WWE Photo. He was Billed as a cannibalistic headhunter from the jungles of Africa, James Harris was actually a Mississippi-born son of sharecroppers who worked picking cotton and driving trucks before eventually finding success in the world of professional wrestling. But it also was a gimmick that involved demeaning racial stereotyping.
But in , when Jerry Lawler and Jerry Jarrett were looking for a top heel to fill a spot on the Memphis roster, the two struck gold when Harris walked into the building. Jarrett was known for his penchant for creating unique characters, and bringing up undercard talent and recasting them as top acts.
In this case, Jarrett was thinking of a jungle savage to introduce to the territory after seeing Ugandan tribesmen featured on the pages of National Geographic. He instantly thought of Sugar Bear Harris. Kamala in Africa who had given medical service to the natives of Uganda. Tailor-made for the monster heels of that era, the gimmick got over like a million bucks.
It gave me goose bumps. Lawler acted like he was scared to death of me. I was trying to keep from laughing. He was the one that created me. That led him down first to Arkansas, and then to Memphis, where he learned from veteran wrestler Mario Galento the skills that helped define his later career.
Now back in the U. After initially sending Kamala on his way, Lawler called him back and told him he wanted him to perform as a monster, not a wrestler.
Lawler, a skilled artist, envisioned Kamala as a headhunting cannibal. Lawler sketched some face and body paint patterns for Kamala, an innovation that Kamala believes made him the first domestic wrestler to paint his face on a recurring basis, well before the Road Warriors, Powers of Pain, Missing Link, Sting, or the Ultimate Warrior. Kamala says Lawler worried that the big wrestler would be offended by the gimmick, given that he was Black. But Kamala saw it differently: The paint would hide his face and make him believable.
He would be able to conceal himself behind the paint and convey the image of a cannibal in front of the audience. As they built toward their blow-off match, Kamala realized how Lawler was profiting from the gimmick.
In retrospect, the Kamala gimmick is plainly offensive—it was questionable at the time, and frankly that was part of the point. Watts enjoyed his greatest success through the use of Black talent. And Kamala, playing the part of a cannibalistic African heel, earned his biggest paydays under Watts as well. During his time in Mid-South, Kamala wrestled a few matches with Andre the Giant, developing some memorable heat with the even-larger big man.
So Kamala, who had long ago learned how to handle himself, had this then-girlfriend sew a pocket inside the black wrestling trunks he wore under his leopard-skin wrap, in which he hid a tiny caliber pistol, which he later replaced with a pocket knife he would keep there for another 15 years, even after Andre died.
The day after that, when they were sharing a locker room in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Kamala pulled his. There he got to work with old friend Skandor Akbar and his masked handler Friday, among others, and helped draw record crowds to the Dallas Sportatorium.
Kamala was headlining in monster stables, and Dallas was his biggest bad-guy team-up yet. Kamala had known Hussian for some time, and took a page from his book: The veteran Hussian always maintained, until his dying day, that he was from Sudan, despite being from the U.
He left the territory without notice. Kamala joined the WWF for the first time in Vincent K. McMahon, a. Even with such high-profile billing, he believed the WWE was underpaying him, after travel and other expenses were accounted for. Kenny Casanova, who co-wrote Harris's autobiography, announced the death on social media Sunday night. Multiple outlets are reporting that Harris died Sunday afternoon after contracting COVID last week during a visit to a dialysis center.
Harris began his career in the Memphis territory, wrestling under his real name. In the early s, he adopted the moniker for which he was best known. Lawler had an idea for a new gimmick.
Gone were the ability to wrestle American style, the ability to communicate, and wrestling boots. Kamala sometimes spelled Kimala was born, a name derived from a National Geographic article that Lawler had read.
Uganda was an easy choice, the home of despot Idi Amin. Videos aired of the giant Kamala roaming around the jungle, soon to step in a Memphis ring. And a star was born. Harris altered his style as if he were a novice, albeit a giant novice. He would brutalize opponents with a powerful overhand chop, and a big splash — sometimes off the top rope. The formula was the same no matter where Kamala went. Kamala would destroy everyone in his path, causing lesser opponents to leave on a stretcher, often bloody.
After watching Kamala destroy all the good guys, fans waited for their hero to finally take down the Ugandan monster. The two drew 21, to a Louisiana Superdome show in Both men took their feud to the WWF a year later. Kamala was set to wrestle in Fresno, on Nov. The Andre-Kamala main event played out around the country, with Andre scoring the win.
By the Fresno show, their feud was over. He left the WWF for his next territory, with the philosophy that is better to wrestle in the main event than on the undercard. In , Kamala returned to the WWF.
He finally found his way to Selland Arena. In the usual pattern, it was setting Kamala up for main events against Hulk Hogan. Losing to Hogan on national TV meant that your time as a main eventer was over. Harris would rather move on to a money-spot in another territory than be a mid-carder with the WWF.
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