My First Born - Kwame Sekou Lumumba Bumpus

"And still, to this day, even some of the people who have known me for ages ask only about my son, with absolutely no mention of my daughters."








Above, Djata Bumpus, an
undefeated amateur
boxer at the time, holding
3 months-old son
Kwame,
in July of 1975.







Kwame with Dad,
moments after
his first of
two television fights
in 2001.

Dear friends,

Not long ago, on the Website of middleweight boxer Tony Jeter (who fought my son on ESPN Friday Night Fights, back in November of 2001), talking about his career, Jeter wrote,

"I have two losses; Kwame Bumpus was a blue chipper who could beat anyone from 154 to 165 in this area hands down. He was nothing but the truth and I don’t even know what happened to that guy. He just disappeared. I heard stories that he was locked up or that he had been shot, who knows? But, the guy was a good, good fighter. (Bumpus fought in 2001 and 2002. His last fight came on April 18th, 2002. His professional record stands at 6-0-1, 1 KO.)"








Kwame after a workout at
Joe Frazier's Gym
in North Philly (2001).

I named him after Dr. Kwame Nrumah of Ghana, Sekou Toure of Guinea, and Patrice Lumumba of the Congo - the three chief pioneers of the African Revolution that is still going on and is worldwide in its nature and scope. Moreover, Kwame Bumpus, today his 39th birthday, my eldest child and only son, to be sure, is far from deceased and is never in jail, as is suggested on Tony Jeter's Website. He is the oldest of my three progeny. Additionally, six years older than Namandje and ten years older than Tia, he was always their idol growing up, as both of his sisters learned to excel at everything that he did, including intellectually and academically, as well as sports-wise through boxing, track & field, and basketball. (except Tia in soccer, instead of basketball.)

Kwame's career as a champion, with his voluminous collection of newspaper and television clippings, began when he was 13 years-old. A year after moving my family to Amherst, Massachusetts from South Philly, because of Philly's lousy schools in 1987 (at the time, Kwame was going into the seventh grade and Namandje was starting the first grade), at the end of the summer of 1988, Kwame, playing against all grown men, won the New England Chess Open (Class D). Incidentally, beginning at seven years-old, he learned to not only play chess, but more or less mastered it, under the tutelage of my brother, his Uncle Eshu. Of course, I was his regular opponent with whom he practiced, until I could no longer beat him by age 13.

Only a couple of weeks later, as an eighth-grader, he was allowed to run varsity track (a sprinter) for the local high school. In his senior year (1993) he won the Western Mass. 100 meter Championship and the Western Mass. High School Chess Championship. By the way, his high school, allowed me to be his personal track coach, since as a family tradition, myself and almost all of my five brothers ran track in high school.

During the summer of 1993, before he went to college, he attended the world-renowned Red Auerbach Basketball Camp at Brandeis University, just outside of Boston. It was only a week or so long, but when I went to pick him up, along with his sports bag, he was holding two big trophies and a photo. One trophy was for "Best Guard" at the camp. The second was the team trophy, because his team won the camp's championship for the 150 guys from around the world who were split up into teams.

As well, he had a picture of himself and the now late, great Red Auerbach (who called Kwame "Little Jordan"). The photo was actually a prize that was offered to all of the 150 guys just mentioned who had attended the camp. However, Kwame was the only one of the entire bunch who stayed on the Honor Roll for the entire previous year. By the way, at @5' 10", weighing @157lbs., Kwame has been bench-pressing well over 300lbs. , ever since he was 16 years-old. He has run the 200 meter sprint as fast as 20.1 seconds - fully automatic. Over 20 years later, he still holds 13 records in track and field at his high school. And he can dunk a basketball.

Meanwhile, earlier, as a senior in high school, Kwame was sought after by about 400 colleges and universities (@300 for academics and @100 for track). After an NCAA-regulated visit, he chose the Florida Gators and accepted an athletic scholarship. There, he ran the lead leg of the bronze medal winning Gators in the 400x400 meters relay at the SEC Championships, during his sophomore year (1994-5).

Nevertheless, although he was doing fine academically-wise at the University of Florida, he really wanted to box. So, he called me and asked me if he could come back home and start a boxing career. I have always supported my children, even if I wasn't crazy about what they wanted to do, as long as it was legal.

Now, while each of my three children, on the second birthday, has received his or her first boxing lesson, I never allowed them to compete, even sparring in the gym, until they were 16 years-old (although I allowed Tia, at 15, to spar with Jackie Frazier - and she gave Jackie a fit - prior to the latter's first match with Laila Ali).

Kwame was now 20. He literally swept through amateur boxing with a 43-7 record (where he was robbed horribly 7 times). Meanwhile, for a couple of years, my old friend and former boxing manager, the now late great Smokin' Joe Frazier, had wanted to manage Kwame as a pro. Kwame, having known Joe all of his life, wanted the same. However, in time, Kwame was feeling neglected, as Jackie Frazier-Lyde, Joe's daughter (an attorney who is now a Philly judge), was getting all of the attention for her short but lucrative career. In May of 2001, Kwame called me about it. I asked him what kind of contract he had signed with Joe. He told me that because Joe and I were such longtime good friends, they just did it on a handshake. I told him to leave Joe then. He did.

After all, I was disappointed with how Joe had handled, Kwame's career, especially since a year and a half earlier Joe had called me on his speakerphone with both Kwame and his son Marvis sitting there, while Joe asked me to give him my blessings in managing Kwame, for almost 2 hours, before I conceded and said "Yes".

Kwame would travel to New Jersey where his close friend Olympic bronze medalist Terrance Cauthen, who had left Joe's "stable" earlier, lived. He stayed with Terrance and his small family for a while, training and fighting for another year.

During that time, he became interested in Islam. Having been raised in a non-theist (as opposed to atheist) home that still had strong Christian values, he felt a connection. Over the next four years, living in Boston, his birthplace, he worked and saved up a bunch of money, and in the Fall of 2006, moved to Egypt, before sneaking into Yemen (which is considered the center of Muslim scholarship worldwide). He stayed in Yemen, for a couple of years, then returned to the US, after renouncing Islam and all religions, as he and his two younger sisters had been raised by me to do. He was recruited by the US Army, as he is fluent in Arabic. He has since served a tour of duty in Afghanistan, just arriving back in the States in January of 2013, and has resumed regular contact with his two siblings, Namandje and Tia.

At any rate, I decided to tell his story, besides making Tony Jeter and other boxing people aware, because I concentrate a lot on mentioning my daughters on my blog and on Facebook, due to the fact that male offspring always seem to get notice over their female siblings. And still, to this day, even people who have known me for ages ask only about my son, with absolutely no mention of my daughters. Moreover, I love all three of them equally, inasmuch as I love each of them specially. Ya dig? Cheers!

G. Djata Bumpus