Let’s Discuss: The Kony 2012 Campaign

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Christen Brandt

If you’ve logged onto Facebook or Twitter in the past 24 hours, chances are that you’ve already seen mention of the Kony 2012 campaign—along with endless comments on it. Whether your friends are excited to “cover the night” on April 20 or critiquing Invisible Children’s mission, there is a big conversation going on.

At She’s the First, we’re having the same discussion you are. As a story-driven non-profit, we have to admire the way IC created such a huge viral campaign, becoming a household name literally overnight. And with it? They’ve made a truly despicable man notorious for his crimes against the most innocent of humanity, and pushed our generation into becoming more globally aware. So far, so good. But there are a lot of other, less positive reactions floating around too. For every “Now is the time” post I see, there’s another stating “Know where your money goes: Invisible Children only gives 32 percent of its funding to programs!” (You can see their financials here.) But we want to hear what you think about all of this, so let’s run through some of the major arguments floating around out there:

• The film is too simplistic vs. Awesome cause marketing. It just isn’t as easy as “Capture Kony, end the war, end the use of child soldiers.” Obviously, the children affected by war will need more than a ride home, and IC has addressed some of this (and various other critiques) on its page (read it here). But just as complex as what happens next is what came before: The history of the LRA is long and complicated, as are the various political forces in action in the region. You can get an idea of just how complex in this article by Foreign Affairs, written in November of last year. Of course, the simplicity of the video is a large part of what made it successful, and turned it into what is now a verifiable movement. So the big question here: Should we dumb down the message if it means the message will spread further, faster? Or does the nonprofit world have an obligation to illuminate the full story, even if it means no one will take the time to sit through the video and learn all the complexities of a situation? (Dave Algoso identifies “Advocacy’s Golden Rule” in his post, and I think it’s one to live by: Simplify, but don’t distort.)

• “We need military intervention to capture Kony” vs. “We shouldn’t work with the Ugandan military.” The campaign wants the U.S. to continue to work in Uganda to stop the LRA and capture Kony, and supports working with the Ugandan military. The Pros: The Ugandan military is, while not perfect, the most stable and equipped in the region, and has reason to want Kony captured for past ills. The Cons: Ugandan military does have many of its own issues in maintaining authority without violence and/or rape, and the LRA hasn’t actually posed a threat to Uganda since around 2003. (More on those points here.) One of the very few Ugandan views of American military intervention—an important view to include, I think—I’ve found is here, on the blog Africa is a Country. This question gets into much larger issues (When is it okay for the U.S. to intervene? When are we obligated to?) and gets very political very quickly, but the easiest question to tackle here might be whether this is the most strategic way to end the violence, or if militarizing the area further will simply lead to more violence down the road.

• White Man’s Burden vs. Youth Activism. Chris Blattman argues this on his blog: “There’s also something inherently misleading, naive, maybe even dangerous, about the idea of rescuing children or saving of Africa.” Even more notably, take a look at this comment by Ugandan reporter Rosebell Kagumire, on the blog Under the Banyan, which starts with, “I viewed it [the video] this morning and the first 5 minutes told me this was another effort by a good white American guy trying to save my people.” On the flip side of this argument is that encouraging youth to be more globally-minded, to engage in service, and to care about humanity can only be a good thing, right? At She’s the First, we talk every day about the power of youth to change the world, and we believe it—but we also believe that education is the key to helping yourself, and your country, to overcome obstacles. So where is the line between “Youth as activists who can change the world” and “Youth as saviors for the downtrodden”?

So let’s discuss. What do you think, about the campaign’s marketing techniques, about the U.S. presence in Uganda, about youth activists?

(Again, for good measure, Invisible Children’s response to various critiques is here, for reference.)

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  • Katie

    This is a great post, Christen!

    I have so many things to say about the Kony campaign, but I’ll try to be brief. I think the video itself was brilliant, on a surface level. It was well-made and informative, and I am shocked at the number of people who actually willingly watched it all the way through. I can barely grant my attention to a 5 minute Youtube video, let alone something almost 30 minutes long, so clearly there is something to be said there. Cinematically, it’s great. Furthermore, the Invisible Children wanted to raise awareness and CLEARLY they got the job done there.

    That being said, I have a lot of issues with #KONY2012. I think my main concerns fall under the argument of Youth Activism, and our social responsibility as a generation. It’s great that people are getting involved and excited, but it seems like the majority of them aren’t taking time to view the other sides of the argument. I think it’s almost more dangerous than productive to have people so passionately riled up about something, without being informed about the real issues. I feel like the Kony campaign has created a lot of naive hope, and will ultimately lead to disappointment. Bringing down Kony is an excellent goal, but for an organization as organized as the LRA, do you not think that someone else will come into power? Invisible Children has created this mass of Twitter activists who think that doing nothing more than sending a hashtag will bring down a major war criminal, with no explanation of the potential ramifications, and no instruction on HOW to make this happen other than buying some posters and a bracelet.

    I could go on, but I think I’ll stop here. Overall I think the narrative was inspiring and the intention of the campaign was good, but the outcome has fallen short of creating real change. I absolutely support bringing down Joseph Kony, but I’m afraid you won’t find me supporting #KONY2012.

  • Pingback: A Small Article for Encouraging Educational Discourse about the Kony 2012 Campaign « Employ(mentally) Challenged

  • Jenn

    I am slowing starting to see the other side of the argument: 1. questioning finances particularly Salaries? How can we justify how much a person should get paid in a non-profit organization? 2. Why is it necessary to spend our money for posters to be plastered across the city? Should we not organize a rally to Ottawa? (Canadian speaking by the way)Can we not get the attention of the government to get involved? Perhaps we should meet with our local MP and discuss the best way to organize ourselves and excute. 3. So what happens when Kony is dead? or What tactics are being discussed to decrease the amount of dead casulties during the crusade to capture Joseph Kony? I disagree with the blogger who states the idea is “A White Man’s Burden”. I think there is deeper issue then calling it that. We need to stop differentiating ourselves in colour codes, we’re not a pack of colour crayons. We are people, we are human beings. Regardless of our colour, race, sexual orientation, people are rising to the occasion. Just because it is led by “white” people does not mean it is a “white” cause. We are all participating from different backgrounds coming together for this cause. The way the video got people to feel like they can actually make a change really was empowering. So many times I have a watched a documentary about difficult life for others accross the world and felt absolutely helpless. Sometimes we need someone to lead because we just don’t have the leadership in ourselves to do something on our own. We have to have faith in people who can lead and are actually puting action into their promises to make a better tomorrow. Right now, this campaign is in focus (the cause of the moment).Most of us have ignorantly passed time to be selfish in our self indulgences rather than stay aware of the issues in the world we live in. So right now because the campaign has reached our attention, it has become a trend to talk about.Make the initiative to learn about the history of Uganda. Make the initiative to learn about the worlds suffering. It’s up to you to have faith in their campaign to bring Joseph Kony to justice. This campaign has woken me up and proved how interconnected we are as humans. We care but we’ve lost our sense to be compassionate. We’ve become quite senseless to be unaware of what’s going on in Parliament. The government needs to understand that our well-being is more important than money. Sorry drifted from Kony 2012 but this campaign sparked these thoughts and I wanted to share.

    • Kevin Kocur

      “So many times I have a watched a documentary about difficult life for others accross the world and felt absolutely helpless. Sometimes we need someone to lead because we just don’t have the leadership in ourselves to do something on our own.”

      - I agree.

  • Max

    While I think that the video does simplify the issue- and does not delve into the history of the LRA or future problems- the fact that people are seeing and becoming aware of the problem has the potential to attract long term, meaningful solutions.
    Now, many factors affect whether and how meaningful, long-term solutions to poverty and warfare are implemented. That will take the involvement of people in Uganda who have the power to make meaningful change happen. That said, if the views on the video are any indication, the campaign may inspire young people to research more fully the problems of the country and how the country can be self-sustaining. The problems of Uganda can only truly be solved by Ugandans themselves- but why should others not offer support?

  • Marcos

    I want to focus first on one thing: awareness.
    And that is what this campaign has succesfully achieved. I also think that this was the main goal of it, making the world community to be aware of Kony, the LRA and the situation in Central and East Africa. Millions of people, myself included, stopped for half an hour their mindless browsing and got to know a different reality we didn’t even know existed. I strongly believe that that sole achievement is priceless. That’s huge, I don’t know if everybody realizes this. It shook our little world at least for some hours. At least this campaing showed me that it is possible to raise awareness globally on important matters.

    Secondly I’d like to point out that this action to help bring some peace and sanity in Central Africa is flawed it should be greatly welcomed. I’ve read today some comments in various blogs pointing out that: this is not the best approach to end the problem, that the problem is too complicated and it’s been oversimplified by Invisible Children (IC), that the founds are not being spent in the best way…ans the list goes on.
    But I ask: If all the above is true, does it render IC and its campaign less valuable. Definitely not. “Perfect is the enemy of good” right?
    I think that tackling problems should be done with a mix of researching and doing. Most people who criticize only limit themselves to point out flaws with the plan of action but don’t propose any solutions, let alone involve themselves in new plans of action. I agree that you can’t just act impulsively as sometimes you can make things worse, but I also reckon that waiting, researching and planning for too much time sometimes leads to inaction, becasue “the problem is too complex”, you don’t know where to start or simply because the enthusiasm has worn off.

    I’ve seen the same criticisms some years ago against an NGO that now has become the most renowned NGO in Latin America, supported by the IADB, and companies such as Deloitte, LAN airlines, The BCG and some more.
    It started back in 2003 by a bunch of college students outraged by extreme poverty in Latin America. They started building wooden houses for the poor that didn’t have where to live. People back then criticized that extreme poverty was way too complex for some rich kids to try to solve it, that buildings houses wasn’t going to solve the problem, etc.
    Some years after they’ve have constructed 85,000 houses for the poor, have established community programs such as micro-loans, school support, entrepeneurship workshops and more.
    And it all started by action, and down the road correcting the mistakes, learning from them, and most important: never giving up.

    It’s easy to be a critic, you just need time and a Internet connection.
    It’s much harder to do something to tackle a problem, when that problem is really complex, when everyone is ignoring it, when you are not an expert on the subject, and when you raise awareness of it and lots of people criticize you. But you don’t give up, because it’s worth fighting for.