Muhammad Ali: A Life From Beginning to End by Hourly History

Author:Hourly History [History, Hourly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hourly History
Published: 2019-03-18T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Politics and Parkinson’s

“The more we help others, the more we help ourselves.”

—Muhammad Ali

Besides being a legendary athlete and an iconic activist, Ali would also turn out to be an incredible humanitarian. As a member of the Nation of Islam, he followed their teachings of doing good deeds for others and helping worthy causes however he could. Ali used his fame many times to elicit help for people suffering from famine all around the world. It is estimated that Ali helped to feed over 22 million people worldwide. Ali had started making visits to Africa as early as 1964, with a trip to Ghana. He also traveled to a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. During that visit, he made a vow that he would support and fight for Palestinians to free their homeland. In his own country, Ali took part in “The Longest Walk” in 1978 along with other celebrities like Stevie Wonder to fight for the rights of Native Americans.

In 1980, U.S. President Jimmy Carter had recruited Ali for a diplomatic mission to Africa. He asked Ali to help convince several African governments to boycott the Olympic Games which were planned to be held in Moscow. The reason for the boycott was the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, a move of which the United States did not approve. Because of this, they wanted as many countries as possible to boycott the Olympic Games in protest of the invasion.

However, Ali was met with a lot of opposition from African officials. Four years earlier, African countries had asked the United States to boycott the 1976 Olympic Games in an effort to rally support for ending apartheid in South Africa. The U.S. had not supported Africa in that request. Some of the African officials brought up America’s refusal to support their cause just four years ago to Ali. Unprepared and upset that he had not been informed about this possible area of opposition, Ali went on to say that the president had sent him “around the world to take the whupping over American policies.”

In Tanzania, Ali was met with a different problem. The president of Tanzania was insulted that Jimmy Carter had sent an athlete to negotiate for the boycott. To him, the matter was of serious political nature. It was a job for a high-level politician, not a career athlete. For that reason, Ali was never even permitted to see the Tanzanian president, Julius Nyerere. Despite the circumstances, Ali was able to convince one African country, Kenya, to participate in the boycott.

Muhammad Ali would become known for fighting many different battles during his lifetime. His boxing career is most certainly what put Ali in the spotlight. But he would also become known for a battle of a whole different kind—the battle against a very serious illness.

In 1984, three years after he retired from boxing, Ali announced to the world that he had Parkinson’s disease. Parkinson’s is a degenerative neurological condition that attacks the central nervous system. It can be brought on

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