A LIE IN A LEOPARD SKIN HAT

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)

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