The Redemption Of General Butt Naked: Transferring From A Warlord To Pastor
It is tough know that a cruel warlord is able to kill numerous innocent people just because of vying for power and cruel ambition. Blahyi transferred from a warlord to pastor following his religious conversion. Now he is trying to seek for forgiveness from victims of his sin. One is to redeem himself and second is to follow his faith. Due to war, people are losing family members and hopes. In this situation, Blahyi helped his victims to find life goals and hopes. However, his sin created huge barrels for his country’s development and endless abyss in people’s hearts.
At the beginning of the film, Joshua Milton Blahyi was begging for forgiveness from a young woman. He said that he killed her brother out of his madness. As a result, he promised he would do anything for her because of his 100 percent guilty for all the things he did in the past. Since he participated in this independent documentary movie, he wanted to reconstruct his life story and tried to rebuild his good image and to show it to the world. However, what he has done is irreparable and sinful. The means he used in this war is cruel and bloody. He made people believe that being naked will help them become faster and invulnerable. People will believe that even they killed someone, that person will live in another movie. This kind of brainwash also becomes his method of ruling the country, full of delusion and sorrow. It is a little hilarious when these words came out from his mouth because later a citizen said that Blahyi was faking due to his rapid changes. As the citizen said that ‘After ten years, a true prophet will never hide. He’ll be seen’, people are still not believing in what Blahyi is doing right now.
The biggest barrel for independence, emergence of new democracies in Africa and African leadership is that they are not willing to indeed admit their sin. There are enough evidence and reasons why people are not trusting these war crimes. ‘You have to forgive me. ’ And Joshua has said that ‘I don’t care about prosecution. I don’t care about any court. Jesus has assured my freedom’. Firstly, what Blahyi said was still a command of a general, not as a preacher. He wanted and forced people to forgive him. From others’ perspectives, he was still a warlord with no regret. Believing in his faith which made himself think that he will be forgiven. Most importantly, he escaped when the TRC report recommends amnesty for Joshua. It is a direct death threat, so he ran away and left his wife and children. When he returned, people believed that what he did so far was still selfish and self-benefit. He was begging for a self-comfort instead of true forgiveness. All these medias and YouTube videos are also means for him to show his fake redemption.
Another ex-warrior, 2011 presidential candidate senator Prince Johnson said that ‘If we start bringing our past, out ugly past, as a nation, into the present. Our future will be doomed. ’ Then a citizen said that ‘If a man like Prince Johnson and Joshua is not held accountable for what he did, there will be a cycle of violence. ’ Johnson is still not ready to face his crimes. When someone made a mistake, he did not admit it and even trying to be presidential candidate senator. No one will believe in him which makes African states and statesmen face trust issues. People are losing hope and trust in them. The most basic foundations of a country are comprehension and trust of citizens. Both these war crimes showed different levels of not being responsible for what they have done. Johnson directly denied his sin and thought that he had not done too much sinful actions.
On the other hand, Joshua Blahyi was faking his redemption and tried to engage with medias so that he could be able to rebuilt his image and hopefully reconstruct his country. They were really cunning because most people of his country are not familiar with internet and medias. Their new media strategy is that they only operate one electricity generators in their nation. To the whole world, using the medias properly can also will rebuild their images. All these actions are not showing a proper sense of responsibility. It is hard for people to believe in their leaders again. As long as this issue is not fixed, country will not be independent and people will always live in a fake nation full of lies. Emergence of new democracies will also be delayed forever.
In conclusion, using ‘old’ media accounts of their lives as warlords may establish their credibility but cannot make it persuasive. People will never know when they will change rapidly just like this time. What if Blahyi becomes a cruel warlord again? What they know is that Blahyi is only using his faith as a reason to make and force people to forgive him. To the world, Blahyi is trying to be an honest person.
