Joshua Blahyi

Joshua Milton Blahyi (born ca 1970), also known as General Butt Naked, is a Liberian warlord-turned-preacher. He was a fiercely violent and eccentric leader on the side of Roosevelt Johnsoncite web
url = http://web.archive.org/web/20051029203402/http://jetcityjimbo.com/awful_wonderful/50.shtml
title = Going Mental
work = It Will Be So Awful, It Will Be Wonderful
author = Jim Klima
accessdate=2007-01-15] in the First Liberian Civil War in the first half of the 1990s.

Religious beliefs

Blahyi is a member of the Sarpo clan, which make up 20% of the Krahn tribe in Liberia. [cite book| last = Milton-Blahyi| first = Joshua| title = From Priesthood to Royal Priesthood| publisher = Lagos: C.R.M. Press| month = June | year = 2006| pages = 1| isbn = 978-072-683-7 ] At age 11, he claims, the Devil called him on the telephone, commanding him to his later excesses. [cite web|url=http://www.ausmall.com.au/law/crime3.htm|title=Stupid Crime, December 1997|publisher=L. T. Lawrence & Associates|accessdate=2006-01-24] The Krahn elders later appointed him as high priest, a position that would later lead him to become the spiritual advisor to Liberian President Samuel Doe. [cite book| last = Milton-Blahyi| first = Joshua| title = From Priesthood to Royal Priesthood| publisher = Lagos: C.R.M. Press| month = June | year = 2006| pages = (About the Author)| isbn = 978-072-683-7 ] Blahyi adhered to a complex traditional belief system as a Krahn Priest, and like many in Africa he has mixed those beliefs fluidly with Christianity. Blahyi himself explains: "I was a high priest for the biggest god under the Krahn tribe, and the late Samuel K. Doe being a fellow tribesman, was automatically placed under my jurisdiction... I also placed nyanbe-a-weh amongst the first three high ranking deities in the West Africa’s black-witch coastal line division." [cite book| last = Milton-Blahyi| first = Joshua| title = From Priesthood to Royal Priesthood| publisher = Lagos: C.R.M. Press| month = June | year = 2006| pages = 68| isbn = 978-072-683-7 ] Nyanbe-a-weh was Blahyi’s protecting deity who (according to Blahyi) demanded ritual sacrifice; Blahyi would later replace Nyanbe-a-weh with the devil. [cite book| last = Milton-Blahyi| first = Joshua| title = From Priesthood to Royal Priesthood| publisher = Lagos: C.R.M. Press| month = June | year = 2006| pages = 45| isbn = 978-072-683-7 ] He explains that the Krahn tribe selects leaders based upon physical prowess rather than birthright. The selection process takes place through an annual fight: "The traditional fight was a no holds barred affair. The eventual victor was allowed to kill and maim to show his strength and bravery. The strongest or last man standing after the bloody contest will take over the birthright and the headship of the tribe." [cite book| last = Milton-Blahyi| first = Joshua| title = From Priesthood to Royal Priesthood| publisher = Lagos: C.R.M. Press| month = June | year = 2006| pages = 4| isbn = 978-072-683-7 ]

In battle

Blahyi has said he led his troops naked except for shoes and a gun. Apparently, he believed that his nakedness was a source of protection from bullets. [cite web|url=http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/Liberia/Asadstateofaffairs.html|title=General Buttnaked|author=Daniella Carlsson] [cite web |url=http://web.archive.org/web/20050528131441/http://www.sundayherald.com/36066/|title=Where angels will not tread|author=Paul Gains |date=17 August 2003 |work=Sunday Herald] Blahyi now claims he would regularly sacrifice a victim before battle, saying, "Usually it was a small child, someone whose fresh blood would satisfy the devil." He explained to the "Seattle Post-Intelligencer": "Sometimes I would enter under the water where children were playing. I would dive under the water, grab one, carry him under and break his neck. Sometimes I'd cause accidents. Sometimes I'd just slaughter them."cite book | last = Susman | first = Tina | title = LIBERIA'S FIERCE BUTT NAKED GENERAL NOW PREACHES PEACE | publisher = Seattle Post-Intelligencer | date = August 4, 1997 ]

Blahyi got his nickname — General Butt Naked — from his nakedness, supposedly demanded by the Devil. He claimed to a South African "Star" reporter that he "met Satan regularly and talked to him" and that from the age of 11 to 25 he took part in monthly human sacrifices (Ellis 268). His account of a typical battle follows:

Some of Blahyi's soldiers — often teenage boys — would enter battle naked; others would wear women's clothes. In June 2006 Blahyi published his autobiography including pictures of him fighting with a rifle, wearing nothing but sneakers. [cite book| last = Milton-Blahyi| first = Joshua| title = From Priesthood to Royal Priesthood| publisher = Lagos: C.R.M. Press| month = June | year = 2006| pages =| isbn = 978-072-683-7 ]

Children's hearts

In January 2008, Milton Blahyi confessed to taking part in human sacrifices which "included the killing of an innocent child and plucking out the heart, which was divided into pieces for us to eat." He fought versus Charles Taylor's militia. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7200101.stm news.bbc.co.uk, I ate children's hearts, ex-rebel says] ]

Conversion

Blahyi's rampage ended in 1996, when the civil war in Liberia was coming to an end. In 1997 Blahyi traveled to the Buduburam refugee camp in Ghana. It was at the camp, he recounts, that he made confession at a Church for his sins and had his life saved. [cite book| last = Milton-Blahyi| first = Joshua| title = From Priesthood to Royal Priesthood| publisher = Lagos: C.R.M. Press| month = June | year = 2006| pages = 121| isbn = 978-072-683-7 ] When he goes out to preach now, he says he sometimes encounters relatives of his victims. "I feel very bad, so bad", he said, but he insists it was satanic powers that possessed him in the past and he cannot be held responsible.

Blahyi is now the President of the End Time Train Evangelistic Ministries Inc., with Headquarters in Liberia. He is married to Pastor Mrs. Josie and has three children: Michaela, Joshua Milton Junior, and Janice. [cite book| last = Milton-Blahyi| first = Joshua| title = From Priesthood to Royal Priesthood| publisher = Lagos: C.R.M. Press| month = June | year = 2006| pages = (About the Author)| isbn = 978-072-683-7 ] In 2004 Liberian-American director Gerald Barclay traveled to Buduburam to shoot a documentary which included interviews with Joshua Blahyi. [cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469934/|title=Liberia: The Love of Liberty Brought us Here (2004)] In January 2008 Blahyi returned to Liberia from Ghana and admitted before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberia that between c. 1980 and 1996 he and his men were responsible for the deaths of more than 20,000 people. [ [http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/01/21/liberia.general.ap/index.html Ex-warlord confesses to 20,000 deaths - CNN.com ] ]

References

*Makovsky, David, et al. "World in brief", "U.S News & World Report" Vol 124, Issue 14 (1998), 39.

External links

*cite web
url = http://mailer.fsu.edu/~akirk/tanks/Liberia/Asadstateofaffairs.html
title = General Buttnaked
last = Carlsson
first = Daniella
accessdate = 2008-03-25