The Vice Guide to Travel in Liberia




So is that why your nickname was [General] Butt Naked?

Yes, because I was naked... because I fought naked
A lot of people would drink or do drugs before fighting?

Yeah, most of my boys, they would drain the blood from an innocent child and drink it before going to battle.

So, you killed the child and then drink the blood?

Yeah.

- We here at Vice have been fascinated by Liberia for a long time

It is Americas first and only foray into Quasi-colonialism in Africa.
It started as a "back-to-africa"-movement for freed slaves.
And in fact the constitution was written in  Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, which is actually named after the US president Monroe. And it became a state in the 1840s.

So the freed slaves go back to Africa and promptly enslave the native Africans, based on the plantation-method, they had learned in the U.S. This lasts for about 140 years until Samuel K. Doe, the first native African-born Liberian was elected.
This however did not last long, because an american educated and some would say american-backed rebel-leader named Charles Taylor and his buddy, Prince Johnson came from america and over-threw him.
In fact Prince Johnson,  who got to President Doe, before his buddy Charles, ended up torturing him, cutting him up and is rumored to have eaten him, while filming the whole thing.
So Charles Taylor finally gets elected, with a campaign slogan that reads "He Killed my Ma and he killed my Pa, but I´ll still Vote for him"... and it worked!
- Thanks to Vladtepesblog for forwarding this one to me


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Frank Kitman