The
Peponi Post
2M
Michaelmas 2017
News from across the Peponi community
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In 1960, Muhammad Ali, then called Cassius Marcellus Clay, won the gold medal in the light heavy weight boxing competition at the Olympic Games in Rome. Despite being only 18, he won all four of his fights. In the final he defeated threetime European champion Zbigniew Pietrzykowski. This victory led him to a career that went from strength to strength peaking in 1970 with the so called Fight of the Century where Ali would fight against the other undefeated heavy weight of his time, Joe Frazier. Sadly Ali was to be defeated but would re-challenge Frazier in 1974 where Ali would win and begin his second reign as Heavyweight Champion. Ali retired from boxing in 1979 but fought two more fights before eventually stopping in 1981. He fought in 61 fights, lost only five – only one of those by a knockout. I am not a great boxing fan and have a natural dislike for the sport – but there can be no doubt that Muhammad Ali deserves recognition as one of the greatest boxers of the twentieth century or even ever. My admiration of Muhammad Ali does not really come from boxing – I know little about it and could not distinguish the skills required to become as good as somebody like Muhammed Ali. However, it was what Ali did outside his sporting career where I believe he deserves real attention and perhaps his legacy will have a greater meaning to human society than his winning in the ring. Ali’s boxing career played itself against a backdrop of racial segregation in the United States of America. His Olympic Gold medal – won in 1960 – was both prized and valued by the boxer. It is said that he wore the medal whilst he slept. One day, however, sickened and angry, at a particularly bad spate of racism in his home town of Louisville, Kentucky, and a particular instance where Ali and a friend were refused service in a restaurant because of the colour of his skin, Ali throw the medal into the Ohio river. The story is inaccurate and it is likely that Ali simply misplaced the medal but there is no doubt that he suffered at the hands of racist thinkers. The story does, however, begin to shed light onto his life and actions in the civil rights movement throughout his boxing career and a long time after. Ali, who died last year, was a controversial and important figure in his life time. Known as the greatest for his prowess in the boxing ring he was lionized for his campaigning out of it. He refused to fight in Vietnam risking jail and millions of dollars. His reasoning was typically forthright. He said: Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go
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ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? He was a man who had a profound sense of duty and service to others describing it as the rent you pay for your room here on earth. Whether Ali throw his medal in the river or not, he was proud of that medal; it was a symbol of achievement yet it meant nothing to him when compared to his burning anger at the racism and injustice he believed permeated his country and beyond. Later years saw Ali’s health deteriorate but his commitment to fighting injustice never wavered. He worked hard in many areas. In 1980 he came here to Kenya and convinced the government to boycott the Moscow Olympics in a protest against the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. He travelled to Iraq before the Gulf War and negotiated with Saddam Hussein to release American hostages. It was a controversial action and he received much criticism from leading American politicians. In 2002 he became a UN Messenger for Peace and spent some time in Afghanistan. His work in the world of civil rights for all citizens of the United States was spectacular, powerful and successful. He sadly suffered with Parkinson’s disease – after his diagnosis he worked closely with actor Michael J Fox to raise awareness and fund research for a cure. Muhammad Ali had a profound understanding of what it meant to be a person in society. As a converted and committed Muslim he loved god but had a view of religion that should resonate in a school such as ours – rivers, ponds, lakes and streams - they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do - they all contain truths. With his ideas – what are your truths, what are you paying as rent for your time on Earth, what will your legacy be – Muhammed Ali may have retired as one of the world’s greatest boxer but his legacy is one of truth, justice and a lasting impression on what it means to be of god. Mark Durston Headmaster