To those who have been moved to action by the Kony 2012 video, which has now gained widespread attention, you’re not helping the situation in Uganda.
Though the campaign is certainly commendable for its use of modern technology and social networking to spread its message and mobilize people to support its cause, I feel it deserves no more praise beyond that. I’d hope any critically thinking human being could recognize why.
The movement encourages everyone to lobby policy-makers to support the Ugandan military in capturing the Lord Resistance Army (LRA)’s Joseph Kony so he can be tried for war crimes he committed over the course of a brutal 25-year conflict in Northern Uganda.
They aim to achieve this by drawing attention to Kony through a half-hour long viral video. The hope is that, as a result, they’ll pressure western governments to send reinforcements to the Ugandan military and keep them there as long as necessary to help capture him.
Many seem to think that, should this campaign succeed, Northern Uganda will become a safer place for the men, women and children who live there. However, two things should be taken into consideration.
First, as I hope many would know by now, the LRA has been largely inactive in Uganda for the past six years, numbering somewhere in the hundreds, and most of their atrocities are being committed on a smaller scale in South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, or the Central African Republic, according to The Telegraph.
Second and more importantly, people in Uganda generally oppose this campaign, as travel blogger Amber Ha pointed out in the Alcholi Times, having interviewed locals on the topic when she visited Uganda.
On the surface, Kony 2012 is admirable. The video campaign has clearly been effective — everyone and their mother now know who Joseph Kony is. The campaign is engaging many western youth who normally wouldn’t be thinking about global affairs.
But I think Teddy Ruge, a Ugandan blogger and founder of Project Diaspora, sums up the underlying problems rather nicely. In a recent blog post, he wrote that it’s generally wrong to “assume that people you are trying to help 1) want your help, 2) need your help, or 3) can’t help themselves.”
Kony 2012 is perpetuating the classic neo-colonial narrative of affluent, morally righteous western heroes who must intervene in the damned African continent in order to “save” Africans.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. Kony has certainly committed horrible acts that shouldn’t simply be ignored. The problem is we can’t just assume bringing Kony to justice is the most pressing issue that the people of Uganda are facing at this point in time. Furthermore, the narrative of Kony 2012 undermines the ingenuity and capability of the Ugandan people.
Survivors of the conflict have lived through more than most human beings in the western world could imagine. They understand their own hardships better than anyone else, and yet the members of Invisible Children wish to impose on them their own ideas of what should be done.
Kony 2012 is perpetuating an image of Africa as a war-torn continent that’s in dire need of our western altruistic assistance. Attempting to put myself in the shoes of a person from Uganda, if I was portrayed as a helpless victim in need of assistance from young North Americans whose only knowledge of my country consists of its past conflicts, and nothing of its future promise as demonstrated by its current peace and economic growth, I’d be upset as well.
Imagine for a moment that the only thing the world knew about Canada was that we had interned Japanese immigrants during World War Two. Or that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, we took aboriginal children away from their families only to be abused in residential schools. Focusing on the negative aspects of a country’s past is insulting to its citizens. Yet, this is what Invisible Children is doing in Uganda.
So, who is really benefiting from this campaign? The short answer is the people who are now avid supporters of it, purchasing their $30 action kits, pleased with themselves for making a difference in the world.
Although there’s nothing wrong with the intention to do good, as Ruge has put it, “If you want to help, keep the guilt and charity in your own backyard. Bring instead, respect, humility, and let us determine our destiny.”
— Darren Major
third-year public affairs and policy management
