The Cannibal Warlords of Liberia (Full Length Documentary)

SHANE SMITH: So is that why your nickname was General Butt Naked? SHANE SMITH: A lot of people would drink or do drugs before fighting? SHANE SMITH: Yeah. SHANE SMITH: So you killed the child? JOSHUA BLAHYI: Yes. SHANE SMITH: And then you drank the blood? JOSHUA BLAHYI: Yeah. MALE SPEAKER : [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] CROWD: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] MALE SPEAKER 1 : So what kind of war is this? Guerrilla? MALE SPEAKER 2 : World War III. SHANE SMITH: We here at Vice have been fascinated by Liberia for a long time. It's America's first and only foray into quasi-colonialism in Africa. It started as a back-to-Africa movement for freed slaves and, in fact, their constitution was written in Washington. And Monrovia, the capital city of Liberia, is actually named after President Monroe. 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 US, which lasts for about 140 years, until Samuel K. Doe, the first native African-born Liberian, was elected. But this doesn't last very long. Why? Because an American-educated-- and some would say American-backed-- rebel leader named Charles Taylor and his buddy, Prince Johnson, came from America and overthrew him. MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] MALE REPORTER : Despite reports that the government wants talks with the rebels, the violence goes on. FEMALE REPORTER : Rebel forces stormed into the center of the capital today. They are now less than a mile from the executive mansion where President Samuel Doe has barricaded himself with about 500 soldiers. SHANE SMITH: In fact, Prince Johnson had got to Doe before his buddy Charles, ended up torturing him, cutting him up, and is rumored to have eaten him while filming the whole thing. [SHOUTING] SHANE SMITH: So Charles Taylor finally gets elected with a campaign slogan that reads, "He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I'll still vote for him." And it works, he gets elected. But he's so corrupt that soon after, there's a bunch of warlords fighting for control over Liberia, the country devolves into civil war, and things go from bad to severely *** up. SHANE SMITH : But this is like a civil war on steroids. It's a post-apocalyptic Armageddon with child soldiers smoking ***, cross-dressing cannibals, systematic ***-- it's total hell on earth. [GUNFIRE] MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] MALE SPEAKER 1: We love the music. There's the music. MALE SPEAKER 2 : They call it the sound of death. MALE SPEAKER 1: Yeah, but it's the sound of music to us. SHANE SMITH: Liberia's been in the news a lot lately because Charles Taylor is on trial at The Hague for war crimes. But we wanted to know what happened to all the other warlords, so we contacted a Canadian journalist who lives in Liberia named Myles Estey, who's kind of a Kurtz-like character-- tall, skinny, skeleton guy who's had malaria more times than he's had hot dinners. And he said he could get us access to all these ex-warlords. So we said, great. We got on a plane, and we flew to Liberia. [MUSIC - THE ALMIGHTY DEFENDERS, "ALL MY LOVING"] SHANE SMITH : When you first get to Monrovia, the first thing you think is, it's really hot. It's really hot, it's really poor, and it's totally chaotic. In fact, when we went to pick up Myles, he had just gotten out the hospital with malaria. He gets in the car, and he says, are you ready to go? We're going to Baboon Town in the red light district to meet our first general, General bin Laden. So as we drove to Baboon Town, we asked Myles what's up with the name, "General bin Laden?" And he said, well, a lot of the generals took different names because they didn't want to be identified after the various wars, and these pseudonyms were meant to strike terror into the hearts of their enemies. So there's a General Rambo, because he's scary, there was a General Mosquito, because mosquitoes are terrifying because they bring malaria. The general that fought General Mosquito was named General Mosquito Spray. And of course, there's General bin Laden. In fact, there's two General bin Ladens. Our General bin Laden, we found out en route, had just been put in jail. Now, he didn't know why, but he suspected because the authorities found out that we were coming with cameras to shoot him. MYLES ESTEY: And they say they're not gonna let him out, but we can interview him in the jail and we can interview the commanders. SHANE SMITH : Let's do that. Let's go then. MYLES ESTEY: Yeah. SHANE SMITH : So the minute we arrive in Baboon Town, our car is surrounded by a bunch of sketchy dudes. So when Myles came back and said we could interview bin Laden in the police station, I was like, yeah, let's get out of here and get in there really quick. So we get into the police station, and it's chaos. Some guards are saying you can go see him, other guards are saying you can't go see him, and we just have to sit there and wait. SHANE SMITH: I like being in the police station. It's nice. [MONKEY SCREECHING] SHANE SMITH: Monkey. Little monkey. He's got ***, I think, or something. Hi. What's wrong with the monkey? Why is the monkey here? SHANE SMITH: Why is the monkey here? [MONKEY SCREECHES] SHANE SMITH: We're in a police station in the middle of the red light district to meet General bin Laden, and I'm wondering why the monkey's here. [SHANE SMITH SIGHS] SHANE SMITH : Then eventually, after sitting there for a while, we realized, oh, we've got to grease some palms. So we gave them some money and ***-- we were back into the jail and we could talk to bin Laden. Hey, bin Laden? GENERAL BIN LADEN : Yeah? SHANE SMITH : How are you? MYLES ESTEY : This is my friend, Shane. SHANE SMITH : Shane. GENERAL BIN LADEN: [INAUDIBLE]. Yeah. SHANE SMITH: Nice to meet you. We're gonna try to get you out of here now, and then we can go back. SHANE SMITH: All right. We're gonna do it right now. GENERAL BIN LADEN: Now. SHANE SMITH: OK. MYLES ESTEY: Yeah, I know what he did. We're talking about to get him out, what do we have to do? MYLES ESTEY: To who? MALE SPEAKER : OK, we'll stop. We'll stop. SHANE SMITH : Video's off. OFFICER : --without the permission. MALE SPEAKER : It's off. SHANE SMITH : The video's off. He's carrying-- he's just holding it right now. MYLES ESTEY : Look, we're good people. We're good-- nobody's recording anything. MYLES ESTEY : Sure, I can give him cash and-- can we pay him and pay you a fine? And then take him? OFFICER : Fine. MYLES ESTEY : OK, great. OFFICER : That's good. MYLES ESTEY : OK. SHANE SMITH : OK, let's go, let's go, let's go. Let's go, let's go, let's go. OK, let's go, let's go. MALE SPEAKER: Hey, yeah-- you! SHANE SMITH: We went in there-- we're being followed by the police right now. SHANE SMITH: Yeah, we might have to change tapes or do something, because-- what we do is we shoot cars-- MALE SPEAKER : Yeah, that's-- SHANE SMITH: --and if they come, we can give them the tape. There's nothing on the tape. SHANE SMITH: Yeah. We do, right now. GENERAL BIN LADEN: We'll go to my warehouse. SHANE SMITH: OK. GENERAL BIN LADEN: Don't worry about that. SHANE SMITH: Our trip is getting progressively heavier. SHANE SMITH: Yeah, that'll be good. GENERAL BIN LADEN: We're going on top of the building. SHANE SMITH: OK. I'm kind of a little bit worried that the police are gonna come get us right now. I gave them a fake name and fake number. SHANE SMITH: OK, nice to meet you. SHANE SMITH: Nice to meet you. SHANE SMITH: Thank you. Thank you. So after we got bin Laden out of jail, he was very excited to get us up to his rooftop and tell us his story. And according to him, the ex-generals, who are now the community leaders, are the only ones doing anything to help the people. SHANE SMITH: So maybe you could explain a little bit about-- so first of all, you became known as bin Laden during the war? GENERAL BIN LADEN: During the war. SHANE SMITH: And then after the war, now you're sort of trying to help people by carpentry and by karate. GENERAL BIN LADEN: Karate. SHANE SMITH: Do you get any money here? SHANE SMITH: No, but the UN or the government doesn't give you any money? SHANE SMITH : Nothing? SHANE SMITH: And is this area-- this is red light here? GENERAL BIN LADEN: It's a red light. This is red light. SHANE SMITH: And is it-- is there a lot of crime in red light? MALE SPEAKER : Oh yeah. GENERAL BIN LADEN : Yeah, it's-- this is red light. SHANE SMITH : Red light. SHANE SMITH : So Myles comes over, stops the interview, and says, we have to get the *** out of here now. Bin Laden looks down and he goes, yeah, yeah, those aren't my guys. You guys should really go. SHANE SMITH : So bin Laden gave us an escort, and a couple of his guys got us through the crowd to the car, and we got the *** out. SHANE SMITH : So let's go. Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go. Holy *** ***. That was out of hand. We gotta get out of here. There was some heavy duty Libs there, boy. So after meeting and being freaked out by General bin Laden, we wanted to see what the UN and government were doing to rebuild Liberia. We met a local journalist named Nagbe, and we asked him, and he said, you want to the government and UN are doing? I'll take you to West Point. West Point is the worst slum in Liberia, which makes it one of the worst slums in West Africa, which makes it one of the worst slums in the world. Now, when you first get there, the first thing you want to do is get the hell out. It's open sewers everywhere-- ***, ***, garbage, everything mixed in-- and the stench is overpowering. SHANE SMITH : Oh, dude. It really stinks here. SHANE SMITH : But, I mean, one of the first basic rules is don't *** where you eat. IMMANUEL NAGBE: That's it, but-- SHANE SMITH: That's a number one rule. SHANE SMITH: But the government has to do something about that. SHANE SMITH: Mm-hmm. So even in one of the worst slums of Western Africa, you see the cultural impact that America has there. All the kids are wearing Biggie or Tupac t-shirts. In fact, one kid came up to us and said, hey, I'm a rapper. Can I rap for you? And we said yes. And it wasn't about bling, and it wasn't about Cristal. SHANE SMITH: And is there a lot of malaria in here? SHANE SMITH : Needless to say, in West Point, health conditions are foul. Disease is everywhere-- malaria, infections, and AIDS are rampant. SHANE SMITH : Cover up for ***. SHANE SMITH : Wow. IMMANUEL NAGBE: So a big business. SHANE SMITH: We heard stories that during the war, the rebels would go out in boats with diamonds and trade the diamonds for weapons and ***, and there was a lot of Colombians and Mexicans. SHANE SMITH: We find it interesting because *** and *** are very expensive drugs, and so we were surprised to find *** here. Usually in poorer countries, there's speed or *** or things you can make. SHANE SMITH: Why is that? [BABY CRYING] MALE SPEAKER: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] MALE SPEAKER : You got to smoke this up. MALE SPEAKER : [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] MALE SPEAKER : [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] MALE SPEAKER : [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SHANE SMITH: Liberian dollars or-- IMMANUEL NAGBE: Liberian dollars. SHANE SMITH: So how much is that? SHANE SMITH : So because of the poverty, a lot of women have to become prostitutes? IMMANUEL NAGBE: Yes. SHANE SMITH: Sex worker. IMMANUEL NAGBE: We can go this way. SHANE SMITH: No, you can just show it to us. SHANE SMITH : The legacy of civil war in Liberia is staggering. It's the fourth-poorest country in the world. 50% of the country is illiterate, 70% of the female population has been ***, 80% of the population is unemployed, and a large percentage of the population has eaten human flesh. MALE SPEAKER: It tastes like real meat. If you taste it, you'd like to eat it every day. You want to see some piece? SHANE SMITH : Now one of the warlords responsible for these atrocities, who fought in all three civil wars, is a guy named General Rambo, who we picked up at a market. He said, I'll talk to you if you take me to the old headquarters of the rebel factions outside of town. SHANE SMITH : When did the hotel stop working? SHANE SMITH : Because of the war. GENERAL RAMBO : When the war came. SHANE SMITH : Yeah. SHANE SMITH : Yeah. GENERAL RAMBO: Yes, it happened. SHANE SMITH: So you were one of the ones that came in to take out Taylor? GENERAL RAMBO: Yes. SHANE SMITH : And then, at one point, the American government came to try to get you to go to Iraq? SHANE SMITH: Yeah. SHANE SMITH: American. SHANE SMITH : Yeah. And so when there was Iraq, it was like, OK, let's go. We can help. So what happened? SHANE SMITH : The government wouldn't let you go? SHANE SMITH: Do you think it's a problem that you have all these ex-combatants who grew up fighting-- you fought in three wars-- they have no money, they have no job, and isn't that a problem? GENERAL RAMBO: It's a big problem. SHANE SMITH: So they're still there with the guns? GENERAL RAMBO: Yeah, they're still there with the guns. The war is hot. SHANE SMITH : So if the rebel forces wanted, they could take over tomorrow? SHANE SMITH: Two or three hours? GENERAL RAMBO: Sure. SHANE SMITH: Wow. SHANE SMITH : And do you think there's a possibility of that happening? GENERAL RAMBO: Yes. SHANE SMITH : So what Rambo is saying is, there's still plenty of guns in Liberia, and him, or someone like him, can take over Monrovia in two hours if the UN leaves, and the UN is scheduled to leave next year. And as we said our goodbyes to Rambo, we told him we were going back to West Point. SHANE SMITH : Yeah? SHANE SMITH: Cannibalism, chaos, killing, ***, everything. GENERAL RAMBO : Everything. SHANE SMITH : A few years ago, we did an article in Vice Magazine called "General Butt Naked Versus the Tupac Army," about a particularly fierce Liberian warlord called Butt Naked who fought naked, his child soldiers fought naked, and they were cannibals. So we asked Rambo if he knew him by chance, and he said, in fact, we're from the same tribe, I know him well. He promised to set up an interview while we did our follow-up in the brothels of West Point. [CAR HONKING] SHANE SMITH: Driving into West Point at night is pretty freaky. There's no electricity grid in Monrovia, so it's pitch black. SHANE SMITH: Hit it on the wall. Hit it on the wall. So this is the craziest, *** scariest drive ever down here. We got a little bit lost in the port, and you couldn't see anything, there's no electricity. And then you just see people wandering around, *** ***, ***-- *** yelling at us, we want money, we want money. Now there's no lights in here. We're gonna go in here, this is the brothel. We're gonna see what's going on. Hello. How are you? A lot of dudes are coming in now, it's crazy. I don't know where we're going. MALE SPEAKER : Straight. SHANE SMITH: Straight. Wow. That room looks-- MALE SPEAKER : Now we're in chalet number five. SHANE SMITH: I don't know what happens in here, but I don't want to know. Wow. What the *** goes on in here, dude? Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Well, we were here a little bit earlier. There was used condoms and bloodstained sheets, and now they've sort of done it up. So we're gonna interview some of the girls, see what they have to say. We have a code for when something's freaky. We go, "It's gnar gnar." Gnar gnar. SHANE SMITH : One of the things we had heard since we arrived in Liberia was about the alleged *** misconduct by the UN staff, so we asked the girls at the brothel about it. IMMANUEL NAGBE: OK, paradise. FEMALE SPEAKER: I wanted to get me a job. IMMANUEL NAGBE: Yeah. FEMALE SPEAKER: For myself. IMMANUEL NAGBE: What sort of work do you do in West Point now? IMMANUEL NAGBE: OK. IMMANUEL NAGBE: All right. IMMANUEL NAGBE: OK. IMMANUEL NAGBE: OK. FEMALE SPEAKER: Now. IMMANUEL NAGBE: All right. We were talking-- listen to me. IMMANUEL NAGBE: Listen to me and sit down. Now listen. IMMANUEL NAGBE: Listen. SHANE SMITH : As soon as the girl started screaming, a bunch of heads popped into the room. And then when she started screaming about money, everyone's going, money, money, money, where's the money? And at that point, Nagbe said to us, you'd better get the hell out of here. So we sort of took off through the tangled alleyways and just tried to get back to the car. SHANE SMITH: We're getting the *** out here right now. And when we got to the car, our driver-- who was also supposed to be our security-- was so freaked out that he peeled out and nearly hit a group of people that had surrounded the car. SHANE SMITH : And if you hit a group of people down deep in West Point, that was it. It was a death sentence. They would have tore us apart. [CAR HONKING] SHANE SMITH : And to make things even freakier, as we're pulling out of West Point, Rambo texts Myles and says, not only does Butt Naked want to do the interview, but that he's waiting at our hotel for us. Yeah, now we're going back to sanity, to hang out with an ex-cannibal and multi-murderer, who's now staying at our hotel and decided not to leave. Because they were there-- they want us to hang out. Meanwhile, he knows I have tons of money, and he's on the run because people want to kill him. Should I just leave my door open, General? Do you want to come in? SHANE SMITH : Now we are very nervous to meet General Butt Naked, and he's very nervous to meet us, because he's had several assassination attempts against him. He wants to meet us and vet us before he'll OK an interview. When we told him about our escape from West Point that night, he laughed, and he seemed to ease up. After that, he asked for a phone, he called Rambo, and it was on. JOSHUA BLAHYI: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] GENERAL RAMBO : Yeah? JOSHUA BLAHYI: [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] JOSHUA BLAHYI: Yeah, some white guys. They are good guys. The guy's a good guy, man. Tell the boss lady hi, yeah? SHANE SMITH : We asked the general, now known as Joshua Blahyi, why people were trying to kill him, and he told us that it was because he had been recently pardoned for his war crimes. And when we asked how he got pardoned, he told us it was his conversion to Christ and his becoming a man of God. SHANE SMITH : So we talked with Joshua late into the night, until he told us to get to bed because the next day he was going to show us his Liberia. [SINGING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE] SHANE SMITH: In the morning, Joshua Blahyi took us out, and the first stop was the area within Monrovia that he used to control during the war. SHANE SMITH : And who would be attacking? SHANE SMITH: Alive? JOSHUA BLAHYI: Yes. SHANE SMITH: And what does that do? SHANE SMITH : The next stop was the place where there had been an assassination attempt on Joshua's life just the day before. SHANE SMITH : And he just-- he hit you and then ran? JOSHUA BLAHYI: Yeah. Yeah. SHANE SMITH : You jumped over the car? JOSHUA BLAHYI: Yeah, jumped over the car. SHANE SMITH : And who do you think it was? SHANE SMITH : Hurt a lot of people in the war? JOSHUA BLAHYI: In the war. SHANE SMITH : Next, Joshua wanted to show us his mission in the country, where he was rehabilitating ex-child soldiers. SHANE SMITH : And are there are a lot of people who fought during the war that can't get rid of the violence? JOSHUA BLAHYI: It's very hard. SHANE SMITH: Very hard. JOSHUA BLAHYI: It takes time to get rid of the violence. SHANE SMITH: Yeah. How did you get rid of the violence? SHANE SMITH: Yeah. SHANE SMITH : OK. JOSHUA BLAHYI: Come, you can look at-- come, come and see. SHANE SMITH: Nobody brought bug juice. [LAUGHING] SHANE SMITH: No, no, no, no. It's OK. Well, I don't mind getting wet. SHANE SMITH : About a million people in Africa die every year from malaria, and malaria thrives in swamps exactly like this. SHANE SMITH: It's very sploochly on my moochly. Thanks. Good. Hello. MALE SPEAKER: Hello. SHANE SMITH: This is what all fear stems from. Thank you. So these were some of the boys that you fought with before, or no? SHANE SMITH: Yeah. So is that why your nickname was General Butt Naked? SHANE SMITH: A lot of people would drink or do drugs before fighting? SHANE SMITH: So you killed the child-- JOSHUA BLAHYI: Yes. SHANE SMITH: --and then you drank the blood? JOSHUA BLAHYI: Yeah. SHANE SMITH : Now why would you fight naked? [MEN SINGING] SHANE SMITH: This is his mission that they're building. They're singing now. MALE SPEAKERS : [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] JOSHUA BLAHYI : Welcome to our home. SHANE SMITH : Thank you. SHANE SMITH: So you fought for Charles Taylor and-- SHANE SMITH: Johnson. So you were enemies before? JOSHUA BLAHYI : Yeah, we're enemies. SHANE SMITH : Yeah. SHANE SMITH : Where are we right now? SHANE SMITH: Cemetery. SHANE SMITH: So this is the cemetery where, after the war, there was nowhere to live, so the people would come in, empty out the graves, and live in the graves. Maybe up to about 4,000 people lived in the graves. SHANE SMITH: It's a very heavy vibe. Empty graves everywhere. [MUSIC PLAYING] SHANE SMITH: We were just at lunch, we were talking about-- we ordered some ribs, and you said, "No, I don't like to eat--" JOSHUA BLAHYI: Flesh. SHANE SMITH: "--flesh." And I said, "Why don't you like to eat flesh?" And you told me the story about coming back from Nigeria. Could you tell us that story? SHANE SMITH: You were eating human flesh? SHANE SMITH : What would you eat? SHANE SMITH : Yeah. JOSHUA BLAHYI : Yeah. SHANE SMITH : Yeah. OK. JOSHUA BLAHYI: Yeah. SHANE SMITH: We're talking about eating human flesh in a graveyard. It's a bit weird. JOSHUA BLAHYI: Yeah. SHANE SMITH: OK. So we can go. [JOSHUA BLAHYI SINGING] PREACHER : In Jesus' father name! CONGREGATION : Amen! PREACHER : In Jesus' father name! CONGREGATION : Amen! [MUSIC PLAYING] [APPLAUSE] PREACHER : Let it be done in Jesus' name. CONGREGATION : Amen. PREACHER : In Jesus' mighty name. CONGREGATION : Amen. PREACHER: God bless you. Put your hands together for Jesus. [APPLAUSE] PREACHER: Hallelujah. Hallelujah. OK. God bless you. Amen. [APPLAUSE] [MUSIC PLAYING, SINGING] SHANE SMITH : Liberia, on the one hand, has more crime and poverty and *** and cannibalism than you've ever seen. But on the other, it's also got a church on every street corner, every car has a religious slogan, they have huge revivals with tens of thousands of worshipers. It's some sort of weird heaven-and-hell scenario. [CHEERING] [CHEERING] FEMALE SPEAKER : [SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] [MUSIC PLAYING, SINGING] SHANE SMITH : While hanging out with Joshua, I started to get a bit of Stockholm syndrome, because he's charming, the churches are nice, there's not as much danger. And I started to like him. [MUSIC PLAYING, SINGING] SHANE SMITH : But as he was preaching, I thought to myself, this guy has killed tens of thousands of people. In fact, he's probably killed the relatives of the people in the church worshipping and adoring him now. And I'm thinking to myself, what the *** is going on? [MUSIC PLAYING, SINGING] FEMALE SPEAKER : Hallelujah! FEMALE SPEAKERS : Amen! [APPLAUSE] SHANE SMITH: I just want to say thank you for having me in your church. Praise God. And I'd like to say thank you to Joshua Blahyi for all the good work he's doing. Hopefully, we can help, and hopefully, we can show what we're doing here in Liberia, what you're doing in Liberia, and we can help make it better and bring more awareness to what's happened here. JOSHUA BLAHYI: Amen. [APPLAUSE] SHANE SMITH : I have to admit that when Joshua handed me the mic, I had no idea what I was saying. At that point in the trip, I felt like I was on acid. [APPLAUSE] [MUSIC PLAYING, SINGING] JOSHUA BLAHYI: [SINGING] I worship you because of who you are. [MUSIC - THE ALMIGHTY DEFENDERS, "ALL MY LOVING"] SHANE SMITH : And as I sat and listened to Joshua preach, I thought about the fact that the UN is leaving in less than a year, and Rambo had told us that the generals are ready to fight. They have the soldiers, they have the guns, and they're living in abject poverty. And I wondered if that happened, would Joshua stay with God, or would he return to being General Butt Naked? JOSHUA BLAHYI: Somebody shout "Glory!" CONGREGATION : Glory! JOSHUA BLAHYI: Let us pray. [MUSIC - THE ALMIGHTY DEFENDERS, "ALL MY LOVING"]