Rumble in the Jungle 50 years on: how Muhammad Ali danced rings around apartheid

King of the world was revered across South Africa’s racial divide when we heard the words ‘Foreman is down!' a half century ago today.

MOMENT IN TIME: People look at a board in Kinshasa on October 30, 1974 announcing the fight between US boxing heavyweight champions, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Pic: AFP via Getty Images

Fifty years ago, in a corner of white South Africa, Muhammad Ali already seemed a miracle-maker. Deep in our strictly regimented and divided country, Ali danced rings around apartheid. I had first heard about the inspirational boxer from a black man, Cassius, who sold bottles of beer from the illegal shebeen he and his friends ran across the road from our house.

Cassius and his crew kept their illicit stash hidden in the drains outside the corner shop owned by an irritable Greek man. Whenever my football was booted over the garden wall, Cassius chased after it. After a dazzling display of slightly drunken footwork he would return the ball with a cackle. One day, while showcasing his trickery, he sang a strange song: “Ali, Ali, float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, Ali, Ali, Muhammad Ali.”