"Kamala" Harris, The Ugandan Giant, Dead At 70

Make you look? Every word in the title is true, from The Ringer, gripping reading & some interesting videos.

MostMost people remember James “Kamala” Harris for his elaborate African-themed costume, mask, and body paint. But behind all that gimmickry was a working man who grew up the son of sharecroppers in Mississippi, a man who labored on farms, rooftops, behind the wheel of a truck, and, most famously, in the wrestling ring. He depended on his body to pay his bills, yet was rarely paid what he was worth. And in his later years, this massive, powerful body betrayed him, with diabetes costing him both legs by 2012, and a respiratory infection leading to cardiac arrest and death on Sunday at age 70.

Kamala’s performances as the “Ugandan Giant” lit up main event marquees throughout the 1980s, but he weathered life’s trials and tribulations as an African American man. He faced extreme poverty from the start. In his autobiography, Kamala Speaks, he recounts growing up in a small shack on a cotton plantation. His father, Jesse Harris, was killed after winning the pot in a dice game. Police in Mississippi did nothing, and the murder was unsolved. “A black man’s life in this time wasn’t worth the hassle,” Kamala wrote. “A black death didn’t matter … at this time, and it was even more unimportant when all the parties involved were black.”