I’ve been researching attitudes to nudity around the world, and one of the stranger stories I came across was that of General Butt Naked, aka Joshua Milton Blahyi. In the early 1990s, in the Liberian Civil War, he became known for his atrocities, but also for the practice of having his soldiers go to war naked, the idea being that it would terrorise the enemy (and, exceptionally oddly, that being naked made them bulletproof).

He was, without doubt, evil. Since the end of that civil war he has recast himself as a pastor, and he’s been the subject of a film, The Redemption of General Butt Naked.

You can watch the full movie here…

It’s harrowing, as it really brings home the full horror of a war that utilised child soldiers.

Blahyi was a soldier serving under the equally horrendous Charles Taylor, who campaigned for the Liberian Presidency (and won) under the banner ‘he killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him’ !!

This is definitely one of the more weird aspects of nudity as a ‘weapon’.

Of course, nude protest in Africa has a long history and tradition, at least back to 1929.  and the likes of Femen utilising nude protest in recent years owes a debt to this history.

Often, it seems that the thinking behind nude protest is that it represents a curse, and that women can take life away (through the curse) as well as creating it.

Ugandan women protest against a land grab by stripping naked.

Women protest outside the ANC’s offices in South Africa

While we often think of nudity being symbolic of a form of western protests -the WNBR being a prime example- it seems that Africa also has its own unique take on nude protest.

 Some WNBR photos, protesting against oil dependency 

While WNBR is ‘fun’ to highlight a specific concern, sometimes nude protest occurs in response to serious matters, such as the murder of Mexican students last year.

 

Ella covered the topic of these murders in SL Naturist last year.

 

 

Trine