One way for a small group of people to overcome a larger and better-equipped fighting force is to strike fear and horror into their hearts by acts of unspeakable savagery, such as by dismembering a small child and eating the heart, then driving into battle naked, with hideous wigs and warpaint. Such were the practices of Milton Blahyi, more widely known as General Butt Naked, in the Liberian civil war, as described in his autobiography The Redemption of an African Warlord.
Milton Blahyi was designated from birth to become the chief priest of an African tribal god, and he took up the position at the age of 11, apparently requiring him to have nightly audiences with the god and make monthly human sacrifices. Blahyi’s reputation as a priest grew to such an extent that he became an advisor to Liberia’s president Samuel Doe, who was from the same Krahn tribe as Blahyi.
The book provides some interesting insights for those who wish to understand more about the role of animistic beliefs in the civil war that devastated Liberia in the 1990s. Although the author intended the book as a testimony to his new faith, it is primarily about his life as a priest and the acts of unspeakable barbarity in which he engaged before his conversion. The courage of the Christians who witnessed to him is described, but the message of Jesus is not explained, and non-African readers are unlikely to find the author’s story credible.