By Fanuel Viriri
The Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman fight had brutality written all over it. Two brutal heavyweights. A brutal dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, bankrolling the blood-and-thunder bout.
The fanfare started on 22 September 1974, deep in the Zaire (now DRC) bundu, B.B. King, James Brown and Manu Dibango warmed up the jungle with music. Then on 30 October, 80 000 fans watched at 3 am as Muhammad Ali, the most famous man on earth, floored George Foreman in the eighth round to become the world heavyweight champion for the second time. Rumble in the Jungle was born.
But the rumble did not stop in Kinshasa.
In another part of Africa, in Mkoba 6, Gweru, the municipality had just finished building a new cocktail bar for the blacks. The red brick structure had unique castle-like features and probably the first neon signs ever seen in a high-density suburb. It was licensed as Mawunganidze Cocktail Bar and at night the neon billboard flashed “Mawunganidze”… then “Cocktail Bar” in vivid red. Novelty. Class.
The timing was perfect. The bar opened as the world held its breath for Ali vs Foreman fight.
On fight night, the bar had no closed-circuit TV like venues overseas. The match would be watched globally on delayed recordings as live television was still developing.
But Mkoba 6 had something better: live radio. Legendary broadcaster Sheridan, “The Colonel”, called every punch to a billion listeners following the fight on radio worldwide. In Mkoba 6, imbibers sat in the gentlemen’s club, sipping ice-cold beers, following every round on the radio.
“Radio commentary was top notch and the commentators brought every detail while the imbibers sipped their favourite drinks,” recalled Watson Hapanyengwi, former Go Beer MD who ran Gweru City Council’s beerhalls in the 80s.
And as Ali danced, rope-a-doped, and knocked Foreman out, the patrons started talking. Not about “Mawunganidze” but about Zaire.
“Zaire was not the official name,” Hapanyengwi said. “But patrons of the new bar had other ideas. They christened it Zaire after the country that hosted the biggest boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Imbibers appreciate classy acts, and the name Zaire stuck. I suspect the big radio broadcast in 1974 must have been a spectacle.”
Ali was bigger than the US President, the UK Prime Minister and even the Pope. For one night, Mkoba 6 was connected to Kinshasa. The bar was classy, collar-and-tie patrons and the beer was served in standard glasses. It wasn’t a dingy shebeen. It was a gentleman’s pub. So why call it “Mawunganidze” when the whole world was saying “Zaire”?
For years the neon sign kept flashing “Mawunganidze”. But everyone who walked through the door asked for “Zaire”.
“In the eighties when I became Sales Manager of Gweru City Council beerhalls and bottle stores, I officially changed the name to Zaire because patrons called it that,” Hapanyengwi said.
“I told my guys to pull down the big neon sign inscribed ‘Mawunganidze’ and up went a sign written ‘Zaire’. It became officially known as Zaire because imbibers called it that, ” recalled Hapanyengwi.
From that night in October 1974, Zaire Cocktail Bar became more than a drinking hole. It became Gweru’s entertainment landmark. Zig Zag Band “rumbled” there. Mitchell Jambo sang “Vimbai”. Jah Shadow did covers of Mahotella Queens’ “Thoko”. Later, Super Sounds with Alex Sekela won the resident band audition.
“In 1974 when Zaire opened, there was simply no bar like it, not only in Gweru but in the country. It was in the same league as Mushandirapamwe in Harare. What was unique was the architecture, which is still appreciated today. It was the largest and most glamorous bar in Gweru,” Hapanyengwi said.
Built in the colonial era for the black elite who were barred from Midlands Hotel and Cecil Hotel, Zaire had cubicles for private chats, a long bar counter with no jostling, and mazondo served on the side.
50 years later, the red brick structure still stands in Mkoba 6. Zaire is no more. Tall grass competes for attention with the architecture.
The neon “Mawunganidze” is long gone. But every Gweru son and daughter knows it as Zaire.
Because sometimes a bar doesn’t get its name from a license. It gets it from a moment. And on 30 October 1974, Mkoba 6 had its moment — when Ali beat Foreman in Zaire, and Zaire was born in Gweru
