Charity mission to commemorate a memorable fight

Thirty-five years ago, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman fought a "Rumble in the Jungle" that shook the world. Not just a fight, their match remains legend.

On Oct. 30, 1974, in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, the underdog Ali outsmarted and outboxed the younger and stronger Foreman to regain the heavyweight boxing title, making the man who called himself "the Greatest" greater still - internationally beloved.

"I always viewed the Congo as a place where he ascertained and gained his personal greatness," Khaliah Ali, 35, the boxer's daughter, said last week before she, fiance Spencer Wertheimer, and their 10-year-old son, Jacob, left Philadelphia for what she expects to be her own life-changing journey to the DRC.

"I think a connection will happen that will follow me the rest of my life," she said.

That connection should begin today, when the lifelong Main Line resident is to touch down in the former Zaire on a humanitarian mission marking the fight's anniversary.

It is the first time since 1974, trip organizers said, that a member of Ali's family is visiting the country.

Khaliah Ali has told her father, who lives in Arizona, about the trip. His reaction?

"He's proud. He's happy, and he says, 'Stay safe, and do a good job,' " she said. "I feel internally blessed for being able to return and make a contribution."

When her family returns, Ali plans to take her son to visit her father, who has Parkinson's disease. She will share memories and pictures of the trip.

His daughter isn't the 67-year-old Muhammad Ali's only connection to this area. During the 1970s, he lived in a Cherry Hill mansion and built a training camp in Deer Lake, Pa., a 90-minute drive northwest of Philadelphia.

Khaliah Ali was a newborn being cradled in her father's formidable arms before he left for the first heavyweight title bout ever fought in Africa. Her mother, Aaisha Fletcher, 54, said she wed the boxer, who has been married several times, in an Islamic ceremony in 1973. They broke up when Khaliah, their only child together, was about 8.

A young Khaliah was not around her father much after the couple split.

"There's so much of my father I haven't been able to have in my life," she said.

Still, she said, father and daughter have a good and loving relationship, and they enjoy periodic visits.

Ali has grown up to make a name for herself as a social activist, fashion designer, television personality, and passionate warrior against obesity who wrote the book Fighting Weight about her path to weight loss.

She has been active in numerous organizations and causes in the United States, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. She hopes this will be the first of many trips to the DRC to shine a light on issues there.

Her mission began a few years ago when she met DRC-born model and humanitarian Noella Coursaris Musunka at a New York City event. Although Musunka mainly grew up in Europe after her mother sent her to live with relatives, the model was touched by her homeland when she returned to visit her mother, who still lives there.

Musunka started a foundation (www.gmalaikaf.org) with the aim of helping girls get an education, and she has established a school in the republic.

When the women met, she asked Ali to consider traveling to the DRC. Ali agreed. Musunka and her Georges Malaika Foundation, named after her late father, are the primary sponsors of this week's trip.

Ali and her family will visit Musunka's school and see other nongovernmental social-service and education projects in the southern province of Katanga, including a collective for women rescued from prostitution and a medical center for children with HIV/AIDS.

The fight will be commemorated toward the end of the trip to a country whose valuable natural resources have not lifted it out of poverty and even have fueled an 11-year war in its east.

Musunka hopes the Ali name and Khaliah's charisma will help the boxer's daughter bring positive attention and hope to the DRC, much as the fight and accompanying concert starring James Brown, Miriam Makeba, B.B. King, and other luminaries did.

The Congolese have not forgotten Muhammad Ali. The champion, through his humor and personal contact, created "a bond between America and Africa," Musunka said.

The crowd's chant of "Ali, bomaye! Ali, bomaye!" as he knocked Foreman out in the eighth round still echoes, and Musunka said Khaliah Ali "will be treated like a queen."

On Friday, the fight's anniversary, Ali will attend a ceremony at the stadium in the capital, Kinshasa, where the fight was held. She is scheduled to meet some of the people connected with the event, including a Congolese tailor who made clothes for the boxer.

Ali expects to feel emotional on this trip, and not just because she, her fiance, and her son will experience the affection many Congolese still hold for the boxing great. She also is ready to be touched by seeing the living conditions there.

"My concern is focused on the children and their needs," Ali said.

Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, defeated Sonny Liston in 1964 to become world heavyweight champ. In 1967, his title was stripped, and he was suspended from boxing after he refused to be drafted into the Army. Ali returned to the ring in 1970 and went 12-2 before taking on the 40-0 champ, George Foreman, on Oct. 30, 1974. Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko offered a $10 million purse from the national treasury to lure the fight to his country, now the Democratic Republic of Congo. About 60,000 people saw it live, and 12,000 watched it on TV at the Spectrum, The Inquirer reported. Millions more watched around the world.EndText