Part 1 (click here to read) of this paper offered a historical context about Kony and the LRA conflict. Part 2 of this paper provides an in-depth analysis of the Kony 2012 video using relevant criteria to judge its adequacy and presents the recent updates of the “stop at nothing” campaign followed by the concluding remarks. The paper will then conclude that although Kony was made famous, this post-conflict intervention strategy alone is neither enough, nor is it the solution for ending a problem that has persisted for over two decades. It would perhaps make him stronger and more aggressive and his victims more vulnerable.

Also following suit for the arrest of Kony is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) called Invisible Children (IC). IC has been operating in northern Uganda since 2004 and has purportedly endeavoured to rehabilitate all those affected by the LRA conflict. This non-governmental organisation (NGO) devised a global campaign through virtual means to precipitate Kony’s capture. To paraphrase this notion, enough is enough: Kony must be caught and punished. Therefore, on 5 March 2012, Invisible Children uploaded a video on the video social website YouTube.⁽²⁾ The video, whose main purpose was to make Kony famous, was watched by over 100 million Internet users. Indeed Kony was made famous as the warlord’s name was numerously tweeted, facebooked and wrote about in articles.

Although ostensibly ambitious, the video gave a finite deadline for the ‘arrest Kony’ campaign. It predicted that Kony would be arrested by 31 December 2012. However, time seems to be running out and, yet, there has not been any real ground-breaking effort in this regard. But thanks to the Internet campaign that made Kony famous, many, including the US Government and the African Union, have supposedly turned around to make Kony’s arrest a reality. The operation, which had no particular timeframe, is expected to end when Kony is arrested. If the operation to capture Kony by the proposed finite deadline is not adhered to, would this not counteract the Kony 2012 video that predicted that Kony would be arrested by 31 December 2012, and yet, time continues to run out? If the deadline is exceeded, a new question will arise: following the failure of the Kony 2012 video, what next?

The use of media and social media

The strategy to use the media and the like in instigating hatred and violence has been employed in the past years, but never before has it been utilised to deal with any hunted world criminal. Certainly, the notion that the media (television, newspapers and radio) can be used to instigate conflict is no longer debatable. During the 20th century, “Hitler used the media to create an entire worldview of hatred for Jews, homosexuals, and other minority groups and, in Rwanda, radio RTLM urged listeners to pick up machetes and take to the streets to kill what they called the cockroaches.”⁽³⁾ In the 21st century, however, the media advanced into the social media (blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube), and today the two work hand in hand. Information travels fast with the social media. It is therefore the widely preferred method used to circulate news and information to the masses, from hurricanes and tsunamis to terrorist attacks.

Evidently, the social media played a big role in bringing about political change during the Egyptian revolution of 2011. One wonders whether the media and social media have the power to bring about peace as they do in instigating conflict. In fact, this notion is not widely recognised and experts fail to enunciate that these communication tools should indeed have a significant role to play in achieving such goals such as promoting peace.⁽⁴⁾ Despite the experts’ lack of recognition, social media has been the method of choice for an international organisation whose alleged desire is to have a 25 year warlord - Joseph Kony - arrested. Without doubt, 2012 may be branded as the year in which the social media influenced and paved the way for the arrest of the LRA leader and a wanted fugitive, Joseph Kony.

The Kony 2012 video: A brief overview

Joseph Kony’s atrocities led to a global campaign like no other. This campaign was initiated by the Kony 2012 documentary which was published on YouTube on 5 March 2012. The half-hour production video urged its viewers to rise up and find a permanent solution to the Kony problem. Narrated by Jason Russell, the co-founder of the NGO based in the United States (US) called Invisible Children (IC), the video was a global Internet sensation which took the world by storm. Subsequent to its upload, the Kony 2012 video, which has since been watched by over 100 million people, received a lot of support but also a certain degree of negative criticism, which perhaps the NGO underestimated. Described as an experiment at one point in the video, it demonstrated the powerful nature of the Internet revolution and how far certain humanitarians are willing to go for their cause. The renowned success of the video was dependant on the unsophisticated nature of the documentary.⁽⁵⁾

The Kony 2012 documentary begun by stating that “there are more people on Facebook than were alive 200 years ago.”⁽⁶⁾ This rather ambiguous statistical statement demonstrated IC’s considerable belief in social media. The organisation anticipated that with social websites such as Facebook and the micro-blogging website Twitter, the organisation would be able to reach a great deal of people; and indeed it did. To some people, the video seemed relatively simple, amateurish and somewhat personal because it included the narrator’s own son who felt very sad when explained to who Joseph Kony was and what he had done. The son concluded that Kony was a very bad man and he must be stopped.

The Kony 2012 film was motivated by a promise which Russell made to Jacob, a young boy who was among the thousands of night commuters who trekked from villages to the town centre in search for shelter and to escape being abducted by the LRA rebels. These children were referred to as invisible children at the time, hence the organisation’s name. The two met while Russell was on his trip in northern Uganda and, unlike many such advocates, he decided to dedicate his life to the cause. This was because Jacob told Russell that he would rather die than go on living in an environment filled with wretchedness and dismay. It was upon this disheartening statement that Russell made a promise to do everything in his power to put an end to the Kony problem.

As a result of that promise, IC was established and for the past decade, Russell has worked tirelessly to keep the promise. This promise led him to produce a documentary which hinted at some of Kony’s atrocities for the world to know and recognise. Subsequently, the video strenuously advocated for the capture of Kony and summarised what work had been done to precipitate this operation. Russell narrated in the video:

    “In order for Kony to be arrested this year [2012], the Ugandan military has to find him. In order for them to find him, they need the technology and training to find him in the vast jungle. That’s where the American advisors come in.  But in order for the American advisors to be there, the US Government has to deploy them. They’ve done that, but if the Government doesn’t believe that the people care about arresting Kony, the mission will be cancelled. In order for people to care, they have to know, and they will only know if Kony’s name is everywhere.”⁽⁷⁾

The video indicated that most of the fans of the Kony 2012 campaign were young people. The notion that most of these young adult enthusiasts did not have the slightest idea who Kony was, where he had been, where he is going and what appalling atrocities he has committed should not be disputed. Unfortunately, the Kony 2012 video did not offer adequate information either. As if uploading the video on YouTube alone was not enough, the organisation thought it best to use other social media which made the video “go viral.”⁽⁸⁾

Also, the video implored specific Hollywood celebrities and policy makers to petition and spread the campaign using Twitter and Facebook. The video was promoted on Twitter using the (hash tag) #Kony2012 and endorsed by celebrities. What would Hollywood celebrities do except to tweet about Kony and make donations? Not to say that donations are not welcome in this endeavour, but would a plea to arrest this 25 year warlord not be an absolute campaign if it is endorsed by heads of Governments and major policymakers who have a major influence in ending the conflict? In fact, many people found the idea of sending tweets and sharing videos on Facebook – believed to solve a conflict that had been ongoing for over two decades and whose perpetrators have eluded forces – preposterous.⁽⁹⁾ Nonetheless, the video ended “with a three point call to action”: (1) “Sign the Pledge to Show Your Support,” (2) “Get the Bracelet and the Action Kit” (for US$30) and (3) “Sign Up to Donate a Few Dollars a Month.”⁽¹⁰⁾ How would this alone lead to the arrest of Kony? The donations would (perhaps) only fund the Ugandan and regional army forces on the ground searching for Kony.

Critique and how the Kony 2012 video was welcomed in Uganda

It has been nearly nine months since the publication of the Kony 2012 video on YouTube. Several people now wonder whether the campaign is still ongoing. Despite its much celebrated success immediately following its release, the Kony 2012 video campaign only lasted for a short period of time. Although many were in support, others perceived the "Stop at Nothing" campaign as dangerous and misguiding.⁽¹¹⁾ Other polarised criticisms of the Kony 2012 documentary include:

• “The video does more harm than good focusing on one man;
• The video makes a hero of a heinous criminal focusing the issue on one man;
• The video is racist, posing white men and their children as heroes;
• The video is a prime example of slactivism that reduces real issues to memes;
• And that Kony 2012 is another example of the white man’s burden of having to share a video to save the black man in Africa.”⁽¹²⁾

As with the rest of the world, Uganda’s reaction towards the Kony 2012 documentary also varied. Although most Ugandans welcomed the message in the video, they were overly offended by how it was conveyed.⁽¹³⁾ Most of the footage used in the video – of children commuting to escape abductions by the LRA – was nearly a decade old and yet it failed to represent the real concerns of the now post-conflict region of northern Uganda.⁽¹⁴⁾ Instead, the video implied that the conflict was still ongoing and that Kony and the LRA mutineers continue to murder, destroy properties and abduct children to be used as child soldiers and sex slaves. However, this has not been the case, since the LRA withdrew from northern Uganda in 2006 and are now operating back and forth in the vast jungles of CAR, DRC, and South Sudan. As a result of the misconception and misrepresentation, Uganda also launched its own video to counteract the Kony 2012 one.

The nearly instant counteract video was a response that sought to correct the “false impression” that Uganda was still in conflict. Narrated by Amamba Mbabazi, the Prime Minister of Uganda, the eight minute video was created with a Twitter account and also invited 20 celebrities as did the Kony 2012 video, but with a different message. In the video, Mbabazi stated that: “It is particularly welcome[ing] to see so many young people uniting across barriers of nation, race, religion and culture to take a stand for justice. I salute you and I thank you. I extend the invitation not just to the 20 celebrities, but to you all - come and see Uganda for yourself - you will find a very different place to that [was] portrayed by Invisible Children.” In addition, Mbabazi reinforced this invitation by writing a message to the 20 celebrities on Twitter. Using the (hash tag) #KonyisntinUganda, Mbabazi wrote: "I appreciate your interest and invite you to visit [Uganda]. We have peace, stability and great people.”⁽¹⁵⁾ Unfortunately, Mbabazi’s message did not have the power to go viral as did the Kony 2012 video.

Additionally, not many Ugandans are conversant with the Internet and are indeed unfamiliar with social websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This is particular with the people living in the rural areas such as those in northern Uganda where Kony and the LRA operated for over two decades. Consequently, a local NGO called the African Youth Initiative Network thought that the people who were severely affected by the LRA atrocities deserved to watch the video, and so organised an event to showcase it.⁽¹⁶⁾ People armed with the feelings of eagerness and anxiousness attended the event in large numbers. The prevailing anticipation was that the video would show the world what terrible atrocities Kony and the LRA committed against them as well as the problems they now face trying to rebuild what was left of the two decade conflict. However, this was not the case. In the beginning, people were bewildered when they saw that the video was narrated by an American man – Jason Russell – and his young son. Then towards the end of the video, people’s moods changed “more to anger at what many people saw as a foreign, inaccurate account that belittled and commercialised their suffering, as the film promotes Kony bracelets and other fundraising merchandise, with the aim of making Kony infamous.”⁽¹⁷⁾ The previously calm, eager and anxious crowd became irate. At the end of the event, people started “throwing rocks and shouting abusive criticism, as the rest fled for safety, leaving an abandoned projector, with organisers and the press running for cover until the dust settled.” Although the video had the power to move the young American audience, “it did not go down nearly [as] well with the very people it claims it is meant to help.”⁽¹⁸⁾

Recent developments

Many people assume that Kony 2012 and the arrest Kony campaign ended a few days after its publication. Indeed, that the video that was hot soon after its release went cold a few days later. On the contrary, the campaign is still ongoing. In the months following the release of Kony 2012, there have been two other videos published separately by IC relating to the same topic (Kony) but not quite; each is armed with a different and more compelling purpose. The second video entitled ‘Kony 2012: Part II-Beyond Famous’⁽¹⁹⁾ was published on 5 April 2012, exactly one month following the initial video. Since Kony 2012 received wide spread negative criticism from the masses, this was viewed by the organisation as a huge and an unexpected blow. Also as if affected by all the negative criticisms, the narrator, Russell, suffered an unusually public and naked breakdown a few days after the release of Kony 2012.⁽²⁰⁾ This breakdown cost the campaign numerous supporters and many referring to it as a hoax, another money making endeavour and others as propaganda. Many people had also begun questioning how the IC spends its finances. Desperate to set the record straight, the IC released a second video to react to and address the negative criticisms the initial video had received. Surprisingly, it made no mention of the meltdown.

Most recently, on 7 October 2012, the IC released its third video, entitled ‘Move: DC’.⁽²¹⁾ The video introduces the much anticipated event scheduled for 17 November 2012. It is calling for all the supporters of the initial Kony 2012 to take action in Washington, DC. The proposed action is to surround the White House and hold all country leaders – including the African Union, European Union and the United Nations – accountable. “We are heading to Washington, DC, USA, to hold world leaders accountable to their commitments to end LRA violence. Now is the time to act to move [and] to prove that where you live shouldn't determine whether you live.”⁽²²⁾ The latest film is a move targeted towards the US president-elect who ought to “fulfil the American promise of ending the Kony conflict.”⁽²³⁾ The new film also invited the defence ministers of CAR, the DRC, Uganda and South Sudan to attend. Will this ‘move’ as an accountability protest make any difference? The world is yet to witness how this latest avant-garde move will turn out.

Concluding remarks

It has been eight months since Kony 2012 and very little has changed about the Kony problem; most especially, the warlord is still at large. Even though his army is not as large as it once was, he scrupulously continues to elude not only the Ugandan and other regional armies, but also an apparently refined force: US troops sent to Africa to assist with his capture. Perhaps the vast jungles – in which he moves back and forth – are a tiny but indisputable piece of the puzzle that Kony uses to his advantage. Otherwise, why the warlord is still free baffles many people, particularly those who believed entirely in the campaign.

Despite the wide array of criticisms, the IC managed to accomplish the very thing it set out to achieve: making an invisible Kony infamous. Did making Kony infamous worldwide appeal for global support for his capture and arrest? Yes, it did. Although not lucidly, the YouTube video highlighted the plight and suffering of the victims of Kony and eventually made the world very small for him. However, there has been a lack of sustainability and keeping up the momentum of this Kony 2012 documentary. It was hot and then went cold as the months followed. This has been the weakest point of this campaign.

Therefore, it is quite implausible that the rebel leader will be apprehended by 31 December 2012, as widely and unequivocally narrated in the Kony 2012 video, even amidst the latest ‘Move’ film. The question of whether or not social media can influence the capture of a warlord will soon be answered. As for whether this highly ambiguous objective will be momentary or not, the world is yet to find out.

Written by Catherine Akurut ⁽¹⁾

NOTES:

(1) Contact Catherine Akurut through Consultancy Africa Intelligence’s Conflict and Terrorism Unit ( conflict.terrorism@consultancyafrica.com).
(2) The video, ‘Kony 2012’, can be found here: http://www.youtube.com.
(3) Bratic, V. and Schirch, L., ‘Why and when to use the media for conflict prevention and peacebuilding’, European Centre for Conflict Prevention Issue paper 6, 2007, http://www.gppac.net.
(4) Ibid.
(5) Villalva, B.R., ‘Kony 2012: A global scam or worldwide wake-up call?’, Christian Post, 15 October 2012, http://www.christianpost.com.
(6) ‘Kony 2012’, Invisible Children, 5 March 2012, http://www.youtube.com.
(7) Ibid.
(8) Ibid.
(9) Dailey, K., ‘Kony 2012: the rise of online campaigning’, BBC, 9 March 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk.
(10) ‘Kony 2012’, Invisible Children, 5 March 2012, http://www.youtube.com.
(11) Villalva, B.R., ‘Kony 2012: A global scam or worldwide wake-up call?’, Christian Post, 15 October 2012, http://www.christianpost.com.
(12) Mainwaring, S., ‘What Kony 2012 can teach us about ourselves’, Forbes, 13 March 2012, http://www.forbes.com.
(13) ‘Questions and answers’, Invisible Children, http://www.invisiblechildren.com. 
(14) Webb, M., ‘Ugandans react with anger to Kony video’, Aljazeera, 14 March 2012, http://blogs.aljazeera.com.
(15) ‘Uganda launches video to counter “Kony 2012”’, Aljazeera, 17 March 2012, http://www.aljazeera.com.
(16) Webb, M., ‘Ugandans react with anger to Kony video’, Aljazeera, 14 March 2012, http://blogs.aljazeera.com.
(17) Ibid.
(18) Ibid.
(19) ‘Kony 2012: Part II-Beyond Famous’, Invisible Children, 5 April 2012, http://www.youtube.com.
(20) ‘Jason Russell, 'Kony 2012' Creator, Suffered from 'Reactive Psychosis,' Family Claim’, The Huffington Post, 22 March 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com.
(21) ‘Move: DC’, Invisible Children, 25 October 2012, http://www.youtube.com.
(22) Ibid.
(23) Kamukama, P., ‘Uganda: Kony 2012 sequel out’, AllAfrica, 18 October 2012, http://allafrica.com.