Chasing the Devil: The Search for Africa's Fighting Spirit

Chasing the Devil: The Search for Africa's Fighting Spirit

by TimButcher (Author)

Synopsis

For decades Sierra Leone and Liberia have been too dangerous for the outsider to travel through, bedevilled by a uniquely brutal form of violence from which have sprung many of Africa's cruellest contemporary icons - child soldiers, prisoner mutilation, blood diamonds. Chasing the Devil tells the story of Tim Butcher's audacious expedition from Freetown at the mouth of the Sierra Leone river overland through forest-covered mountains and malarial plains to the coast of Liberia. His journey follows the route trekked by Graham Greene in 1935 and immortalised in his travel classic Journey Without Maps. As a journalist in Africa between 2000 and 2005 Tim came to know both countries well although reporting was restricted mostly to the capital cities. Now he ventures deep into areas not visited by outsiders for years, just as the terrible deadweight of conflict is being lifted. Both nations are on a developmental cusp and Tim explores whether national and international attempts to chase away the devil of war can succeed. And there are other 'devils' that he is in search of ...Rural communities in both countries have a tradition of sorcery and spiritualism based around the idea of a community devil, a masked figure who comes out at night inducting adolescents into society's ancient rules. And there are the far more sinister 'devil societies', run by local warlords like Charles Taylor, which carry out acts of ritual murder in rural Liberia today. Tim tracks down these rural devils, both good and bad, to see what role they play in these changing countries. A dramatic travel book through one of the most fraught parts of the globe at a unique moment in its history. Weaving history and anthropology with personal narrative it is as exciting as it is enlightening.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Edition: Airports / Ireland / Export and Waterstones ed
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Published: 02 Sep 2010

ISBN 10: 0701183616
ISBN 13: 9780701183615
Book Overview: Best-selling author of Blood River, Tim Butcher, goes back for more - this time he ventures into Sierra Leone and Liberia in the footsteps of Graham Greene. Travelogue, history, audacious adventure- it's all here.

Author Bio
Born in 1967, Tim Butcher was on the staff of the Daily Telegraph from 1990 to 2009 serving as chief war correspondent, Africa bureau chief and Middle East correspondent. His first book, Blood River, was a number one bestseller, a Richard & Judy Book Club selection and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. He is currently based in Cape Town with his family.