Stefanie Sheppard
Contributor
I have a confession. When I first encountered the now-viral video “Kony 2012,” I shared it without even watching it. I only decided to finally watch it after witnessing all the hype it received in the hours since it was first posted.
As you probably know, the 30 minute documentary by filmmaker Jason Russell talks about the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony and his history in kidnapping almost 30,000 children over the span of 25 years. The boys are turned into child soldiers and the girls become sex slaves.
According to the short film, Kony has already been indicted by the International Criminal Court yet hasn’t been brought to justice. He is still roaming the world, trying to expand his army for no apparent reason.
The message, told from the perspective of Russell, a father and an activist, is rather simple: raise awareness to stop Kony, and purchase “action packs.”
While I do think the message is an important topic to discuss, what I really want to talk about are the criticisms and skepticism over the Kony 2012 campaign.
The Kony documentary has raised many eyebrows as the campaign was revealed to donate only 31 per cent of charity funds to help Ugandans. Moreover, charity money is being used to fund the Ugandan army, which has been accused of raping and looting.
To make matters worse, people are claiming that the video is outdated (it’s about five years old) and that the situation in Uganda is less urgent than what the video makes it seem. For example, Fred Opolot, spokesman for the Ugandan government, says Kony left Uganda over six years ago. “It is totally misleading to suggest that the war is still in Uganda,” said Opolot.
As you can see, this topic is quite the tricky conundrum. Kony 2012 has a very important message, but who is the final benefactor? It can’t be the Ugandans, since Invisible Children promotes fighting violence with violence and that won’t help anyone.
In my opinion, persecuting Kony is not an ideal solution to solve instability in Uganda because he left the country years ago. Instead, efforts should be directed to keeping communities happy to avoid other rebel groups from forming.
For the time being, I’m cautiously staying away from giving them donations. Also, I encourage you to do your research before spending your money on this cause.
