Christian Crusade in Uganda!

[RedImperator]

So...would anyone care to provide some documented evidence of pygmy cannibalism, or human sacrifice, or albinos getting turned into lucky charms? Because while anyone who watches the news could tell you much of Africa is horribly broken--civil war, genocide, refugee camps, and crushing poverty everywhere--I'm not going to believe a bunch of ooga-booga stories which just conveniently match the worst Western stereotypes about Africa and Africans without proof.

[The Yosemite Bear]

You make that sound as if it is not true.

Well, most are neither homicidal nor savages.

one of my cousin's by marraige is the Propane king of Nigeria, Actually not a millionare by US standards, but given economic factors and politics, he's kinda like Robber Baron wealthy in his country of Birth. (Naturalized US Citizen Alien, Married to a US Citizen). Also has a degree from Stanford in Chemistry/Geology

[Samuel]

So...would anyone care to provide some documented evidence of pygmy cannibalism, or human sacrifice, or albinos getting turned into lucky charms? Because while anyone who watches the news could tell you much of Africa is horribly broken--civil war, genocide, refugee camps, and crushing poverty everywhere--I'm not going to believe a bunch of ooga-booga stories which just conveniently match the worst Western stereotypes about Africa and Africans without proof.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8270446.stm

[MarshalPurnell]

Likewise, on the pygmies;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3869489.stm

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Ex-rebel in Liberia confesses to ripping out and eating the hearts of children.

Milton Blahyi, a former feared rebel commander in Liberia's brutal civil war, has admitted to taking part in human sacrifices as part of traditional ceremonies intended to ensure victory in battle.

Milton "General Butt Naked" Blahyi
Milton Blahyi fought Charles Taylor's forces in the war
He said the sacrifices "included the killing of an innocent child and plucking out the heart, which was divided into pieces for us to eat."

There had been numerous rumours of human sacrifices during the 1979-93 conflict but this is the first time anyone has admitted publicly to the practice.

Mr Blahyi, 37, is better known in Liberia as "General Butt Naked" because he went into combat with no clothes on, to scare the enemy.

He is now an Evangelist preacher, who prefers to use the name Joshua.

He was speaking to the BBC, after telling Liberia's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) that his forces had killed 20,000 people.

Forgiveness

Mr Blahyi said he had first become exposed to killings in 1982 when, at the age of 11, he was ordained "the traditional priest of my tribe."

He explained that when a rebellion broke out against President Samuel Doe, he had to go to war on behalf of the president, as they were from the same Krahn ethnic group.


If you have an individual admitting that he and his group killed over 20,000 people, certainly there should be a mechanism put in place for such people to face justice
Mulbah Morlue
Forum for the Establishment of a War Crimes Court
He fought against the militia of Charles Taylor, currently on trial for war crimes in The Hague.

As the traditional priest, he says he persuaded the "hesitant" political leaders of his faction to make a human sacrifice before going into battle.

"They asked me to do it in secret; but some of the sacrifices are supposed to be as a ceremony; so my boys and I made some of the sacrifices in the open."

Mr Blahyi did not say where they had found the children to be killed.

He said he thought that confessing to what he had done and asking for forgiveness could help heal the country's wounds.

"I have been looking for an opportunity to tell the true story about my life; and every time I tell people my story, I feel relieved," he said, drinking a bottle of tomato juice in the capital, Monrovia.

'Ashamed'

Mr Blahyi stopped fighting in 1996, saying God appeared to him as he was charging naked into battle and told him he was doing Satan's work.

He is now often seen preaching on street corners and churches in Monrovia.


I could be electrocuted, I could be hanged
Milton Blahyi
"I now preach against murder and making human sacrifices," he said.

"Some people see me and congratulate me.

"Others see me and say I should not be walking down the streets of Monrovia posing proud. But I continue to tell such people I am not proud, I am ashamed."

Between the time he was ordained a "traditional priest" and the time he stopped fighting, he said, "more than 20,000 people fell victim - they were killed."

Warlord

Liberia's TRC, modelled on South Africa's post-apartheid commission, began hearings earlier this month.

Some Liberians, however, say their body is too weak and argue that a war crimes court should be established - Mr Taylor is being accused by a court set up to investigate the conflict in neighbouring Sierra Leone.

Milton Blahyi
Milton Blahyi is now an evangelical preacher
"If you have an individual admitting that he and his group killed over 20,000 people, certainly there should be a mechanism put in place for such people to face justice," said Mulbah Morlue, who heads the Forum for the Establishment of a War Crimes Court in Liberia.

The war is now over but some 15,000 UN peacekeepers remain in the country.

While asking for forgiveness, Mr Blahyi says he's ready for whatever the TRC decides to do to him.

"I could be electrocuted, I could be hanged," he said. "But I think forgiveness and reconciliation is the right way to go."

He also urged other former fighters to confess their doings because "wherever they go there is a stigma on them".

But another former warlord, Prince Johnson, says he will not appear before the commission unless he is compelled to do so.

Mr Johnson, now a senator, led the forces who tortured and killed then President Doe in 1990. The video of this brutal killing is still on sale in Liberia.

He says that he has already made his peace with the Doe family but would testify at the TRC if they lodged a formal complaint.

And, let's see what else, ah, yes:

Magical Penis Theft Syndrome leads to vigilante murders

The authorities in Benin have ordered security forces to curb violence in the commercial capital, Cotonou, following the deaths of five people by vigilantes

There have been reports of at least 10 such attacks since Saturday.

Four of those who died were burned, another man was hacked to death.

Correspondents say that mobs have attacked indivduals accused of using magic to steal men's penises.

The belief that men's private parts can mysteriously disappear through a handshake or an incantation is commonplace in Benin where superstition and illiteracy are rife.

Stripped naked

The BBC's Karim Okanla in Cotonou says these attacks begin by someone screaming that that they have been robbed of their penis.


An angry mob would then descend on any passer-by deemed to look suspicious, strip them naked and then douse them in petrol before setting them alight.

No one in the crowd would stop to question their actions or ask whether the accused might possess magical powers, he says.

Our correspondent adds that there have been some lucky escapes for people.

An angry mob almost necklaced a photojournalist who happened to be passing by whilst a crowd was hunting for a suspect.

Another example, he says, was when a high school principal narrowly escaped death, after a mob objected to him sheltering a man they had been chasing in his school.

One report said three of the people torched were foreigners.

Campaign to end Fistula -- section on thousands caused by extremely violent gang rape in civil wars:

The vaginal canal can also be ruptured by violent rape. In 2003, thousands of women in eastern Congo presented themselves for treatment of traumatic fistula caused by systematic, violent gang rape that occurred during the country's five years of war. So many cases have been reported that the destruction of the vagina is considered a war injury and recorded by doctors as a crime of combat.

Another article on that subject as well as the massive rate of HIV from wartime gang rapes in the endless civil wars that sweep central Africa.