This is a little something my Development Anthropology Professor has written up about Kony and Invisible Children.
“I hope you are all enjoying spring break. The following is not pressing, but more for your information if you are interested. If you are on the beach, you can go ahead and pick up on this when you’re back in New Jersey.
But to follow up on our discussion yesterday of Kony2012, I want you all to keep an eye on the debate that is taking place about the video and the organization Invisible Children. The debate and discussion the film has generated may be, in my opinion, their most productive and revolutionary achievement. I also want to reiterate that my intention is by no means to demonize Invisible Children. They are friends of Rutgers and have worked with many Rutgers organizations in the past. We need to move beyond good and evil. In fact, the reason this is such a good topic of discussion for our class is that Invisible Children are falling into the classic position of NGOs involved in international development (a major topic after spring break). You all already have some background on the situation in Uganda because this is the same Civil War and conflict that the World Bank did not want the Ugandan government to spend so much money on in the film “Our Friends at the Bank”. With that said, I thought I would share some of what I have been writing elsewhere. By no means do you have to read all of this or agree with me, but I thought some of you might be interested. I make a couple of points, share a few links, and then make some quick observations that we can discuss after the break.
The most striking thing about Kony2012 is that it is almost completely devoid of information about Joseph Kony and is unfortunately weighed down by misinformation.
First, the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) has a long history rooted in Uganda’s decades of Civil War. The Acholi-speaking peoples in the North felt (and were) marginalized from national politics by the Baganda in the south. Much of this can also be linked to how the British decided to include the Acholi in the colony that would become Uganda. This is not an ethnic or tribal issue, but we could have ended up with an Acholi colony and a country called Acholi in Central African and never be having this discussion. The LRA and the relatively recently imagined-Acholi themselves exist across national boundaries between northern Uganda, Eastern Congo, Southern Sudan, and the Central African Republic. The LRA emerged in the late 1980s as a mixture of Acholi nationalism and militant Pentecostalism, with Joseph Kony seen as a spokesperson of a Christian God and a divine medium. There is a long history of the LRA. But the reason Joseph Kony has not been caught has absolutely nothing to do with people not knowing about him. He has been well-known for decades. Most anthropologists who have worked on child soldiers, kidnappings, rapes, and mutilations see them as quite rational elements of a horrible type of terror war, where the violence is not as much to kill as to get international attention – the performance of violence. That is also worth thinking deeply about, especially when it comes to the potential for such imagery and actions to sustain Western assumptions of African barbarism and irrationality.
Second, the LRA and Joseph Kony have not been in Uganda for six years. The Ugandan military (at least claims to have) successfully removed the LRA from Ugandan borders years ago. Kony has been thought to be living in the Central African Republic, where he is well known for having doubles and being more of a mythological, Kaiser Soze-type figure than a general or military leader. The Ugandans have repeatedly assassinated his doubles, and there are questions about weather he is actually still alive. The LRA supporters have mostly scattered to Southern Sudan and Eastern Congo where they are causing the most instability at this time. This is, in my opinion, why the U.S. sent the 100 armed special forces into Uganda – to help a regional Africom strategy of stabalizing the region, pivoting off of Southern Sudanese independence and the recent signing of a pipeline deal that would bring Sudanese oil south (instead of north) through Kenya. The Ugandan military has been repeatedly stymied by the UN and World Bank because they are not allowed to chase the LRA out of Uganda and into countries like South Sudan, which has not even been an independent country for a year yet. The Ugandan military still does cross the borders (along with the allied Rwandan army under Paul Kagame into Eastern Congo), but then they are operating illegally (according to international, UN-imposed law) and are well known for committing atrocities similar to those committed by the LRA, the South Sudanese Liberation Army, the Congolese Army, and then dozens of other such warlords (many former supporters of Mobutu’s regime in the former Zaire or of the Habyarimana regime in Rwanda) operating mainly in the Eastern Congo where millions, yes millions of people have been killed since the mid-1990s in the type of violence attributed in the film largely to one man – Joseph Kony. This may help shed light on the statement yesterday by Uganda’s military spokesman, Col. Felix Kulayige, on Kony2012: “It is the right message but it’s 15 years too late. If people cared 15 years ago, then thousands of lives would have been saved and thousands of children would have stayed at home and not been kidnapped.”
The third main point is that, while the film argues that they want to see U.S. political pressure for Kony to go before the International Criminal Court (ICC), it is worth noting that the U.S. has not, in fact, signed the Rome Statute that recognizes the ICC and holds its own politicians accountable to the international court, which functions primarily to try leaders who have committed human rights violations. In other words, while most of the world recognizes and is accountable to the ICC, the U.S. is too afraid of it potentially trying American politicians for directing human rights violations internationally (such as pre-emptively attacking a sovereign country, ordering drone attacks on civilians, or knowingly creating policy that will displace millions of rural farmers). The irony here is that Invisible Children is trying to get the U.S. to capture and send someone to an international court that the U.S. itself does not recognize and does not want to recognize.
The fourth main point, also regarding the ICC, is that they do not have a list of “most wanted,” like the FBI. I only just learned this, but while the film states that Kony is #1 on the ICC’s list, that is because the list was written chronologically. Because Kony is the oldest case on the ICC’s list, it is #1 on the list. But that does not mean he is most wanted. My somewhat educated guess would be that Charles Taylor or Sudan’s Bashir are, probably, the top people on the ICC’s list of people to be tried right now if you were thinking of priorities and numbers of people killed under their direction. Bashir is still president, and responsible for the death of millions in the Sudan, including Darfur. Where is his viral video? Moreno Ocampo, featured in the film, is actually currently occupied trying four Kenyan politicians who were responsible for the displacement of half a million people there following the elections in 2007. The ICC knows a lot about Kony, he’s just not their priority right now.
So keep those basic points in mind. They may not make any difference to the main goals of Invisible Children, but as a social scientist, I still do believe that there are objective facts and that there are not two sides to every story. Joseph Kony is not in Uganda. The other side of that story is a lie. Bloggers and journalists are making the same points, but they range from the optimistic (NPR): http://www.npr.org/2012/03/09/148305533/how-teenagers-learned-to-hate-joseph-kony
To the pessimistic (Africa is a Country – a top African Studies blog run by a professor at CUNY): http://africasacountry.com/2012/03/07/phony-2012-risible-children/
To the simply well-informed (Foreign Policy Magazine): http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/03/07/guest_post_joseph_kony_is_not_in_uganda_and_other_complicated_things
So arm yourself with the facts and take a look at the controversy and debates, because they are really fascinating. I now just want to make some very brief observations:
First, and you are free to feel otherwise, but I find it is interesting that most of the criticism that is now emerging focuses on Invisible Children’s finances as opposed to the ideological aspects of their video. In other words, my main critique of the film is that it doesn’t quite get its facts straight and they use this misinformation to push a certain ideology of social activism. That is quite different from the main and typical (easy?) outcry, which is that Invisible Children is pandering to fear and just want peoples’ money through donations for $10 Kony Bracelets and $30 Kony Packs. They’ve already made over a million bucks this week. But for some reason, and maybe I’m jaded, that isn’t a big issue for me. In fact, their money-making, PR and marketing have revolutionized the way all other NGOs will work in the future. I think the financial and marketing side of this is brilliant. When I first saw the film I almost thought it was an experiment by a Ph.D. student to see how the public would respond to a carefully crafted marketing technique. Unfortunately, the predominant and cliche financial criticism misses the deeper issues and fundamental problems with Kony2012.
Second, I have been amazed – actually blown away – by how powerfully and furiously people have defended the film and the organization. What I mean here is defense-beyond-defense, to the point of attack. Even the language itself in the comments on blog posts and articles has become completely vulgar, with people taking personal shots at strangers (and in some cases at all of academia and higher education!) for daring to question the motives of Invisible Children and the power of the video to create revolution (what type, we don’t know yet). On the one hand, it’s striking how effective and affective the film was in inciting an emotional outpouring from millions of people (also of interest – Kony2012 has gained most of its popularity among high school students inspired by the Twitter support from big-name celebrities). On the other hand, I think it highlights a deeper attitude that is gestating among self-proclaimed global citizens through the interwebs that people with educations and the so-called “experts” on these situations are jerks, especially if they would dare to do what I just did above – point out facts that may challenge the momentum of Kony2012 and suggest that a majority of people are, quite simply, misinformed on what really is going on in Northern Uganda. There are a lot of comments out there saying simply, “Stop being cynical,” or most powerfully, that academics are mad about Kony2012 because they are jealous at the attention Kony2012 is getting and the money they will make (as opposed to us poor, literally poor, academics). I think that’s an extremely dangerous trend – a social mobilization of naïve realism in the face of objective fact, if you will. But such is the power of social media, not to enhance agency, but illusions of agency. I’ll let you guys marinade on the pros and cons of that broader debate for a while. But most importantly, keep your ear out for that type of finger-pointing, and be able to identify it what is really at stake.
Third, the real issue revolves around the “awareness debate” that Sean Jacobs at Africa is a Country outlines so well. Most defenders of Kony2012 argue that, despite the misinformation, any awareness like this is good. But is it? The debate, then, is really about the power of social media-based activism. Is spreading the word, spreading (mis-)information via the interwebs a good thing? Since the late 1990s, media scholars, journalists, anthropologists, and sociologists have warned of the ideological power of “the myth of new media technologies and the free market,” or that these new technologies are setting us free and allowing us to act as never before and help the world for the better. Anyone familiar with David Harvey knows that since the late 1980 – around the time the Cold War was ending and the LRA was allowed to emerge as a powerful force in Central Africa – academics have been warning that this idea that these new technologies are setting us free is very dangerous because it is exactly what those in government and those who run corporations (and often governments, international aid organizations, etc.) want us to think. All academics are really saying is “be careful,” which is why it’s fascinating when otherwise very well-educated and self-proclaimed global citizens tell you to “fuck off, you jealous jerk” because you are challenging the ideological foundation to their privileged existence.
A fifth and minor observation – this is not a debate about U.S. military intervention. I personally think that, if done the right way, military intervention is important and necessary. It could have saved hundreds of thousands in Rwanda in 1994. It could have saved millions in Somalia since the early 1990s. But the adult and well-trained men and women carrying the guns should be UN peacekeepers from African countries or African Union troops who are working under a UN mandate and can relate to the civilians they need to deal with on the ground. Those forces aren’t a dream, they actually exist. People have been saying this for a long time, and this is why U.S. civilian military advisers involved in the regional conflict in Central Africa have said that Kony2012 could not have come out at a worse time (see the NPR article) – because they were actually starting to make real progress on these issues before the video emerged. Now this will swing popular support behind what, U.S. drone attacks on Central Africa? How many children and their parents will be killed then? Will there be a viral video about that?
Finally, and in relation to a course on development and globalization, we need to move beyond good and evil. Invisible Children is neither good nor evil, and Joseph Kony is neither good nor evil. Yes, I said it. So did Friedrich Nietzsche, more than 100 years ago. So did Franz Boas, who read Nietsche while developing ideas of cultural relativity, which is still the fundamental principle of anthropology today. What we really see in this case are the trials and tribulations of a non-profit NGO trying to tackle a problem of massive proportions, and it is really hard to fault them for trying. As much as anyone, they are trying to do their best with the tools they can access. Unfortunately, like all development organizations, to rationalize their own existence and open up the possibility of an intervention, they need to become an Anti-Politics Machine, erasing history and manipulating historical facts in ways that before the interwebs only powerful forces like the UN or World Bank could do. Is this good that, because of social media, we now have millions of Anti-Politics Machines instead of just a handful? Should an organization like Invisible Children be tackling something so massive? Does, to use Sean Jacob’s term, the “moral masturbation” of Kony2012 take us away from and begin to replace and write off the institutions out there that should be responsible for this (Ugandan Ministries of Youth, Education, and Health)?? Can we ever have a successful social media-based movement in Uganda that is not started, organized and run by Ugandans? There is no wonder why the response from Ugandans who have been working on this issue since the late 1980s has been quite negative.
So with that in mind, think about these issues and follow the debate. I’m personally most interested in the memes that have emerged, so please email me those. I would appreciate it. That is really how the active audience of consumers are making sense of this, right? Through the memetic culture of remixing that inevitably results? After all, Americans and Europeans are smart enough to realize that this is, in fact, just a viral video. They’ve seen them before. It’s raw material for remixing. I’ve even heard suggestion of making a Christie2012 documentary that is about hunting down “the warlord” Chris Christie for enabling so many child soldiers in urban NJ … after all, anyone under 18 carrying a gun is a child soldier, and the United States may have more child soldiers than any other country in the world. Don’t tell the ICC!! Point: the memes could be, in the end, the most powerful part of the whole episode. We shall see.
Finally, if you get a chance, watch the opening scene from the movie Get Him to the Greek, and think about the connections between “African Child” and “Kony2012”.
DM
I made delicious cinnabutter pumpkin-spice pancakes with a side of blueberry Chobani for the two of us. We scarfed it down. The lighting from the windows beautifully lit up our breakfast! We got ready and began our journey.
The trees have bloomed here! I couldn’t believe it; I was ecstatic to see the magnolias and the daffodils and the precious, soft, newly-bloomed leaves! Slowly, this urban landscape was becoming colored by nature. We walked along the Piazza, this side of town is apparently the up-and-coming area, the Bushwick/Williamsburg of Philadelphia. The Steel Factory lofts are in a considerably alright part of town, open lots of grass with a bit of trash, stray cats, lots of parking, strange buildings. Kyle and I walked the Piazza and ended up at PYT Burger!
We both ordered PYT Burgers and a side of cheesy tots. Mmmm cheesy tots. God I love cheese. (I’m having a whiskey sour as I type, happy St. Patrick’s day!) The PYT burgers had “special” sauce on the bun, medium sized burger, a large, crisp slice of tomato and lettuce, and a side of chips! Apparently, within the restroom of PYT, there is another door which actually leads to a club and bar at night. How cool is that??
We went to The Foodery afterwards to find a movie-set being filmed outside. The Foodery is a cafe-beer store that sold mostly craft beers individually. Kyle was like a child in a candy store. We got these DELICIOUS Walnut chocolate chip cookies, Hercules Double IPA and a bottle of Leffe Brune. Delicious.
We explored Fishtown and the area by Courtney’s loft. There were grow-your-own parks, a children’s park, fences painted with giant flowers. Kyle and I took cool pictures of ourselves around there.
THIS IS REAL! The garbage bin yells at us! I stumbled upon some interesting street art, and captured those too.
◖◗ 