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| Wilkinson Road, Freetown, Sierra Leone / February 2005 |
It seems fitting
Buffalo Surf should wade into the Kony2012 debate. This blog’s author is funded
in part by a pay cheque earned in the development sector with a faith-based
organization, so it would seem fair comment. (While I wrote this back in the
middle of March, technological glitches have continued to hound this blog
space.) Thus a brief recap is in order. Invisible Children is an American NGO
that believes Joseph Kony, leader of the Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA),
is a war criminal because among other appalling acts he reportedly kidnaps
children to serve as child soldiers, sexually brutalizes his victims and
tortures those who don’t comply. So Invisible Children made a video in the
hopes that Kony2012 will
galvanize the world into sustained and unified protest, leading to Kony’s
immediate arrest and speedy trial before the International Criminal Court in
The Hague.
Except that Kony2012 is another dumbed down,
Manichean mess of “us and them” propaganda. After ingesting this unimaginative
and manipulative film aimed at 7-year-olds (you know, Africa is so complicated), the armchair slacktavists
will know just what to do. Cue to smiling white university students selling
plastic bracelets on campus because clearly the “Africans” themselves haven’t
done anything to stop this monster.
Invisible
Children also has invisible, but deep, roots as a faith-based nongovernmental
organization, staffed by clean-scrubbed, young college grads who say things
like “gosh” and burst into spontaneous group prayer. Which is fine. What’s not
is this same staff unblinkingly accepting
funding from anti-gay Evangelical right wing groups. Invisible Children has
been linked to a virulent homophobe pastor who is trying to pass a death
penalty law in Uganda for any and all acts of homosexuality.
Gosh.
It is a strange
advocacy triangulation: the LRA on one side plus Invisible Children on another
side plus Ugandan church congregations watching hard-core gay porn to stir up mighty
righteous indignation. One group of believers rape and slaughter in the name of
God, but another group of believers are going to create a tide of protest with
a staggeringly bigoted video and ride it to sweet, sweet (Hallelujah!) victory
of “getting the bad guy,” while funded by other group of believers who prefer
to see people executed for practicing lifestyles different than their own. And
in fact, I’m just guessing about the tide of protest thing because Invisible
Children actually doesn’t want Kony to stand trial. The NGO is calling for the
use of force via an international military intervention.
Nowhere have any
of these concerned citizens seemed to have consulted their own reference
material that urges the imperative “Do unto others.”
But do yourself
a favour and don’t do as I did and watch Kony2012
without assistance. In a blog post I wish I had written, the good women at Wronging Rights have prepared The
Definitive ‘Kony2012’ Drinking Game for your salvation.
I spent so much
time there that this post hasn’t even got started on the paternalistic
clap-trap of do-gooders, collective “Africans” and the assumption that “no one”
cared about Joseph Kony and the LRA for decades until some American (read:
white) students “saw” and rescued those victimized (read: black) children.
Ending the
horrors of child soldiers isn’t going to happen with the Kony2012 campaign. Proselytizing missionaries is what got us into
this mess in the first place when the British turned up in Uganda 150 years
ago. Educate yourself about the men and women who have been working for decades
in Uganda to “do something.” Focus on what political action you can take with
your local government to put international pressure on Joseph Kony the man and
not how many panacea stickers you get buying the Invisible Children Action Kit.
