Joshua Blahyi

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Joshua Milton Blahyi, also known as General Butt Naked, is a Liberian warlord-turned-preacher.

Blahyi was a fiercely violent and crazed leader on the side of Roosevelt Johnson[1] in the Liberian Civil War. At age 11, he claims, the Devil called him on the telephone, commanding him to his later excesses[2]. Blahyi has said he would lead his troops naked except for shoes and a gun. He 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."[1] Blahyi got his nickname — General Butt Naked — from his nakedness, supposedly demanded by the Devil. His account of a typical battle follows:

So, before leading my troops into battle, we would get drunk and drugged up, sacrifice a local teenager, drink their blood, then strip down to our shoes and go into battle wearing colourful wigs and carrying dainty purses we'd looted from civilians. We'd slaughter anyone we saw, chop their heads off and use them as soccer balls. We were nude, fearless, drunk and homicidal. We killed hundreds of people — so many I lost count.

—Joshua Blahyi[3]

Some of Blahyi's soldiers — often teenaged boys — would enter battle naked; others would wear women's clothes[1].

Apparently, Blahyi believed that his nakedness was a source of protection from bullets[4][5]. In addition, his acts of violence have a Satanistic tinge: 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).

Blahyi's rampage ended in 1996, when the civil war in Liberia was coming to an end. "God telephoned me and told me that I was not the hero I considered myself to be," he said, "so I stopped and became a preacher."

Blahyi now runs the "Soul-Winning Evangelical Ministry."

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Jim Klima. Going Mental. It Will Be So Awful, It Will Be Wonderful. Retrieved on 2006-01-24.
  2. ^ Stupid Crime, December 1997. L. T. Lawrence & Associates. Retrieved on 2006-01-24.
  3. ^ Gary Brecher (2003-06-12). Please Don't Eat the Pygmies. eXile. Retrieved on 2006-01-24.
  4. ^ Daniella Carlsson. General Buttnaked.
  5. ^ Paul Gains (17 August 2003). Where angels will not tread.

[edit] Sources and links

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