Book description
For many years Sierra Leone and Liberia have been too dangerous to
travel through, bedevilled by a uniquely brutal form of violence from
which sprang many of Africa's cruellest contemporary icons - child
soldiers, prisoner mutilation, blood diamonds. With their wars
officially over, Tim Butcher sets out on a journey across both
countries, trekking for 350 miles through remote rainforest and
malarial swamps. Just as he followed H M Stanley through the Congo - a
journey described in his bestseller Blood River - this time he
pursues a trail blazed by Graham Greene in 1935 and immortalised in
the travel classic Journey Without Maps. Greene took 26
bearers, a case of scotch, and hammocks in which he and his cousin
Barbara were carried. Tim walks every blistering inch to gain an
extraordinary ground-level view of a troubled and overlooked region.
As a journalist in Africa, Tim came to know both countries well
although the wars made trips to the jungle hinterland far too risky.
This is where he now heads, exploring how rebel groups thrived in the
bush for so long and whether the devil of war has truly been chased
away. He encounters other 'devils', masked figures guarding the
spiritual secrets of jungle communities. Some are no more threatening
than schoolmasters but others are much more sinister, relying on
ritual cannibalism as a source of their magical power. Tim encounters
these devils on an epic journey that demands courage, doggedness and
good fortune.
Chasing the Devil is a dramatic travel book touching on one
of the most fraught parts of the globe at a unique moment in its
history. Weaving history and anthropology with personal narrative - as
well as new discoveries about Greene - it is as exciting as it is enlightening.
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.
