Phony 2012?

This week Kony 2012 has taken Facebook by storm. For those few who have been fortunate enough to remain oblivious, and think Kony sounds more like a mutant ninja turtle than an African despot, this article will outline the furore surrounding the activism group ‘Invisible Children’(IC) and the objections that this writer has to both the ‘charity’ and its campaign.

Joseph Kony was born in 1961 in Odek, northern Uganda. He rose to political prominence in the late 1980’s, establishing a core base of supporters near the town of Gulu. His first step was to form disaffected elements of the Ugandan Liberation front, exiles assembled to overthrow Idi Amin Dada (of Last King of Scotland fame), into the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). As the title might suggest, the LRA operate around quasi-religious principles, with Kony reportedly believing that God communicates with him directly. Kony’s chief purported aim is the establishment of a theocratic government, based on (an x-rated interpretation of) the Ten Commandments.

For nearly 30 years the LRA terrorised northern Uganda, with rape, looting, and murder. The mass abduction of children and their forced conscription into the ranks was just another of the LRA’s unpalatable tactics. However, in 2005 the LRA were ejected from Uganda by a major army offensive and its numbers were decimated. Kony and his remaining forces now roam South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, looting and burning as before.

Now that the key facts have been established we are in a position to analyse Invisible Children’s campaign.

IC is an activist group based in San Diego, California. In 2003 its 3 founding members, whom their website describe as ‘film makers’ by trade, travelled to Uganda in search of a story. One thing led to another and 7 years later these 3 intrepid adventurers have given birth to Kony 2012, IC’s tour de force.

Kony 2012, a half hour long visual feast, centres on the plight of Jacob, a Ugandan boy who has suffered at the hands of the LRA. The film’s primary purpose is to ‘make Kony famous’ and to encourage all kind hearted citizens of the world to put up posters and ‘draw’ Kony’s face on buildings etc. This will apparently keep up pressure on the US government to maintain a team of 100 ‘advisors’ in the country to assist the Ugandan government to capture Kony and bring him to trial at the International Criminal Court.

I will start by saying that Kony is undoubtedly a ‘bad man’. Looting and murdering like a true villain are his sole callings in life and if ever a man needed ‘taking out’ it is probably Joe. However, he is not alone, and it is worth noting that the Ugandan military, which IC looks to support as part of its anti-LRA campaign, has a lurid history of human rights violations.
Here are some of the key issues that both myself, and others, have with Kony 2012 as a concept and a campaign:

1) Misrepresentation
Award-winning Ugandan journalist Angelo Izama has declared that to call Kony 2012 ‘‘a misrepresentation is an understatement [….] its alleged portrayal of his crimes in Northern Uganda are from a bygone era.’’
The video certainly gives the impression that Kony is still at large in Uganda and that only by supporting the group and keeping pressure on the US government, to support the Ugandan military, can he be killed or captured. The truth, however, seems somewhat different. The LRA have not been in Uganda for over 6 years. They now wander South Sudan and the DRC. The impression given by the Kony 2012 video is rather different. The paragraph at 15:01 starts with the words ‘‘As the LRA began to move into other countries ….’’; This clearly portrays the facts in such a way as to suggest that the LRA have grown and expanded into neighbouring African states, rather than fleeing into them, pursued by the US advised Ugandan military.

Furthermore, in IC’s video it is clearly and unequivocally stated that the LRA possess 30,000 child soldiers. This figure is not completely incorrect, but the ‘Foreign Policy’ website (http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/07/guest_post_joseph_kony_is_not_in_uganda_and_other_complicated_things#.T1ft8wqNu14.twitter) clarifies that this refers to the total number of children abducted by the LRA since its foundation in the late 1980’s. This is another blatant misrepresentation of estimated figures to give the impression that the LRA is still a major issue in Ugandan domestic affairs.
It is almost certainly correct to suppose that IC’s campaign has noble aspirations but it does nothing for the reputation or integrity of the organisation to learn that it massages facts and figures to give a sense of immediacy to the ‘Kony problem’

2) Aims
IC claims that they wish to bring Kony to justice at the International Criminal Court; ‘‘we don't want him killed and we don't want bombs dropped. We want him alive and captured and brought to justice’’.
This is all very well but President Obama has only declared that US efforts have been focused on ‘‘removing Kony from the battlefield.’’ You, I and Osama Bin Laden know that this only means one thing. Any charitable organisation geared towards inciting the death of one man, however ‘evil’ he may be, has to be morally questionable. These fears are supported by a photo (no.3) of IC’s founders posing with soldiers of the South Sudenese army. There have also been accusations (http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/) that the whole campaign has an air of the ‘white man’s burden’ by essentially trying to mobilise bored, white, Uni students to sort out those poor Ugandans problems with just a few clicks on Facebook.

3) Merchandise

Charity Navigator only rated IC at 2/4 stars for their financial accountability and this is compounded by the fact that only 32% of money donated to the organisation makes it to ‘direct services’. Therefore if you buy the group’s $30 ‘Action Pack’ then only a meagre $9.6 dollars will make it to Africa, with the rest being lost on staplers and keeping a group of Californians in low fat Latte’s.

Perhaps the most irritating fact about IC is that it is meant to be about raising awareness about Joseph Kony by encouraging people to plaster towns and cities with IC posters of the man (http://www.facebook.com/events/376859975665707/) and by wearing red bracelets, all of which can only be acquired through the $30 ‘Action Pack’. This looks distinctly like commercialism, which is the antithesis of charity.

In conclusion, as has already been stated, I am in no doubt that IC is well meaning. However, the information in the video, the aims of the organisation and the sense of cheesy, do-gooder commercialism that pervades the whole thing are almost too much to bear.

FOR IC’S RESPONSES TO CRITICISM AIMED AT THE KONY 2012 CAMPAIGN FOLLOW (http://www.invisiblechildren.com.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/critiques.html)