Boxing Is No Cakewalk! Azumah ‘Ring Professor’ Nelson in the Social History of Ghanaian Boxing by De-Valera Nym Botchway
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Boxing is no cakewalk! Azumah ‘Ring Professor’ Nelson in the social history of Ghanaian boxing by De-Valera NYM Botchway TERMS of USE The African Humanities Program has made this electronic version of the book available on the NISC website for free download to use in research or private study. It may not be re- posted on book or other digital repositories that allow systematic sharing or download. For any commercial or other uses please contact the publishers, NISC (Pty) Ltd. Print copies of this book and other titles in the African Humanities Series are available through the African Books Collective. © African Humanities Program Dedication To my Nananom and Neteru, Before, Now and Forever! About the Series The African Humanities Series is a partnership between the African Humanities Program (AHP) of the American Council of Learned Societies and academic publishers NISC (Pty) Ltd. 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AHP Editorial Board Members as at June 2019 AHP Series Editors: Professor Adigun Agbaje, University of Ibadan, Nigeria Professor Emeritus Fred Hendricks, Rhodes University, South Africa Consultant: Professor Emeritus Sandra Barnes, University of Pennsylvania, USA (Anthropology) Board Members: 1 Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Institute of African Studies, Ghana (Gender Studies & Advocacy) (Vice President, African Studies Association of Africa) 2 Professor Kofi Anyidoho, University of Ghana, Ghana (African Studies & Literature) (Director, Codesria African Humanities Institute Program) 3 Professor Ibrahim Bello-Kano, Bayero University, Nigeria (Dept of English and French Studies) 4 Professor Sati Fwatshak, University of Jos, Nigeria (Dept of History & International Studies) 5 Professor Patricia Hayes, University of the Western Cape, South Africa (African History, Gender Studies and Visuality) (SARChI Chair in Visual History and Theory) 6 Associate Professor Wilfred Lajul, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda (Dept of Philosophy) 7 Professor Yusufu Lawi, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of History) 8 Professor Bertram Mapunda, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Archaeology & Heritage Studies) 9 Professor Innocent Pikirayi, University of Pretoria, South Africa (Chair & Head, Dept of Anthropology & Archaeology) 10 Professor Josephat Rugemalira, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Foreign Languages & Linguistics) 11 Professor Idayat Bola Udegbe, University of Ibadan, Nigeria (Dept of Psychology) Published in this series Dominica Dipio, Gender terrains in African cinema, 2014 Ayo Adeduntan, What the forest told me: Yoruba hunter, culture and narrative performance, 2014 Sule E. Egya, Nation, power and dissidence in third-generation Nigerian poetry in English, 2014 Irikidzayi Manase, White narratives: The depiction of post-2000 land invasions in Zimbabwe, 2016 Pascah Mungwini, Indigenous Shona Philosophy: Reconstructive insights, 2017 Sylvia Bruinders, Parading Respectability: The Cultural and Moral Aesthetics of the Christmas Bands Movement in the Western Cape, South Africa, 2017 Michael Andindilile, The Anglophone literary-linguistic continuum: English and indigenous languages in African literary discourse, 2018 Jeremiah Arowosegbe, Claude E Ake: the making of an organic intellectual, 2018 Romanus Aboh, Language and the construction of multiple identities in the Nigerian novel, 2018 Bernard Matolino, Consensus as Democracy in Africa, 2018 Babajide Ololajulo, Unshared Identity: Posthumous paternity in a contemporary Yoruba community, 2018 BOXING IS NO CAKEWALK! Azumah ‘Ring Professor’ Nelson in the Social History of Ghanaian Boxing DE-VALERA NYM BOTCHWAY Published in South Africa on behalf of the African Humanities Program by NISC (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 377, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa www.nisc.co.za First edition, first impression 2019 Publication © African Humanities Program 2019 Text © De-Valera NYM Botchway 2019 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. ISBN: 978-1-920033-56-9 (print) ISBN: 978-1-920033-57-6 (PDF) ISBN: 978-1-920033-58-3 (ePub) Manuscript mentor: Prof. Ashwin Desai Project manager: Peter Lague Indexer: Michel Cozier Cover design: Advanced Design Group Cover photographs: Front © Carlos Schiebeck/AFP/Getty Images Back, top © The Ring Magazine/Getty Images Back, middle and bottom © Ken Levine/Allsport see last page for captions to cover photographs Printed in South Africa by Digital Action (Pty) Ltd The author and the publisher have made every effort to obtain permission for and acknowledge the use of copyright material. Should an inadvertent infringement of copyright have occurred, please contact the publisher and we will rectify omissions or errors in any subsequent reprint or edition. Contents Acknowledgements x Foreword xi Preface xiv Glossary of acronyms and abbreviations xvi List of figures xvii CHAPTER 1 Sports and modern boxing 1 Sports as elicitors of ambivalence 2 Sports, politics and society 7 An overview of ancient and modern ‘English-style’ boxing up to the twentieth century 8 The lacuna in Ghanaian historiography 19 Azumah Nelson: Boxing in Ghanaian identity and society 21 Propositions and interrogating the subject 22 Review of related literature 23 Sources and methods 28 Organisation of the book 30 Notes 33 CHAPTER 2 Roots of modern boxing in Ghana 35 Ga-Mashie and its assimilation of English-style boxing, c.1600 to c.1930s 35 The state of boxing in Ghana, c.1958 to c.1980 60 Notes 76 CHAPTER 3 Origins? ‘I am the son of my people’ 81 The beginning 81 Azumah Nelson: Birth and childhood days 83 The paternal and maternal ancestry of Azumah Nelson 85 vii Azumah Nelson’s adolescence and gravitation towards boxing 88 Early glory: From the Prison Service Boxing Team to the Black Bombers, c.1974 to 1978 98 Concluding remarks 108 Notes 108 CHAPTER 4 The rise of the Azumah legend: The early years 111 Azumah Nelson ventures into professional boxing 112 The Golden Fleece: Azumah Nelson grabs the WBC Featherweight Title, 1984 125 Defending his title and reputation, 1985 to 1987 128 Notes 135 CHAPTER 5 The legend continues: The glory years 138 Azumah Nelson graduates to the super-featherweight level 138 Rex of the super-featherweights 140 Azumah Nelson and the HIV saga, 1988 141 Still the champ: Will he stride into the lightweight division? 143 A wrong move? Pernell Whitaker beats Azumah Nelson, 1990 147 Azumah Nelson returns to rule the super-featherweights, 1990 152 A father and son affair: Azumah Nelson defeats Jeff Fenech, 1992 156 Azumah Nelson defends his title against Calvin Grove and Gabriel Ruelas, 1992–1993 163 Adios Amigo! Azumah Nelson and Don King part ways 168 A contested draw, 1993 170 Rematch: Jesse J. Leija defeats Champ 173 Champ grabs the super-featherweight title from Gabriel Ruelas, 1995 175 Notes 179 CHAPTER 6 The beginning of the end: Retirement 181 Twilight: The Genaro Hernandez triumph, 1997 181 The disastrous return: Azumah Nelson fails to grab a lightweight title in 1998 183 Retirement and life after retirement 184 viii The controversial ‘fund-raising’ fight with Jeff Fenech, 2008 185 Reviewing the boxing brilliance of Azumah Nelson 189 Notes 200 CHAPTER 7 More than pain and passion: Azumah Nelson’s out-of-the-ring life 201 Without the gloves: A husband, father and family man 202 Outside the ring: A social activist and idol 206 Giving to society: The Azumah Nelson Foundation 216 Notes 223 CHAPTER 8 Conclusions 225 Notes 229 APPENDIX: Photographs 230 BIBLIOGRAPHY 234 INDEX 260 ix Acknowledgements The generous support of the African Humanities Programme (AHP) initiated by the American Council of Learned Societies significantly aided the preparation of the manuscript of this publication. I am grateful! In writing this book, I have been helped tremendously by a great