Book Launch (Bay Bookshop): Chasing the Devil: The Search for Africa’s Fighting Spirit by Tim Butcher

by Amanda on Nov 23rd, 2010

Zebra Press and The Bay Bookshop invite you to the launch of Chasing the Devil: The Search for Africa’s Fighting Spirit by Tim Butcher.

For many years Sierra Leone and Liberia have been to dangerous to travel through, bedeviled by a uniquely brutal form of violence from which sprang many of Africa’s cruellest contemporary icons – child soldiers, prisoner mutilation, blood diamonds. With their wars officially over, Tim Butcher sets out on a journey across both countries, trekking for 350 miles through remote rainforest and malarial swamps. Just as he followed H.M. Stanley through the Congo – a journey described as his bestseller Blood River – this time he pursues a trail blazed by Graham Greene in 1935 and immortalised in the travel classic Journey Without Maps in which he and his cousin Barbara were carried. Tim walks every blistering inch to gain an extraordinary ground-level view of a troubled and overlooked region.

As a journalist in Africa, Tim came to know both countries well although the wars made the trips to the jungle hinterland far too risky. This is where he now heads, exploring how rebel groups thrived in the bush for so long and whether the devil of war has truly been chased away.

Hear more of Butcher’s story: see you at the Bay Bookshop!

Event Details

Date: Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM
Venue: The Bay Bookshop
27 Somerset Road
cnr. Dixon Street
126 The Square, Level One
Cape Quarter
Green Point
Cape Town
RSVP: capequarter@baybookshop.co.za, 021 421 1301