Despite its seemingly benevolent agenda, some people are deeply concerned by the “Kony 2012” video and the unprecedented attention it has received from the online community.
The video, focused on non-profit group Invisible Children’s campaign to arrest Joseph Kony, has become a global phenomenon since its release last Wednesday and has received as many as 65 million hits since.
Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda, an organization of rebels started in 1987 in order to overthrow the Ugandan government. His goal was to create a theocracy, a government based solely around principles in the Bible. Kony has kidnapped an estimated 30,000 children for recruitment— the young boys used as soldiers, the young girls used as sex slaves.
According to Forbes.com, Kony has abducted 60,000 people, and the LRA has been responsible for killing 2,400 people.
Kony and the LRA have moved the direction of their killings from Uganda to the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and Sudan.
For Olivia Mateso Mbala-Nkanga, an Eastern Michigan University student who immigrated to the U.S. from the DRC, the lack of information about Kony’s activity in the Congo in the video was offensive.
“Anytime that Joseph Kony has had to hide, he went into the Congo,” Mbala-Nkanga said. “He’s done more atrocities in the Congo than he’s ever done in Uganda. But no one ever talks about that. No one ever talks about the fact that the U.N. has officially called the Congo, ‘the rape capital of the world. It’s well known that the Congo is the worst place for women and children to live. Joseph Kony’s army has a lot to do with it.”
Zaineb Al-Kalby, vice president of EMU’s Muslim Student Association, wondered why Kony was gaining notoriety at a time when governments are brutally oppressing their people in the Middle East.
Al-Kalby quoted the IC’s video saying, “’Uganda is relatively safe,’ and Syria is not safe.” She said the issue seemed dated to her, and she did not understand why it is only now becoming a public concern.
“I would like to ask anybody, whether the guy who made that film or any of the politicians, any of the celebrities, why is this relevant now?” she said. “Why wasn’t this relevant two years ago? Why wasn’t this relevant 10 years ago when Kony was actually more active?”
The video’s rhetoric further concerned her. In particular, she disproved of its portrayal of activism.
“The way that was shown was like a shampoo commercial. You’re turning something that people use to make revolutions and
showing it in a way that’s fun or pop culture. It’s like somebody wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt on the red carpet. That’s not the purpose of activism. You want it to be popular because people sincerely care—not because everybody’s doing it.”
Although she appreciated the video’s message, Mbala-Nkanga expressed similar concerns to Al-Kalby’s.
“It’s nice to say all of those things about Kony, but at this point I feel like it’s just going to be a big media blitz,” Mbala-Nkanga said. “People don’t understand the gravity of the issue. They just want to do it because it’s the newest and best in armchair activism.”
Further adding to these concerns, some have questioned the IC’s spending of funds.
The IC claims to seek financial transparency in their operations. According to a chart on their website, of the almost nine million dollars they received in 2011, only 3.3 million dollars of that went to “Central African Programs.” According to the “Kony 2012” video, these programs include the rebuilding of schools and creation of jobs for the citizens of Uganda.
The other almost 6 million dollars was accounted for as such: 2.3 million dollars went to “Awareness Programs”, more than $850,000 to “Awareness Products” (the “Action Kit”), more than $290,000 went to “Fundraising” itself, and nearly $700,000 went to the “Media and Film Creation,” which leaves the other 1.4 million dollars accounted for in “Management and General” fees.
Dayo Olopade, a journalist who writes frequently about Africa, sharply criticized the IC in an editorial published by the New York Times. She said the Kony video is a “distraction” from the real issues that face the Ugandan people.
Referencing a brainstorming session she had with Hadijah Nankanja, the local director of Women of Kireka, Olopade said, “I dare suggest that time spent marshaling such reserves of imagination, communion and capital to support jobs for displaced victims is far more helpful than this sort of advocacy. The kinds of problems Hadijah is trying to understand and solve are less sexy than the horror stories trailing behind Kony. But they are the nut worth cracking.”
Furthermore, Olopade hinted this sort of external activism could be an injustice itself.
“When, as in this case, success is determined by action from outside the region, cries of a new imperialism should be taken seriously,” she said.
Despite objections to the IC’s video or their campaign to arrest Kony, Mbala-Nkanga said she hopes skeptics be mindful in their criticisms.
“I would ask the skeptics to not attack the idea behind it,” Mbala-Nkanga said. “I would ask people to start asking questions themselves. I would ask them to do research themselves, to educate themselves on the issues, before they start making snap decisions—not just take this movement at face value but understand truly what’s at stake and take that into consideration whenever they make their decisions…Be more aware of what’s going on.”
*Kody Klein contributed to the reporting of this article.
