This panel explores how boxing and entertainment were shaped across the African continent by racial identities and global currents related to race, empire, and Pan-African solidarities. Using the cases of legislation regarding race and the sport of boxing throughout the British Empire during the 19th and 20th centuries, the Zaire '74 concert (tied to the Muhammad Ali-George Foreman "Rumble in the Jungle" fight), and the failed attempts by a black South African promoter to bring Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali to apartheid South Africa, this panel interrogates how African sport and leisure was shaped by its surroundings and how its surroundings were shaped by them.