The Redemption of an African Warlord: The Joshua Blahyi Story a.k.a General Butt Naked

by Joshua Blahyi

It is a story of Joshua Blahyi growing up in Africa, becoming a pagan priest in a local tribe to becoming one of the most feared warlords in Liberia. (Fighting naked and making human sacrifices. Forcing children to abandon their families and fight.) Then, in a radical transformation akin to that of Paul on the road to Damascus, Joshua met Jesus. Joshua is now a changed man. He reforms the lives of his former soldiers and raises three children with his wife. He is an evangelist in Liberia.

Genres: Nonfiction, Africa, Biography, Christian, Religion

160 pages, Paperback

First published February 19, 2013

About the author

At age 11, Joshua Blahyi became the high priest of the entire Krahn tribe, a tribe given to violence and human sacrifice. In his late teens and early twenties, he was one of the most infamous and feared warlords in all of Africa leading an army of child soldiers in the Liberian Civil War. Today, after a road to Damascus type conversion experience, he is Evangelist and Pastor Joshua Blahyi, ministering to ex-combatants, former child soldiers, and other victims of this brutal civil war. He also ministers to thousands in crusades throughout West Africa and serves as a pastor in a local church in Monrovia, Liberia.

Reviews

[René · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is insanely hard to fit into a classical 5-star-rating-system. It was a highly interesting read, but not for the reasons and purposes it was written for, which is why I've given it a single star.
It gives insights in West African spirituality/occultism, the unique blend of the former and Catholicism that's taken root in those areas, and most of all a first-person account of someone (unawarely) suffering from heavy delusions and hallucinations.

The author of this autobiography, re-christened as Joshua Blahyi, was also known as General Butt Naked. A Liberian warlord, mass murderer & rapist, and a cannibal who especially enjoyed eating little girls alive.
This is attributed to the commands of a "spirit" appearing in visions before him. Sceptical readers might attribute these visions to a genetic predisposition to psychosis and ritual incest, both outlined in the autobiography.

So we follow Blahyi murdering and raping, abducting children to eat them alive, taking babies from mothers and smashing their heads open in front of them. Up until he gets a different vision telling him to become a Christian.

And that makes everything okay. Blahyi has never been prosecuted, never been brought to justice, because him becoming a Christian nullified all his previous sins. That is, until the still-occuring voices and visions in his head tell him to kill again. We'll see in due time.

It is an interesting read, but there is literally nothing more to it than that. Rapist-murderer-psychopath-cannibal turns Christian due to one of his strokes "visions" changing his behaviour. There is no transformation happening.

I want you to let this sink in, if only to give a context to the people on goodreads praising him.
Blahyi was responsible for at least 20,000 deaths as a warlord. Blahyi personally burned people alive, cut open children to eat their flesh, raped, looted, slaughtered wherever he went, took infants from their mothers, held them by their legs and smashed theirs heads open on concrete so he could eat their brains, organised regular human sacrifices - and all it takes for those things to be forgiven is to say a nice little prayer and Amen.

Blahyi has not spent a single day in prison, protected and enabled by "Good Christians", allowed to roam free and confront his former victims, even going as far as condemning their unchristian-like outrage on having to meet the rapist and slaughterer of their families.
And as is described in his autobiography, up to this very day he still experiences heavy strokes and vivid psychotic delusions. He is a ticking bomb.

The only thing more scary than Blahyi himself is the amount of drones heaping praise on this book for seemingly reinforcing their religious convictions.

[Ash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely Flooring..

Will open the eyes of the sleepy westerner the the spiritual realities around us. Demonic and Heavenly. Amazing testimony of the power and passion of Jesus to save and redeem. You will need to have Google close by to reference dates/names and phrases that are hard to make sense of. But I have been floored by this book and highly recommend it to any who would seek to know God in His power deeper.

[Graham Abernethy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read although not what I intially expected. I thought it would cover his time as thee "General Butt Naked" but it was just kinda brushed over in a short chapter. All in all an interesting book although it still makes no sense to me how he is able to be free today.

[Mikey · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was not more information about his personal spiritual journey and conversion to Christianity then I learned from the youtube video, Why I Killed so many Liberians". There was a bit more information about the history of his family and his people or tribe, to put it in context to some extent. However, overall many of the details were even less complete in the book then he gave in the video.
It is unimaginable the evil this man perpetrated. Non Christians cannot imagine why anyone would accept him in any way just because of his claim of redemption in conversion to Christ. Christians have to believe it is possible for even the worst of mankind to be redeemed. It seems he was willing to face prison or death for his crimes and was not using Christianity as a "get out of jail free card" as is often claimed. He spoke a little bit more about his regret and emotions about his past in the book then he did in the video. Yet he was also less specific about his violence before he claimed to have been redeemed. It is still impossible to fathom the spiritual aspects of his story both before his conversion to Christianity and after.

[Amber Thiessen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of a man who became a follower of Jesus after spending his life gaining spiritual power as an animistic priest for his tribe. The first part of the book goes through the history of the tribe and the institution of its god, then moves into his conversion and evangelism. Lots of people and places made it somewhat difficult to follow the storyline. Yet eye opening to the activity of the spiritual world during the times of the Liberian civil wars.

[Kira · Rating 4 out of 5]

i first heard of the joshua blahyi story after watching a VICE interview. this is an unbelievable transformation. the writing of this book may not flow smoothly, but the message is loud and clear. certainly leaves me conflicted reflecting on the heinous crimes he committed versus the holy work he does now. it’s an inspiration to read, but truly unsure how i would feel if i encountered him in real life. it’s very bold to tell every aspect of this story in great detail.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is so violent and spiritual that it is almost unbelievable.... unless you understand the supernatural!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

- a bit fantastical at times
- blahyi comes off as manipulative too often

[Jett Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an incredible book. Read it. It is scattered and disorganized, strange and affecting, alienating and crude, and all without realizing it. Joshua Blahyi, for all you can potentially say about him, is in my opinion a good person. I've spoken with him. I've seen what he has to say. I've reviewed his situation (although it would be impossible to really understand it) and I have come away dumbfounded and amazed at the absolute terror, and also warmth, that this single individual can give off.

A Western audience is not going to read this book and think "Ah yes, I believe all of this happened and it's all true." That's fine. You shouldn't be reading this looking for a fully accurate picture of what has happened to Joshua Blahyi, but of how he feels about it, and how he perceives his world. This is a man responsible for the deaths of thousands, and here we find him rambling on about his encounters with demons, his superpowers, and his newly found (but not entirely orthodox) faith.

Maybe the greatest book I have read about a man by that same man.

[Kellie Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

The overarching story is amazing and transforming. However, the prose is disorganized and hard to follow.

It is obvious that Joshua Blahyi was an evil man and did unspeakable things during the Liberian civil war. It was hard to figure out how the events in the book line up with the timeline of the civil wars.

It is a short book. The first part outlines the history that led to the author gaining power in Liberia. The end of the book tells about his conversion, acceptance of Jesus, and confessions. The middle of the book is the hardest part to follow. One problem is that I read the book with my Western perspective of the world, but that is the only perspective that I have. It was hard to understand the witchcraft and supernatural components of the story and accept them as factual parts of Blahyi's history.

[Amara]

I generally find it very hard to rate somebody's life story. For this reason I did not rate it with stars. I personally like the message of the book, I like the transformation Joshua went through. But I have to say, the book was poorly structured (in my opinion) and therefore hard to follow. But nonetheless the message was powerful and worth reading!

[Rena Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

quite disturbing in parts. triumphant Saul to Paul type testimony. Would help to have some background understanding of the ethnic religion first. don't read this if you are offended by the spiral dimension. this book assumes you firmly believe in spiritual warfare and devil worship.

[Hashim · Rating 2 out of 5]

scattered mess, very hard to read