Blood Brothers (38 page)

Ali's encounter with Malcolm convinced him that everything he had heard about his old friend was true. Malcolm had gone mad, the Black Muslims said, and now Ali had no doubt that they were right. “Man, did you get a look at him?” he asked Herbert. “Dressed in that funny white robe and wearing a beard and walking with that cane that looked like a prophet's stick? Man, he's gone. He's gone so far out he's out completely.” Ali did not understand that Malcolm, like other penitents who had completed the hajj, wore traditional Muslim attire. “Doesn't that just go to show, Herbert, that Elijah is the most powerful? Nobody listens to that Malcolm anymore.”
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If Ali hardly recognized him, Malcolm perceived that Ali had changed, too. He could see that the boxer was no longer the sweet, affable young man who had once bounced Malcolm's daughters on his knee. This man, Muhammad Ali, was Elijah's loyal subject, wearing a new mask, playing the part of the serious, vindictive Black Muslim. When Ali cut Malcolm out of his life, he revealed a new side of himself that the public had not yet seen, an angrier, crueler side that would develop
more and more in the coming years. Whenever there were other Black Muslims around, he assumed this role, conforming to the expectations of the Nation, punishing anyone who crossed them, whether it was his father, Floyd Patterson, or Malcolm X.

Yet, after their confrontation, Malcolm could not help but try to protect Ali. Before he departed Accra, he sent Ali a telegram, offering brotherly advice as he always did, reminding him of his immense cultural power. “Because a billion of our people in Africa, Arabia, and Asia love you blindly, you must now be forever aware of your tremendous responsibilities to them. You must never say or do anything that will permit your enemies to distort the beautiful image you have here among our people.” When he made a vague reference to Ali's “enemies,” he was really referring to his own adversaries in the Nation of Islam, those who would exploit Ali, use him up, and discard him when he was no longer valuable, just as they did to Malcolm.
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A
LI MOVED ON
as if he had never seen Malcolm. He performed his usual shtick, making outrageous pronouncements and entertaining strangers. When a local man asked him why he was going to visit Egypt, he answered that he intended to find his future wife there. Actually, he was “going to get four wives” and bring them back home, where he would build a castle. One of his wives, “Abigail,” would feed him grapes. Another wife, “Susie,” would rub olive oil all over his “beautiful muscles,” while “Cecilia” shined his shoes. He was not sure what his fourth wife, “Peaches,” would do. Perhaps, she would entertain him, singing or dancing. It was all part of his fantasy of being worshipped, being loved, being king of the world.
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Mesmerized by the crowds of ordinary men and women who followed him at every stop, Ali fell in love with Africa. He toured Ghana like a politician courting voters. Whenever he met government authorities, state boxing officials, or casual fans, he made sure that he won them over with his charm, endlessly praising Ghana, hugging women, and kissing babies. He claimed that he wanted to build a home and a gym in Accra so that he could train among his people. “Until I came to Ghana, I never realized that I was so popular and loved by Africans, my people,” he said. “I am so overwhelmed and fascinated and I feel it is my obligation to arrange for my next championship fight to be staged
in Accra.” This was one of many empty promises he uttered during his visit. He never intended to defend his title in Ghana, let alone move there. In fact, he would not return to Africa until a decade later.
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Soon, Kwame Nkrumah invited Ali to Ghana's presidential palace. Draped in a striped orange and blue kente cloth, Ali towered over the tiny president as they toured the Flagstaff House. Nkrumah, dressed in his signature khaki pants and open-necked shirt, a modern look befitting a man who aspired to lead Africa into the modern age, presented Ali with his two books, both promoting African nationalism.

They visited for a short time, just long enough for the state's photographers to snap pictures for the next day's newspapers. Ali told reporters that he was honored to meet Nkrumah, which translated into the headline, “Mohamed Ali Meets His Hero.” The press exaggerated his reverence for Nkrumah, a propaganda ploy advancing the Ghanaian leader's agenda. Just as he did for Elijah Muhammad, Ali followed Nkrumah's party line. When they met, he said, “I humbled myself before him, a thing I rarely do, because I saw in him a dedicated man who is anxious to free Africa and bring about unity.”
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On May 18, the same day he visited Nkrumah, Ali met with Ambassador William Mahoney at the US embassy. Less than four months after protestors demonstrated outside the embassy, the State Department feared that Ali might inflame anti-American rhetoric. Consequently, the United States Information Agency, the government's foreign affairs propaganda machine, did not publicize his tour. Even before his meeting with Mahoney, Ali understood the political implications of his trip. “Many Negro celebrities,” he said, “take State Department ‘goodwill tours' of Africa or Asia, but few have received the personal congratulations and invitations from so many world leaders.” Promoting black athletes as symbols of American democracy, the State Department figured that famous stars like Rafer Johnson, Bill Russell, and Floyd Patterson could counter anti-American views among Africans.
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Yet Ali rejected the role of the State Department's goodwill ambassador. As an independent guest of the Ghanaian government, he assumed no responsibility for the embassy's agenda. During a press conference, he criticized the NAACP and derided the Civil Rights Act as a deceptive attempt to convince blacks that integration would work. The law, he charged, “won't change the hearts of the slave masters. And like the
counterfeit money it is, if the Negroes tried to spend it they would be arrested.”
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Four years before, as an Olympic champion in Rome, he had defended America. Now he abandoned the government's official line. Emerging as a potent international symbol of anti-American defiance, he described America as a violent country where blacks who demanded freedom were “getting killed” and children were “being bombed in churches.” History showed, he said, that whites and blacks could not get along because “the so-called master doesn't want his slave to be his equal. This is America.”
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O
N
F
RIDAY
, M
AY
22, Ali flew by private plane to Kumasi, Ghana's “Garden City,” where more than five thousand people greeted him. Rivaling his welcome in Accra, locals filled the streets as his caravan meandered downtown, paralyzing traffic. Sitting atop a convertible, Ali, perspiring beneath his white shirt and loosened dark tie, led the crowd in his usual call-and-response routine. Shopkeepers, clerks, and merchants left their jobs just to see the famous American champion. Teenagers climbed trees, scrambling for a better view, while others rode bicycles alongside his car. For them, Ali was a symbol of black pride. “By returning to Africa,” a
Daily Graphic
columnist wrote, “he has fulfilled a long cherished mission which the other great Afro-American champions left unaccomplished.” Ali, another writer explained, “is a real specimen of the African. He thinks anything the white man can do the African can do better.”
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At Kumasi Sports Stadium, thousands of fans watched him spar with his brother, raising money for the Kwame Nkrumah Trust Fund, a charitable organization. Throwing very few punches against Rahman, he mostly stalked his brother around the ring and chased the referee. Near the end of the match, he “feigned grogginess, then fell to the canvas, stunning the crowd.” Bouncing back to his feet, the crowd roared with applause. Assuring his fans, he said, “If we had been really fighting, I would have won in one.”
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A
FTER SPENDING THREE
weeks in Ghana, on June 1 Ali traveled to Lagos, Nigeria. For hours, a few thousand fans waited at the Lagos International Airport, holding signs that read, “Welcome Back Home
Mohammed Ali King of the World.” Reporters, photographers, and government officials greeted the champ while fans shouted his name, convincing him that he really was the most popular man in the world. A crowd swarmed his car, pressing against it as they reached out to touch him. “They love me, they love me,” he kept repeating.
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The ebullient mood was short-lived. Many local newsmen disapproved of his egotism, listening to him deride Joe Louis and Floyd Patterson for not being “true world champions willing to travel everywhere like me.” Making matters worse, Ali angered his hosts from the National Sports Council when he informed them that he could not stay more than three days. The council had expected him to visit for a week and perform two boxing exhibitions, just as he had in Ghana. Stunned by Ali's sudden change of plans, the officials could not understand why he had reneged on their agreement. A day after he arrived, he visited the American embassy, where he explained to his hosts that he already had plans to travel to Egypt. “They got big things planned for me in Cairo. Nasser is gonna see me and it's gonna be really big. The only plane to Cairo this week [leaves on] Wednesday, so I gotta go.” His hosts protested, reminding him that thousands of Nigerian fans were counting on him, but he insisted that Egypt was “more important than Nigeria.”
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Outraged, Hogan “Kid” Bassey, former world bantamweight champion and Olympic boxing coach, scolded Ali. Egypt, he said, was not more important than Nigeria. Gripping the arms of his chair, he explained that Nigeria was the biggest country in Africa. In fact, one in five Africans lived in Nigeria. Of course, “every Nigerian schoolboy” knew that, but Ali didn't.
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“Well,” Ali replied, “isn't Egypt the powerfulest country with all them rockets and their big army and their dam?”

“Mr. Muhammad,” Bassey exclaimed, “you are a champion. You are supposed to keep your promises. We scheduled an exhibition in Ibadan. Thousands have bought tickets to see you. We organized a soccer game especially in your honor. We invited important officials to banquets. You were picked to judge the Miss Nigeria contest Saturday.” His voice rising, Bassey fumed, “If you leave us now, you'll mess everything up.”

At that point Bassey and Ali were no longer just talking. Now they were sparring with words, and Ali was determined to prove that he was
the better fighter. “Now look,” he said, pointing his finger at Bassey, “I don't appreciate anybody telling me to do this or do that. Nobody tells me what to do or when to do it but me.”

Herbert Muhammad tried to calm everyone down. Ali stood up and shook hands with his hosts, but the tension remained. Afterward, they packed into cars so that Ali would not be late for a radio interview, but along the way he ordered the driver to stop the car so that he could buy a record player. Infuriated, Bassey vented, “That clown! He wants to go shopping? He calls himself a champion?”
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Critics lambasted his treatment of Nigeria as a “disgrace.”
Boston Globe
columnist Bud Collins suggested that Ali's “diplomatic blunder” might damage America's reputation in Africa. Ali had “insulted Sonny Liston and got away with it, so why should 36 million Nigerians concern him?” Yet a Nigerian writer defended Ali, suggesting that any criticism of his early departure was unfair. The
Daily Times
' Cee-Kay blamed his short stay on the National Sports Council for poorly planning the boxer's visit after he had already arranged his trip to Egypt. Comparing the heavyweight champion to a foreign minister, the columnist argued that Ali deserved better treatment. “Apart from being a world champion,” he wrote, “Mohammed Ali is our own brother. He is even more than that. He is an ambassador of his country. And that is more reason why he should be given V.I.P. treatment.”
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F
OR MONTHS
, E
GYPTIANS
had anticipated Ali's arrival. Immediately after he defeated Sonny Liston and announced that he practiced Islam, Egypt's Supreme Islamic Council invited him to visit the United Arab Republic. His religious declaration had thrust him into the international spotlight. Yet American diplomats feared that if Ali accepted the invitation, he might embarrass the United States. Equally troubling to officials, the Arab press made no distinction between orthodox Muslims and the Black Muslims, giving Ali and the NOI “undeserved credit and status” throughout the Middle East. In advance of his visit, the State Department attempted to diminish Ali's appeal by planting articles in newspapers and magazines that exposed the “true nature of Black Muslims,” making it clear that the sect was “not genuinely Islamic.”
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On June 3, Ali finally reached Cairo International Airport, where an eager crowd nearly crushed him as he made his way through a terminal.
Scores of policemen, soldiers, and ex-boxers struggled against the people enveloping the champ. Looking at the crowd of nearly two thousand people and placards reading, “Victory to Islam,” Ali realized that these people loved him not only for his boxing talents but also because he was a Muslim. “I'm fighting for Allah,” he declared. “I'm proud to be a Moslem, and among you. I feel at home.”
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In Cairo, Ali showed far greater respect for his hosts than he had in Nigeria. Elijah Muhammad had taught him that the “Asiatic black man” had descended from the rich Nile Valley region, and that ancient Egypt was once the most powerful black nation in history. Perceiving Egyptian superiority, Ali viewed his surroundings as evidence that he had reached the most advanced Muslim country in the world. From his balcony at the Nile Hilton, a gleaming twelve-story white slab replete with modern amenities and air-conditioning, a panoramic historic vista met his gaze. Overlooking the western bank of the majestic river, in the distance he saw the Citadel, ancient mosques, and the Pyramids, surrounded by desert. Looking eastward, he glimpsed Tahrir Square, Cairo's commercial district. In his reverence for Egyptian history and culture, he adopted a more dignified countenance befitting a distinguished Muslim. Studying his performance, Charles Howard observed, “Muhammad Ali is not only a boxer—he's an actor.”
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