Rumble replayed: An analysis of the cultural memory of the Rumble in the Jungle

This paper explores the build-up and aftermath of the marking of the 50th anniversary of the iconic ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ World Heavyweight Boxing title fight, which took place on 30 October 1974, in Kinshasa, Zaire. The event and wider spectacle of ‘Zaire 74’ as musical festival and celebration of African culture has been referred to as the greatest in sport of the entire twentieth century. Through the methodological practices of sensory autoethnography in immersive theatre on the one hand and thematic analysis of journalistic discourses about the anniversary on the other, this paper uses the bridging concepts of ‘cultural memory’ and ‘memory commodification’ to explore both orthodox and revisionist accounts of ‘Zaire 74’. Through an appreciation of how the ‘Ali legend’ is continually remembered and rebranded, this paper forges an understanding of wider neocolonial discourses which reinforce binaries that are useful in sustaining a racially divided world.