The jungle still rumbles...

'Fight of the century' still a vivid memory for the locals of Kinshasa.

Alfred Mamba was just 12 when boxing great Muhammad Ali descended on Kinshasa, at that time the capital of Zaire, in October 1974 in a bid to regain his heavyweight title.

Mamba watched as his father, a boxing referee, helped carry flags into the arena ahead of the fight between Ali and fellow-American George Foreman in the early hours of 30 October.

The memory of the event, better known as The Rumble in the Jungle, has stayed with him for 50 years.

"It was an impossible atmosphere; we have never seen an atmosphere like it," he says on the sidelines of the amateur Africa Boxing Championships in Kinshasa.

The Rumble in the Jungle, which inspired Norman Mailer's book The Fight and the Oscar-winning documentary When We Were Kings, has passed into boxing myth.

Financed as a big public relations event by Zaire's dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, the fight took place in the 20th May Stadium, now called the Tata Raphael Stadium, and was screened in over 100 countries.

The giant concrete structure was packed to the rafters with about 60,000 spectators, singing, dancing and chanting in anticipation of the match.