Ebrahim Moosa 

On the day his Janazah was performed by thousands, and on the eve of Muhammad Ali’s final send-off, a Johannesburg based community stalwart has shared with Radio Islam International memorable details of the global icon’s historic 1993 visit to South Africa.

Yusuf Seedat, fondly known as Uncle Tara, was instrumental in arranging the itinerary of Ali’s visit when he accepted an invitation to the country on the cusp of its realisation of democracy.

Following successful tour negotiations taking place in the USA spearheaded by veteran Muslim journalist Farook Khan, the date of Ali’s duty call to the rainbow nation was fixed for the second week of April 1993.

“It was a mission of peace, to a country on fire,” mentions Khan, who had tasked Uncle Tara with harnessing his charisma and community credentials to facilitate a grand South African reception for the world champion.

Uncle Tara recalls being taken aback when an adamant Khan hurriedly called him from the airport to thrust the logistics portfolio of the visit into his hands. It was only when the former Golden City Post journalist handed him a swathe of signed documents that Uncle Tara realised he meant business.

Ironically, for this sombre time, Seedat begins his historical account on Ali by recounting details of another catastrophic funeral.

April 10, 1993, saw the assassination of Umkhonto we Sizwe Chief of Staff and SACP secretary general, Chris Hani, outside his Boksburg home, in circumstances still shrouded in mystery.

South Africa stood at a knife’s edge, with many resigning themselves to the fate that this was the final straw in a succession of occurrences that now rendered a civil war inevitable.

Ali arrived in the country on the back of these ominous portents, and hardly a week after his arrival found himself thrust into this tense arena of local apprehensions as he attended Hani’s farewell send-off in Soweto.

Police lined the streets leading to the FNB Stadium, where the mood vacillated between mourning and vengeance. Despite the obvious risks involved, Muhammad Ali dared it all, and emerged through the security and MK salutes into the limelight of the thousands who had crammed the grandstands.

At once, the arena which had been vibrating with war chants switched to the rhythmic refrain of “Ali! Ali!”
“I could simply not believe the magnitude of this man’s aura,” recounts Uncle Tara.

Working in tandem with several role-players, Tara and Khan arranged for Ali to conduct a whirlwind tour of South Africa, with a specific focus on meeting Muslims of all racial and cultural backgrounds.

Members of the sporting fraternity were also consulted, and buy-in was further solicited from the leadership of the liberation movement as well as outgoing Apartheid era mayors and police personnel. Osbro Cash and Carry lent their support as the key financiers of the visit.

Ali Magic
Although a tentative itinerary was mailed to Ali, his agents noted that the star’s choices were as unpredictable as his tactics in the boxing ring, cautioning that nothing should be cast in stone.

Stopovers on the trip included Johahnnesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

In Kwazulu Natal’s Kwa Mashu, Ali repudiated ‘security’ advice to avoid the area due to its perceived volatility, instead going the extra mile to bring some cheer to its beleaguered residents.

According to an account shared by Dr Yusuf Osman on Facebook, Ali was slated to visit Kwa Mashu from the outset, but it seemed quite likely that this would be done by means of a helicopter flyover, rather than a guided tour. At Durban’s Elangeni Hotel, the boxer was met by Muslim residents of Kwa Mashu who expressed disappointment that Ali would not be physically touching base with them. Noting their concerns, Ali reportedly ordered the itinerary altered and resolved to visit the township by car.

“The streets of Kwa Mashu were lined by well wishers,” records Osman.

“Ali left the motorcade for a while and mimicked a jog on the street. Eventually, he went to the Kwa Mashu mosque where the crowd followed him. There the people chanted “Ali the Greatest”. Ali in his majestic manner raised his hand and said “God is the Greatest”.

In Natal, Ali also inaugurated a feeding scheme that is still in existence today, and met with the late scholar and orator Moulana Abdur Razaaq of Ladysmith.

Robben Island
The response to Ali remained euphoric wherever he went, notwithstanding the progression of his Parkinsons.

Cape Town lined her streets for Ali and he was afforded the podium at the City Hall in the presence of struggle stalwarts such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Allan Boesack.

Uncle Tara re-enacts for me Ali’s epic theatrics when he visited Nelson Mandela’s cell at Robben Island. Casting off his shoes, Ali lunged forward towards Madiba’s blanket and laid down outstretched, to the shock, and delight of the accompanying photographers.

The media’s depictions of Ali, a conscientious objector himself, putting himself in Mandela’s shoes were to grab national headlines in the hours to follow.

Whilst at Robben Island, the champion also paid his respects to the Muslim pioneer Sayed Abdur Rahmaan Motura who is buried in the vicinity of the prison
Ali’s Cape escapade was to take him to the Bo Kaap and majestic Masjid al Quds in Gatesville as well.

Johannesburg
Retired school principal, MH Patel vividly recalls the day Uncle Tara unexpectedly arranged for Ali to call-in at the Fordsburg Primary School.

“It was Thursday, April 22, 1993,” he tells me.

Ali addressed students and, playfully, also shadow-punched a staff member in the stomach.

Patel described the encounter with Ali as “overwhelming”.

“Ali was as big as a bear. His hands were like paws. I recall him placing his hands on my shoulders and it was just so difficult to hold that weight”.

In Johannesburg, Ali held a private sitting with Nelson Mandela – a long awaited meeting between two men who both historically held each other in the highest of esteem.

Ali called in at the Nurul Islam mosque in Lenasia and was also due to visit the 23rd street mosque in Fietas during this leg of the stay, but the meeting was cancelled due to his ill health.

Ambassador of Islam
The icon had weaved himself into the hearts of all South Africans. Yet, Ali was not content merely riding their waves of adulation.

As many tributes in the past week have noted, calling towards Allah was imprinted in the DNA of Ali, and this was hardly neglected during his South African sojourn.

Ali was accompanied throughout the trip by Imam Sameer Muhammad who conveyed Islamic messages at various junctures.

Dr Osman shares how he personally witnessed Ali signing Islamic Da’wah leaflets which he had brought with him in a briefcase to a banquet in Durban, whilst others were eating.

Later, he handed them out to all he had met.

“He even walked to the band playing that evening, shook everyone’s hand and then handed out these signed leaflets”.

In interviews published elsewhere, the champ is reported to have explained the rationale of such pamphleteering.

“Because I know that no-one will ever throw away a piece of paper with Muhammad Ali’s signature on it,” Ali said.

A little known success of the 1993 visit was the reversion to Islam, at Ali’s hands, of Solly Selebi, the veteran boxing administrator and brother of former police commissioner Jackie Selebi.

Apparently bowled over by the message of Ali and the impact of the visit, Selebi took the Shahadah at Cape Town’s Masjid al Quds.

As a professional sportsman, Ali was prone to find himself confronted by the temptations of vice that today seem to be weaved into the fabric of popular sport. Yet, even in his retirement, Ali hasten to shun the influence of such advances.

Uncle Tara recalls how Ali showed his disapproval when discovering that a commemorative supplement from a local newspaper, published in his honour, contained alcohol advertising.

He also rebuffed the offer of being awarded a highly priced honorary title belt, on discovering that it showcased the name of Old Buck, a liquor brand.

In advising members of the ANC Youth League, Farook Khan recounts, Ali also asserted the importance of faith.

“He indicated that their membership of the ANC would assist them in this world only, whilst ‘membership’ of Islam would come to their aid in this world and the next”.

Ali was wont to highlighting the all-embracing ambit of Islam, as opposed to other ideologies that sought to divide people on the basis of race and class.

“He had a yearning for Muslims to give leadership,” Khan says.

“To offer moral guidance to remove fellow citizens from ignorance and invite them to Imaan so that they can be truly free”.

Khan considers Ali’s brief visit to South Africa as the “most extensive local mass Dawah campaign” in recent history – one that succeeded in reaching out to people of all backgrounds.

“Muhammad Ali was a true global Muslim leader. Sadly, with his passing it is hard to find anyone with such a calibre to fill these shoes”.