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A review by andrew_j_r
Chasing the Devil: The Search for Africa's Fighting Spirit by Tim Butcher
3.0
This is the second book by Tim Butcher that I have read, the first being Blood River, the tale of his trip across the Congo. I loved that book, it was due to my enjoying that so much that I chose to read this.
It is a similar concept, in this he is trying to replicate a journey made by Graham Greene in 1935. The second half of the book, which is the part where he walks through the forests of Liberia, is extremely intertaining to read. The problem is the first hundred or so pages, in which Butcher fills us in on his own backstory (he served as a reporter here during a war) and indeed the history of the country. Thes pages are quite hard work, I somehow wish he had been able to include thi information liberally throughout the book, rather in (what feels like) a rather solid, hard to digest lump at the start.
It is fascinating, though. Whilst nominally ruling the capital, Monrovia, the government have no authority in the rest of the country, and in reality the code of conduct for the country is controlled by a group called the Poro, who are a secret society that nobody is allowed to talk about, and despite Butchers best efforts to obtain information, you only really get a glimpse of what they are about, although you are left with absolutely no doubt as to their power, and the consequneces for doing something that they have not sanctioned. It is a frightening world, and all the more shocking because this book is a contemporary account.
So well worth reading, in places awesome, especially once you get into Liberia. I am even tempted to buy the original account of the journey by Graham Greene, which is still available, called Journey Without Maps.
It is a similar concept, in this he is trying to replicate a journey made by Graham Greene in 1935. The second half of the book, which is the part where he walks through the forests of Liberia, is extremely intertaining to read. The problem is the first hundred or so pages, in which Butcher fills us in on his own backstory (he served as a reporter here during a war) and indeed the history of the country. Thes pages are quite hard work, I somehow wish he had been able to include thi information liberally throughout the book, rather in (what feels like) a rather solid, hard to digest lump at the start.
It is fascinating, though. Whilst nominally ruling the capital, Monrovia, the government have no authority in the rest of the country, and in reality the code of conduct for the country is controlled by a group called the Poro, who are a secret society that nobody is allowed to talk about, and despite Butchers best efforts to obtain information, you only really get a glimpse of what they are about, although you are left with absolutely no doubt as to their power, and the consequneces for doing something that they have not sanctioned. It is a frightening world, and all the more shocking because this book is a contemporary account.
So well worth reading, in places awesome, especially once you get into Liberia. I am even tempted to buy the original account of the journey by Graham Greene, which is still available, called Journey Without Maps.