Chaos in Kinshasa
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 Kinshasa features 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.
Baruti Kandolo LilelaIn 2023, Barly was named Facilitator of Partnerships and Cultural Relations in Europe by the Congolese Ministry of Culture.
Thierry Bellefroid ; he has been a member of Groupe d’Experts sur la Bande Dessinée pour la Communauté Française de Belgique since its creation in 2001 and a commissioner for the Commission for Aid to Comics of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation of Belgium 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.
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. 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.
