Kony Baloney

Link storm!

In case you missed it, there's a heated discussion going on about Kony 2012, a campaign started by the charity Invisible Children.  The campaign's goal?  Make sure Joseph Kony, head of the Lord's Resistance Army (a guerilla group that began in northern Uganda and now operates in South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but NOT in Uganda), is captured and brought before the ICC for trial before the year is out.  The LRA has a history of killing or mutilating children, and of kidnapping them for use as soldiers or sex slaves.

So, arrest the brutal warlord, save the invisible children of Africa.  So far, so good, right?  And it's tough to deny that Invisible Children's campaign video, also called Kony 2012, is a beautiful piece of work.  It does tug the heartstrings exactly as it was intended to.

Enter the controversy.  Here are some of the key problems that have been brought up regarding the campaign:

1)  Invisible Children's plan is... kinda vague.  What exactly is the charity planning to do to faciliate the arrest of a guerilla leader in central Africa?  Um... take him on with the power of bracelets!  I'm kidding, but not by much.  Most of Invisible Children's funding goes towards raising awareness.  Give $30, and you get a Kony 2012 bracelet and activism "kit".  Now, for some causes, raising awareness is the most crucial step towards addressing the issue, but that really only applies when the people unaware of the problem are the people who can do something about it.  To be fair, Invisible Children's idea is that if enough Americans know about Kony and the atrocities of the LRA, they will put pressure on the government to sent military advisors to Uganda, which will ensure that the Ugandan military can finally bring Kony to justice.

Except... President Obama totally sent a group of 100 advisors to Uganda back in November for exactly this purpose (a move that's analysed in detail in this excellent Foreign Affairs article).

Ooops.

2)  Invisible Children's plan is... kinda worrying.  Okay, the advisors are already in place, so... what exactly is Invisible Children pushing for?  Answers have differed slightly - they're afraid the mission will be cancelled without public pressure (odd, since it was initiated without public pressure), or they want the mission to be expanded.  The charity has, however, cleared things up somewhat with an open letter to President Obama, detailing how it believes the US should support the Ugandan military.

There's a good analysis of some of the strategic problems with this plan here, but the biggies are that Invisible Children's ideas would require a lot of money and (worse) a massive push for the US to militarise central Africa, and that Invisible Children believes that the best way to proceed is by giving intelligence, military hardware, and strategic support to the Ugandan military.  What's wrong with that, you might ask?  Welllll, a few things - for starters, Uganda's military hasn't been successful in finding Kony so far, and Ugandan soliders been accused of abuses against civilians in neighbouring countries during their previous efforts to hunt Kony down, which means that they're not going to be able to follow Kony into other states without serious backlash.  Also, the Ugandan army has a history of human rights abuses almost as long as the LRA's.

Oh, and in case you missed the part earlier about Joseph Kony not being in Uganda, JOSEPH KONY IS NOT IN UGANDA.  You can read about it in this article from Foreign Policy, "Joseph Kony Is Not In Uganda".

All of which leads us to point number 3.

3)  Joseph Kony is not in Uganda.  Sorry, couldn't resist. :)  But that's basically the crux of it - Invisible Children massively simplifies the entire issue, and the entire web of issues facing both Uganda and the central African region.  And in simplifying, they get things wrong.  Subtle things, like the way an expanded US and local military presence probably wouldn't be the healthiest thing for Ugandan society, and basic things.  Like the fact that Joseph Kony isn't in Uganda.

(Okay, to be fair, the video does state - briefly - that the LRA no longer operates in Uganda.  However, as long as Invisible Children continues to talk about this as if it's just a Ugandan issue, and continues to tout supporting the Ugandan military as the only solution, I'm going to keep making this joke.)

And that brings us to point number 4.

4)  This is some pretty patronising stuff.  Invisible Children's approach suggests that Africa as a whole needs rescuing, and that not only is it the place of concerned Americans to do so, but we're the only ones who can.  (Because, naturally, US advice and support = instant solution, right?)  In the Kony 2012 video, we hear a lot about the invisible children of Uganda.  We hear very little about the adults of Uganda - the history of the conflict, the solutions that have been tried in the past, and what the situation is today.  The implication is that, essentially, nothing has been accomplished - or will be accomplished - without Western intervention.  Here is a list of responses from African and African-born American writers that collectively blow that idea out of the water.  (Even if you don't read them all, watch the video from Ugandan blogger Rosebell Kagumire.  She says all of this much better than I could.)

I realise that this last point may sound a little hypocritical, coming from someone who works on international development.  And, yeah, I understand that it's all too easy to tip over into the mindset of, "I'm here to save the world!  I'm here to rescue people!  I'm here to accomplish XYZ for the people of this country!"  But that really accomplishes nothing, except (if you're not careful) to replace local tyranny with the imported variety, cloaked in charitable concern.  I believe - although I know it's debatable - that there is a place for Westerners to volunteer their time, expertise, technology, funding, and advice to help people in developing countries deal with specific issues.  However, it only works if you put what you have at the disposal of the people you want to help, to use as they see fit, in a way that makes sense for their culture and goals.

Honestly, I think Invisible Children is a well-intentioned group, and they certainly have a talent for generating public interest.  I just think it's a shame that that energy is being spent on such a flawed idea.  However, I'm legitimately psyched about the excellent level of discussion that's been going on around this issue.  One of my favourite bloggers said simply, "The video is not informative, but the debate is informative."  Damn right it is, and it's sparked some great writing about politics, warfare, charity, and society, including (but not at all limited to) the articles I've linked here.  Go check them out!

Okay, one more link:  This article brings up the interesting suggestion that the ICC's indictment of Kony in the first place was the wrong move, as it scuppered ongoing peace negotiations between the Ugandan government and the LRA.  However, I'm including it not only for that, but also because of this line:

Unfortunately, the U.S. organization behind the anti-Kony viral video and click-based fundraising capaign, Invisible Children, wasn’t actually asking for money to have a hit man take out Mr. Kony, head of the Lord’s Resistance Army. That would have been a valuable goal. The idea of a crowd-sourced hit job, with tens of millions of people serving as accessories to the crime, has considerable appeal. 

Crowd-sourced assassinations.  Best idea for a novel ever, or best idea for a novel ever?

(One more link, I lied:  There's a Kony 2012 drinking game.  Eat a cookie every time Africans are depicted as having agency.  Psyche!  You don't get any cookies!)