From beloved Congolese comics creator Barly Baruti and Belgian comics critic Thierry Bellefroid, translated from the original French by Batchelder Award-winning translator Ivanka Hahnenberger

A Harlem gangster's trip to Central Africa to attend the legendary 1974 Ali-Foreman "Rumble in the Jungle" boxing match becomes a one-way ticket to the seedy underground of Zaire-complete with espionage, murder, and a communist plot to overthrow Zaire's infamous President Mobutu.

When Ernest, a low-level gangster from Harlem, wins tickets to travel to Zaire to attend the "Rumble in the Jungle," the now-legendary bout between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, he's eager to reconnect with his African roots and escape the ruthless gang leaders he's indebted to back home. But in Zaire, Ernest becomes entangled in an Angolan coup against the country's embattled president Mobutu Sese Seko-inspired by Che Guevara himself-and soon realizes that Zaire may hold even more dangers for him than Harlem ever could.

A Cold-War-era thriller set against the backdrop of a landmark moment in sports history, Chaos in Kinshasafeatures Barly Baruti's characteristic art and Thierry Bellefroid's punchy dialogue woven in with the elements of a great gangster story-sex, spies, bribes, and murder. A thrill ride through a pivotal moment in Cold War, African, and sports history.

• We will send 300 review copies (150 pre-pub, 150 post-pub) to reviewers, booksellers, media, librarians, and bloggers;
  
• We will seek early blurbs from relevant graphic novelists, comic creators, authors, and historians;
  
• We will submit the book for all relevant awards;
  
• We will actively seek the inclusion of the book in unit studies curriculum;
  
• We will promote the book at Comic Con, ALA annual, mid-winter ALA, NCTE, NCSS, and African Studies Association annual conferences;
  
• We will host Goodreads and LibraryThing giveaways;
  
• We will actively engage relevant book clubs and relevant historical or educational organizations in targeted publicity campaigns;
  
• We will promote the book online via Catalyst's website as well as email lists and social media (blog, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube).
  
• We will promote the book within traditional educational and homeschooling communities;
  
• We will submit the book to Library Guild and make it available as an e-ARC on Edelweiss and Netgalley for relevant reviewers;
  
• The book will be released as part of Catalyst Press' recently relaunched Panel & Page graphic novel series for African graphic novels and will receive targeted publicity in that regard;
  
• The book will also be released as part of Catalyst Press' popular African Crime Reads series and will receive targeted publicity in that regard;
• We will promote the book as part of our global, once annually #ReadingAfrica Week campaign;
  
• We will coordinate with Thierry Bellefroid, Barly Baruti, and Ivanka Hahnenberger to coordinate in-person and/or virtual launch events, readings, panel participations, and attendance to literary and comics festivals where possible.
  

About the Author

Baruti Kandolo Lilela, better known by his pen name Barly Baruti, is a renowned Congolese cartoonist. He was born in 1959 in Kisangani into a family of painters. After studying pedagogy, Baruti worked at French cultural centers in Kisangani and Kinshasa, where he produced his first comic work, an environmental comic titled Le temps d'agir. He has been described by the BBC as "the Congolese author best known outside his country." Baruti is the co-founder of the Atelier de Creation et de l'Initiation a l'Art Creative Workshop for an Initiation to Art) to encourage talented youth in Kinshasa, and he is responsible for organizing the first Afro BD show in Kinshasa in the effort to promote African comics. He has lived in France and Belgium, where he apprenticed with several renowned comic artists. He currently lives in Kinshasa. Chaos in Kinshasa is the second Barly Baruti comic to be published by Catalyst Press, after Madame Livingstone (2021). In 2023, Barly was named Facilitator of Partnerships and Cultural Relations in Europe by the Congolese Ministry of Culture.

Thierry Bellefroid works for the Belgian television company, RTB, where he presents every week Sous Couverture, the RTBF literary magazine which he created after setting up, directing and presenting Mille-Feuilles from 2004 to June 2011, then Livre s a Domicile from 2011 to 2019. He has been the anchor of RTBF's Le Journal 13H00 for six years. Since September 2009 he has focused solely on book and comic book news. From 2007 to 2020, Thierry Bellefroid was also a guest lecturer at the School of Journalism of Louvain at UCLouvain, where he taught television journalism there in Master 1, mentoring journalism students in comics reporting. He has published three novels, a collection of short stories and a digital novel. Amongst many things, he has been a member of numerous comics juries (International Prize of the City of Geneva and To pffer Prize from 2001 to 2020, Grand Jury of Angoule me in 2000, president of the Jury of the Quinzaine de la BD de Bruxelles in 2004 and 2005, member of the jury of the Algiers International Comic Strip Festival in 2011 and 2012); he has been a member of Groupe d'Experts sur la Bande Dessine e pour la Communaute Franc aise de Belgique since its creation in 2001 and a commissioner for the Commission for Aid to Comics of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation of Belgium, which is the equivalent of the French CNL, until 2015; he coordinated comic strip animations for eight years for the Brussels Book Fair; and has participated in the catalogs of many comics exhibitions including CGRI (now WBI) in Seoul, Santiago, Bologna, etc., the exhibitions of several editions of the Lausanne BD-FIL Festival, the exhibition Archi et BD curated by Jean-Marc The venet at the Cite de l'Architecture in Paris, and the Le Temps des Cite s exhibition in Brussels from February to April 2013.

Ivanka Hahnenberger has translated over 60 comics and graphic novels, including several highly acclaimed titles such as Climate Changed, Blue is the Warmest Color, Madame Livingstone (a 2021 New York Times Globetrotting title) and Catherine's War, which won her the Silver 2021 Batchelder Award. Born in Berkeley California, she spent part of her childhood in Geneva, Switzerland and lived in a multilingual, multicultural household. She has lived in Europe since 1983, primarily in France and Germany but with several short stays in other European nations, and presently lives in London. She has translated and transposed film and TV pitches, business plans and power points for decades, starting when she worked as a TV and film producer and consultant. As a big fan of French BD, she started a company to sell French rights into North America and through this began translating works to help buyers acquire. This grew into contractual translation work. She has translated biographies, scientific graphic novels, science fiction, fantasy, mysteries, sagas, creative fiction, adaptations, history, classics and much more. She has also translated non-fiction guides on art and architecture, white papers on marketing concepts such as Nudge Theory, and children's chapter books. She translates from both French and German into American English. Chaos in Kinshasa is the second translation by Ivanka Hahnenberger to be published by Catalyst Press, after Madame Livingstone (2021).

Book Information
ISBN 9781946395986
Author Barly Baruti
Format Paperback
Imprint Catalyst Books
Publisher Catalyst Books