing his best to get me to have
dinner with him, to go here or there with him. Remember,
he didn't want any of his constituents, if that's what
she want to call them, to deal with any kind
(49:49):
of whiteness. But he was definitely after me because it
was scary.
Speaker 1 (49:55):
There are very few things that are scarier than saying
no to.
Speaker 4 (49:59):
A horny You know, you didn't know what a no
would mean. Were you gonna disappear?
Speaker 1 (50:05):
That cold, unshakable fear she felt slithering up her spine.
Speaker 4 (50:10):
That's that was why I wasn't going to lunch with Mabu.
Speaker 1 (50:13):
Lynn Goldsmith was lucky she somehow avoids Mabutu during her stay.
But this is not the case for the people who
live in Zaiir. They are stuck with him. Meanwhile, there's
James Brown's dancer, Low the Love. She's never been to
Africa before and for her, all of this just feels
very exciting.
Speaker 7 (50:33):
First of all, you have to understand we got anything
and everything we wanted at that hotel. We were there
for like to me, it was a long time, but
whatever we needed we were taken care of.
Speaker 9 (50:44):
And that's never happened.
Speaker 1 (50:46):
She's used to traveling with James Brown and let's just
say the godfather of Saul was not generous or you
know what, we can just say it. The man is cheap.
Speaker 7 (50:55):
When we toured with James Brown, he only took care
of the accommodations when you work. So if we're on
the road for a whole week, so our last performance
is a Sunday night. We get on a bus, we
go to the next town. If we get there on
Monday or Tuesday, we're responsible for our accommodations and our food.
Speaker 3 (51:12):
Here we are in Africa, and it's.
Speaker 7 (51:15):
The first time I don't have to pay for my
accommodations and food.
Speaker 5 (51:20):
It was Heaven.
Speaker 1 (51:21):
So how does Lola Love enjoy her trip to Heaven?
Speaker 7 (51:25):
I got to go to the marketplace and meet the
different people.
Speaker 1 (51:29):
However, Lola has another dictator keeping tabs on her, namely
her boss.
Speaker 7 (51:35):
But James Brown. He does not like his entourage to
go out because he was strictly a businessman. If you
would have gotten hurt and couldn't perform, that's a show.
Speaker 1 (51:48):
Thus, James Brown keeps his band under a de facto
house arrest.
Speaker 7 (51:53):
I'm still very new and I keep hearing all these
you can't do this, you can't do that. So I
kind of walked around the hotel until Fred Wesley. He
was like, he's going out. He's the band leader. He
could do whatever he wants, right, He says, Lolla, is
there anything that you want me to get while you're out?
I said, yes, Hugh Masekela, I want to meet him.
Speaker 1 (52:12):
And Fred Wesley, well, he delivers for Lola.
Speaker 7 (52:15):
Love and he comes back to the he says, Lola,
I met Hugh.
Speaker 9 (52:18):
He's going to give you a call.
Speaker 1 (52:20):
That call becomes a means of escape from James Brown's
house arrested.
Speaker 7 (52:24):
But not only that, and because of you, I got
to go to the Vice President's dinner.
Speaker 3 (52:30):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (52:31):
James Brown's band leader, Fred Wesley remembers how.
Speaker 6 (52:35):
Every night they will have dinner at somebody's house that
had money, the politicians of Conshasta.
Speaker 3 (52:42):
They will have dinner somewhere that you could eat.
Speaker 4 (52:44):
The food.
Speaker 3 (52:45):
You wouldn't know what you were eating, but it was
good to you.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
And so at the Vice President's dinner, Fred Wesley brings
Lola Love on Hugh Masekela's invitation. But then when her boss,
James Brown catches sight of her.
Speaker 7 (53:00):
And James Brown looked up and he saw me there
because nobody would be there but James Brown.
Speaker 1 (53:05):
The godfather of soul, is not happy to see her.
But luckily, Love of Love has Fred on her side
that had.
Speaker 6 (53:11):
To take care of her because she was so open
and so free that James would easily take advantage of her,
you know. And so I felt like I had to
protect her from that and from other things too, from
other people they could take advantage of her.
Speaker 3 (53:25):
You know. I didn't want anything bad happened to anybody,
but especially Hut.
Speaker 1 (53:29):
It's an unfortunate truth of humanity. Too often those with
power take advantage of those without. Thankfully, Fred make sure
that doesn't happen to Lull the love.
Speaker 6 (53:39):
She was a sweet girl that I want to make
sure that she came out of it all right. But
we had a great time that night and we ate
some great food. We didn't know what we were eating, and
we had some great beer. I had never had beer
like that before, you know, but it was unbelievable. The
whole experience was a zaire Kshata was unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (54:04):
Mabutu's well orchestrated parade of pleasures, his advertisements of his power,
do work to obscure the obvious truth. His global celebration
of blackness and unity, community and music, strength and excellence
is all being paid for by the same old exploitation
of Africans. His celebration of Pan Africanism is being put
(54:27):
on by a CIA backed puppet. The longer one stays
in kinshasa the more obvious. Mabutu's charade becomes his spectacle
is being paid for by the same Western interests who
never actually left Africa. Ultimately, Mabutu is just a corrupt
man who's cosplaying as an African liberation leader. He's a
(54:47):
lie in a leopard skin hat. Of course, none of
this bothers George Foreman curiously, though it doesn't seem to
bother Muhammad Ali much either. Both boxers are hyper focused.
They keep their eyes on the prize and miss the
reality beneath the billboards. The poverty gets obscured by all
the sumptuous state dinners and the red carpet treatment. Because
(55:10):
to these two boxers, their upcoming bout feels far bigger
than the land which will host the next great super fight.
On the next episode of Rumble.
Speaker 5 (55:30):
When George Foreman gets cut in training, the music festival
has to go on.
Speaker 11 (55:35):
A supercultural festival bringing together Latin American, Afro American and
African dancers and singers will get underway here on Saturday.
Speaker 8 (55:43):
Our stories are coming through the lyrics, are coming through
lived experience or coming through the rhythms.
Speaker 7 (55:49):
All of a sudden, I had this burst of energy
and all I wasn't tired when it was four o'clock
in the morning, I wanted to dance some more.
Speaker 6 (55:57):
That's when I realized who Bill woodleswould He could really
sing and he could really play the guitar figure with
the highlight of the whole festival.
Speaker 12 (56:10):
Rumbell is a production of School of Humans and iHeart Podcasts.
Rumble is written and hosted by Zarren Burnett. The third
produced and directed by Julia chriscal Sound designed by Jesse Niswanger,
em scoring by John Washington. Original music composed by Jordan
Manley and TJ. Merritt. Series concept by Gary Stromberg. Executive
(56:31):
producers are Jason English, Sean Titone, Gary Stromberg, Virginia Prescott,
el C Crowley, and Brandon barr Our. Senior producer is
Amelia Brock, Production manager Daisy Church, fact checker Savannah Hugley.
Legal services provided by canoel Hanley PC. Additional production by
Claire Keating, Casting director Julia Chriscau. Casting support services provided
(56:56):
by Breakdown Express.
Speaker 11 (56:57):
Episode ten cast Abraham Amka as Muhammad Ali, John Washington
as Patrice La Mumba, Anthony Brandon Walker as George Foreman.
Special Thanks to Lewis Ehrenberg. Check out his book Rumble
in the Jungle. It's a great resource. Also thanks to
Jonathan I for.
Speaker 12 (57:16):
His book Ali a Life.
Speaker 1 (57:18):
And finally thanks to.
Speaker 11 (57:20):
Zarenz pops Zeke who grounds this material like no one else.
If you like the show, let us know, like subscribe,
leave five star reviews.
Speaker 12 (57:29):
It really helps.
Speaker 11 (57:31):
Also check out our show notes for a full list
of reference materials.
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