Film Review: General Butt Naked and “The Cannibal Warlords of Liberia”

Carlos Garay
4 min readNov 19, 2020

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A group of Liberian rebel soldiers occupy a road in Liberia.
A group of Liberian rebel soldiers occupy a street in Monrovia.

As I’m sure many people can agree with, the many diverse countries that reside in Africa are often portrayed as the same Savannah-ish style in pop culture and are often times disregarded and seen as just another African country with little to no knowledge of each individual country. A lot of what we know about Africa as a whole is also very minimal and surface level, usually culminating in the word “Africa” relating to thoughts of malaria, poverty, lions, and the lack of fresh drinking water or famine. These images, although clearly unpleasant, are often glossed over and forgotten about as Africa is portrayed as an alien or far away land. The Vice documentary, “The Cannibal Warlords of Liberia” alongside its jarring name, lets viewers experience first hand accounts of what the war torn, impoverished, country of Liberia faces on a daily basis by following journalist, Shane Smith and a group of ex-Liberian warlords in Liberia’s worst slums.

The gritty documentary does not preach a message to the masses and does not begin to do so. “The Cannibal Warlords of Liberia” tugs at viewer’s viscera with candid and unscripted scenes of Liberia and the everyday Liberians behaving as they normally would. Several times the Liberian people told their own story in the ways that nobody could have possibly thought of, such as when Shane Smith is visiting West Point and is randomly approached with a Liberian boy wanting to rap for him. As opposed to the gaudy lyrics of gold chains and expensive cars we see in the west, the boy begins to rap about AIDS and the death of those he knows due to the virus. On top of this, within minutes, Shane is walking into a marketplace where he encounters a child doing heroin and speaking of the time he raped a woman while high on cocaine. The footage holds back no punches and continues on with footage of the Liberian police being bribed, prostitutes in the brothel causing a near riot, and the entirety of Joshua Blahyi’s testimony as General Butt Naked. These moments speak louder than words as the audience is able to witness and listen to the primary sources of the people of Liberia.

In order to support some of the admittedly outlandish and unfathomable claims of the warlords and random citizens of Liberia, Shane Smith commentates over necessary parts of the documentary in order to give a larger and unbias perspective on the country. In these segments, Shane often brings up statistics and objective statements about Liberia. When a prostitute approaches Shane she explains how she gets paid 50 to 100 Liberian Dollars, it is then explained that this is less than a single US dollar. This is expanded upon when Shane announces that Liberia is the fourth poorest country in the world with around 80% of the population being unemployed. With the addition of irrefutable statistics, it is made obvious that Liberia is in desperate need of aids on all levels. With such a poorly run and corrupt government, Liberia faces humanitarian issues left and right. Any type of wellness center is too expensive for the average citizen, yet these centers go on as there is a demand for them, given that 70% of all women face some form of rape or sexual assault.

Pastor Joshua Blahyi (Formerly General Butt Naked)

Even through the brutal scenes of the film, one can easily find themselves feeling a wide range of emotions. Of the most captivating stories and characters lies that of Joshua Blahyi, AKA General Butt Naked. Blahyi was a warlord in the Liberian Civil war, commanding his child soldiers to battle multiple times a day, all while only wielding a gun, wearing only sneakers, and only being a teenager himself. Joshua Blahyi has admittedly killed over 20,000 people during his reign of terror in Liberia, those numbers including a ritual of child sacrifices that involved cutting open a child and taking, then eating their hearts before battle. However, since the day he shows up uninvited and unannounced at Shane’s hotel, the audience gets nothing but a sense of a different, caring man. General Butt Naked is seemingly in the past, and as can be observed by befriending Shane, is quite the charismatic individual. His life’s story from self proclaimed devil worshipper to becoming a pastor of Jesus Christ is something that even the most creative man could not possibly envision and is sure to invoke polarizing emotions.

As is the norm with Vice documentaries, the first hand experiences, unscripted lines, and on the scene footage speaks a message that a high budget, stock footage-filled documentary would not be able to convey. However what the viewer sees is also backed by Shanes commentary giving informational facts and backing up the candid view from the camera. An unexpected, yet unforgettable, emotional rollercoaster resides within Joshua Blahyi and the viewers perspective on him. All considered, Vice captivates viewers in one way or another, if not in every way possible, to see the truth of the state of Liberia and the way some forgotten corners of the world are treated.

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Carlos Garay
Carlos Garay

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