As one of life’s strange coincidences, news of Muhammad Ali’s passing last month just happened to break while I was halfway through reading Norman Mailer’s The Fight - an account of ‘The Rumble in the Jungle’ between Ali and George Foreman.

Putting aside Mailer’s narcissism, the book is a valuable insight into post-colonial Africa and what it meant to be an African-American after the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. It is a clash not just of two men but of two religions, two opposing sets of values, of White American power versus Black American possibility.

Ali’s character is well-documented. Few in popular culture have matched his charisma. His self-belief was intense, as intense as his desire for African fulfilment. He took on boxing as his duty to his people. If he could do anything to rise above oppression, to be on top of the world, to be heard, he could box. He could be The Greatest and unapologetically so. He was indebted to no one but God.

It raises an interesting question: does adversity bring out the best in us? Can fighting persecution bring a higher inspiration? Psychology suggests that events that trigger the strongest emotional responses within us are prompted by a survival instinct. Only when we frame these emotions with rationality can we begin to usefully harness the energy as a strength. We need reason to avoid self-destruction.

For me, this is the essence of Ali. Whereas Foreman punched in spite, Ali punched in spite of. The justice he aimed to deliver had only one court to hear his case, a court beyond any state’s judicial system: the court of human spirit. Inside and outside of the ring, his spirit will continue to succeed.

This month's favourites:
   Kacy & Clayton, Strange Country
   Norman Mailer, The Fight
   Batman Begins (2005)