If you’ve been on the internet at all in recent weeks, you’ll surely have heard of the ‘viral’ phenomenon that is Kony 2012.
l didn’t know what to think when I first heard about it, but my heart began beating faster. Two things immediately came to my mind: one was that the notorious rebel leader Joseph Kony had finally been killed; the other that he could have massacred hundreds of innocent civilians in the DR Congo or the Central African Republic, the countries where he currently roams about with his Lord’s Resistance Army.
When I sat down to watch it on YouTube, I discovered it was actually a Ugandan story, an old story which should have been told a decade ago when the people in northern Uganda suffered unnoticed by the world, their cries for help unanswered.
That was until Invisible Children, an American charity, powerfully surfaced with determination to tell the world about Joseph Kony and his atrocities.
But it’s now so long after the war ended, and the people are back in their homes living their lives. The displaced persons camps no longer exist, and even the ‘invisible children’ have grown up to become men and women, some of them parents themselves, trying to forget the past and move on with their lives.
Certainly this charity and its staff have their hearts in the right place in insisting that Joseph Kony be brought to justice for the war crimes he and his cronies have committed. But they could have been more truthful and realistic, and used their fame, organisational skills and networks for helping the former ‘invisible children’ by empowering them to better their lives, something many of them are struggling to achieve given the limited resources available
In my opinion, the Kony 2012 video is grossly misleading and diverts attention from the efforts thus far made by both the Ugandan government and civil society towards the resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction of northern Uganda.
Sure, Ugandans would much appreciate whatever support they get from charities such as Invisible Children, but what they do not want is the negativity and condescending attitudes that this video has generated.
Walking in the streets of my home town of Lira in northern Uganda a couple of months ago, my interactions with relatives and friends spread across the country made clear that Kony is in the past. It’s a painful past, but people have moved on and are living normally again.
Honestly, Uganda is politically and economically stable, fairly rich with natural resources and with a strong sense of political will in support of income generating activities, from small businesses to private sector investments both local and foreign.
The IMF Regional Economic Outlook ranked Uganda as the sixth fastest growing economy in Africa between 2005-2009 and The Economist positions Uganda as the only African country in the top 10 world’s fastest growing economies in the 1990s. These reports paint a picture of stability that the Kony 2012 video completely ignores.
Campaigns of this sort should make us appreciate more the power of social media and the internet in general.
If only there was a video counter-argument to show how far Uganda and the ‘invisible children’ have come.
Susan Ongom lives in Dublin and holds an MSc degree from UCD School of Politics and International Relations.
