Synopsis

A SPORTS LEGENDChaos in Kinshasacenters on the historic 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" boxing match between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali in the Republic of Zaire (now Congo). The Rumble in the Jungle is widely considered to be one of the greatest sporting events in history, with an estimated one billion people watching via televised broadcast (a world record at the time). 60,000 people attended the event in person. The fight, which ended in a major upset with 4-to-1 underdog Muhammad Ali knocking out an undefeated Foreman in the eighth round, has since been the subject of an Academy Award winning documentary,When We Were Kings.Accompanying the fight was a companion concert, which would later serve as a model for other African arts festivals like FESTAC in Senegal and Soul to Soul in Ghana.A BELOVED FIGHTERStill to this day, books about Muhammad Ali are in steep demand, whether it's the bestsellingBecoming Muhammad Aliby James Patterson and Kwame Alexander, Dark Horse's Muhammad Ali graphic novel in 2016, or Bill O'Reilly'sKilling the Legendsjust this year.BLACK POWER.BLAXPLOITATION ERAThe Blaxploitation era began as a film movement in the 1970s where Black characters were featured in high-thrill, gritty crime movies as rebels, hustlers, cops, pimps and vigilantes. What began as a negative connotation quickly became a wildly popular ethnicsub-genre which brought sexy, bad-ass Black characters with great style to the screen-and eventually into literature, comics, and pop culture-typically surrounding themes of fighting back against oppression and corruption. This genre has gained a cult following in recent decades and many Black readers actively seek out references to the Blaxploitation era.Chaos in Kinshasaleans heavily on Blaxploitation-style characters and themes and will be a perfect fit for readers of that era.COLD WAR HISTORYZaire was one of the most pivotal ideological battlegrounds in Africa during the Cold War. Then-president Mobutu Sese Seko, now notorious for plunging Congo into economic and political disarray, was generally an ally to the United States during his three-decade presidency, but in 1974, he accused the American government of a plot to overthrow his regime, forcing the tensions between Eastern and Western powers in Zaire to a critical breaking point. So, while a billion people were placing bets on who would win the fight between Ali and Foreman in Zaire, governments around the world were placing bets on who would win the fight between capitalism and communism in a newly liberated Africa.SEX, SPIES & SPORTSWith sexy, punchy dialogue, full-color illustrations, and plenty of thrills,Chaos in Kinshasa brings all the best parts of a fictional gangster story to the true history of Congo's 1970s Cold War crisis and Ali-Foreman's legendary fight."SEQUEL" TO SUCCESSIn June 2021, we published another Barly Baruti graphic novel,Madame Livingstone, which Ivanka Hahnenberger also translated to English. The book received rave reviews from Publishers Weekly and Foreword Reviews, and was included in The New York Times' 2021 Globetrotting edition.CONGOLESE TO ITS COREIn 2023, Barly was named Facilitator of Partnerships and Cultural Relations in Europe by the Congolese Ministry of Culture.A CROSS-SERIES RELEASEChaos in Kinshasawill be published under our newly launched Panel & Page African Graphic Novel series, which we kickstarted in 2022 in response to heightened demand for comics from Africa. It will also be marketed as part of our popular African Crime Reads series, our flagship series.EDUCATIONAL INSERTSThe book includes a detailed preface, postface, and several back-pages of educational information about President Mobutu, Zaire, the Cold War in Africa, and Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.

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 Cration et de l'Initiation 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 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 weekSous Couverture, the RTBF literary magazine which he created after setting up, directing and presenting Mille-Feuilles from 2004 to June 2011, then Livrs Domicile from 2011 to 2019. He has been the anchor of RTBF'sLe Journal 13H00me 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 pour la Communaut Franaise 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 Thvenet at the Cit de l'Architecture in Paris, and the Le Temps des Cits exhibition in Brussels from February to April 2013.Ivanka Hahnenberger has translated over 60 comics and graphic novels, including several highly acclaimed titles such asClimate Changed,Blue is the Warmest Color,Madame Livingstone(a 2021New York TimesGlobetrotting title) andCatherine'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 Kinshasais the second translation by Ivanka Hahnenberger to be published by Catalyst Press, afterMadame Livingstone(2021).

This is a standard paperback/soft cover version.