Chasing the Devil: On Foot Through Africa's Killing Fields

It's hard to dislike a book that kicks off with the line "I can clearly remember receiving my first death threat." Especially when it only gets better from there.

For Tim Butcher, author of Chasing the Devil, that death threat came from Liberia, when his reporting about the possibility that the then-president's supporters might be committing acts of cannibalism unexpectedly peeved the powers that be. So it wasn't until that regime collapsed that Butcher, at the time a correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, sets out on a trek through Sierra Leone and into Liberia, following in the footsteps of Graham Greene, as chronicled in Journey Without Maps.

While not quite as compelling as Butcher's last saga of African derring-do (he retraced the show more voyage of Stanley across Africa, through the heart of the Congo), it's a fascinating glimpse at some of the countries that have been wracked by conflict in last 30 years or so and are still teetering on the verge of being failed states. But Butcher is more interested in what has happened over the long haul -- in the seven decades that have elapsed since Greene made his trek -- and in chasing ghosts of the literal and rhetorical kind. His own personal ghosts are those of two colleagues killed in Sierra Leone in the 1990s -- a fate that Butcher realized could have been his own, as he dashed from one war zone to another. But there are also the local ghosts, a reflection not only of the war but the local bush religious cults that dominate life in the hinterland of Liberia -- and may explain the cannibalism that Butcher heard of...

The author writes with empathy and thoughtfulness -- this isn't another white European looking at the natives and describing how exotic they are, but a real travel saga in which Butcher ponders the ultimately similar experiences of Liberia and Sierra Leone, both originally founded as havens for 'rescued' or freed slaves, one of which became a colony and one of which remained independent.

A fascinating book for anyone who is interested in Africa; I admit I bought it before I even knew WHAT part of Africa it was about because Butcher writes so well. This was a long-listed book for this year's Orwell prize. Highly recommended, 4.5 stars. show less

I read this book because I really liked the authors previous book, Blood River. Mr Butcher, is a much stronger and more adventurous person than I am. After the hell he endured chronicling the story for Blood River, he decided to double down and travel by foot the same path Graham Greene did in "Journey Without Maps"- from 1935. This book takes place in 2009, and in many ways the countries visited in the book: Sierra Leone, Liberia and a couple of days in Guinea, have not changed in nearly 75 years. Except to become worse. These are countries that have not had any real level of stability for the last 40 years, having been run by extremely corrupt governments who were brutally violent, against their perceived enemies, and who buried their show more countries with horrible pointless wars. Add to this the fact that this area of the world exposes people to yellow fever, Lassa, Ebola, Malaria, and lord knows what other pathogens, that the people in the West only read about, and yet the author thought walking on barely defined jungle trails would be a worthy adventure to write about. Thank god there are people like Tim Butcher, who can expose to the reader, countries like these, while also giving history and insight into why these countries are the way they are, and how sadly much of the projects and work of the UN and NGO's makes little or no difference. (My opinion, not necessarily the authors). I would love to meet this author and find out more than he divulged in the book as to why he would undertake such a difficult endeavor, as this that he wrote about in Chasing The Devil. show less

I read this book because I really liked the authors previous book, Blood River. Mr Butcher, is a much stronger and more adventurous person than I am. After the hell he endured chronicling the story for Blood River, he decided to double down and travel by foot the same path Graham Greene did in "Journey Without Maps"- from 1935. This book takes place in 2009, and in many ways the countries visited in the book: Sierra Leone, Liberia and a couple of days in Guinea, have not changed in nearly 75 years. Except to become worse. These are countries that have not had any real level of stability for the last 40 years, having been run by extremely corrupt governments who were brutally violent, against their perceived enemies, and who buried their show more countries with horrible pointless wars. Add to this the fact that this area of the world exposes people to yellow fever, Lassa, Ebola, Malaria, and lord knows what other pathogens, that the people in the West only read about, and yet the author thought walking on barely defined jungle trails would be a worthy adventure to write about. Thank god there are people like Tim Butcher, who can expose to the reader, countries like these, while also giving history and insight into why these countries are the way they are, and how sadly much of the projects and work of the UN and NGO's makes little or no difference. (My opinion, not necessarily the authors). I would love to meet this author and find out more than he divulged in the book as to why he would undertake such a difficult endeavor, as this that he wrote about in Chasing The Devil. show less

I only read half of this - and will read the other half some other time. Again it was in preparation for a trip to Sierra Leone, and it was thanks to a fortuitous interview with Tim Butcher on Radio 4's Excess Baggage. Driving along the roads of northern Sierra Leone, and through the hills above Freetown where the chimpanzee rehabilitation centre is based, and discussing the book with a VSO volunteer doctor who'd also read it before he came out there brought a lot of Tim Butcher's observations and interviews with people back to me. And it was doubly interesting since I'd just read Graham Greene too.

Part travel, part glimpse into one of Africa's bleak history and location