Peter Benson is professor of English at Fairleigh Dickinson University, the author of Black Orpheus, Transition, and Modern Cultural Awakening in Africa, and an avid boxing fan.

No man ever came out of Africa who had a more dramatic life or had a more tragic ending." - Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, at Siki's funeral"That extraordinary Sengalese." - Henry Miller, from Plexus"Ever since colonialism has existed, the Whites have been paid to bash in the faces of the Blacks. For once a Black has been paid to do the same thing to a White." - Ho Chi Minh, from About Siki"One of the most comprehensive and intriguing boxing biographies in recent memory, and deserves high marks for refurbishing the image of a worthwhile and worthy champion." - Peter Ehrmann, The Ring"Has all the elements of a Shakespearean tragedy set in the Roaring Twenties." - Thomas Hauser, author of Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times"A tremendous book and useful to understanding race, sports, and crime in the 1920s." - Sport History Review