My Friend the Mercenary

James Brabazon, a war reporter and filmmaker, was alreadya veteran of many conflict zones by his early thirties. Sowhen he was offered an exclusive opportunity to report fromLiberia, caught up in a vicious civil war, it proved too temptingto turn down. He needed to take a bodyguard, someonewith strong knowledge of the region and, more importantly,someone with a gun slung over his shoulder. James hired Nickdu Toit, a former South African soldier and mercenary commander,to guide him into the bloody world of Liberia's rebels.During their time together, James and Nick slowly formed anunlikely friendship, forged during scorching days under unrelentinggunfire. Narrowly surviving the harrowing experience,James returned to the quieter, saner confines of his life in London.But only a few months later he found himself back withNick in a fly-blown bar in West Africa plotting another, muchmore dangerous journey-this time to the heart of EquatorialGuinea. Nick's mission: to overthrow the government of thistiny nation fabulously rich in oil.

My Friend the Mercenaryis an exploration of the mercenarymyth and a chapter of the story of modern Africa. It is abrutally honest and undeniably human account of a journeyinto the heart of what it takes to be a friend, a survivor and ajournalist in the morally corrosive crucible of war.