LIBERIA’S GENERAL BUTT NAKED’S TESTIMONY

During the war in Liberia, we were fighting Charles Taylor’s men, NPFL.

They were calling themselves government forces.

In my controlled area, I had my “Koocha” chair, where I sat most often.

My boys are all around me singing...

The elders bring the innocent child and we open the back of the child and take out the heart, alive.

And we cut it into pieces and distribute it to the boys (warriors).

So these pieces of heart that we (leaders and boys) were having will just make us brave and get us ready for the battle, with the belief that the bullet will not affect us.

The bloodstains were still on my hands when my boys went to look for water.

Just before they got back...

And I heard this voice behind me, saying “My Son, Why Are You Slaving?”

But this was said in my dialect.

I looked back and I saw this man dress in white linen.

You couldn’t look at His face for a split of a second.

I didn’t know who He was; my spirit was arguing.

I have been into many ceremonies and saw different spirits, but this spirit was so different.

The light that radiated through that man was so bright...brighter than the sun that I had to bow down and look at his feet to talk.

And I thought I was not a slave; because He said, “My Son Why Are You Slaving?”

I said well, “In this whole...territory I am the king, I am supposed to be a king.

And he said, “You’re right in saying you are supposed to be a king, but you are living like a slave”.

And those words were very hard words in my dialect.

I said, “I don’t understand, what You are saying?”

He answered, “I mean, repent and live or refuse and die”, and then he vanished.

The light vanished and I came to my senses, and I was so confused.

After that, I went into battle, I tried to use my pistol and it got busted.

I got afraid, I retreated from the front.

I got Afraid for the first time.

“The world is changing. The mistake of our fathers, cause less harm to the mistakes that we would make to our children.

That is if we fail them, Stand up and Pray”.

General Butt Naked, now Joshua Blahyi, Liberia.

Rudy Delest <3