The obvious disconnections in Kony 2012 Saga

The obvious disconnections in Kony 2012 Saga
By John P. Howse |

Not to mention the prime marketing success, awareness generation and fundraising opportunity for Invisible Children, if there is anything this entire Kony 2012 saga reveals, it is that the growing disconnect between Africa and the rest of the world remains constant – where the outcomes remain unassured.

Since being posted on Monday, a 30 min documentary produced by an American organization called Invisible Children and titled, “KONY 2012,” has attracted more than 60 million views online, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations and propelling a number of controversial debates on the plight of Northern Uganda as well as the legitimacy of the operational integrity of the organisation.

To set the record straight, The Lord’s Resistance Army no longer exists in Ugandan territory and now commits equally devastating atrocities but in a smaller scale due to their vastly diminished numbers, in Central Africa (Central African Republic, North Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Western Sudan).

Invisible Children’s offshoot advocacy movement Resolve has successfully lobbied the Obama administration into sending a US military contingent in the form of 100 military advisors to assist the Ugandan army but which many critics in Uganda (and the rest of the world) consider a token gesture of diplomatic colonialism.

Meanwhile the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) have been accused of committing the same atrocities (link http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1362350/-/axe1dtz/-/index.html) in the pursuit of the LRA on foreign soil as they were accused and committed of by the international community in the mid1990s while pursuing exiled Rwandese rebels in the DRC.

Now that international attention is primed on this issue of Northern Uganda and the LRA, a number of critical issues have been thrust into the spot light, some new, and some unprecedented in terms of access to information, but all of which contribute to a mass of confusion.

In the global West, anyone with access to a twitter feed, facebook account, their G3 (or is it now G4) mobile subscription or wi-fi enabled laptop and upon watching the film can be as ‘clued up’ on the history of the LRA conflict and Northern Uganda in an instant; the corresponding political or indeed emotional response confirming what many critical commentators call a form of ‘slack-tasivim’ in reaction to the ease in which online social advocacy appeases the wired world of the West.

But, then take this cross section of globalisation and place it side by side with the victims of the conflict and the general population of Northern Uganda and the benefits offered them, once Invisible Children’s staff salaries and expenses have been paid, seems hard to place. Disconnect.

The relative peace that Northern Uganda has enjoyed since the LRA were pushed out of the region in 2007 has ushered in a phenomenal rate of economic growth, largely in the informal economy but also with it, growing social problems and cultural conflict, especially over land. The region continues to suffer from a dangerously indifferent Government and local Government that ignores the plight of devastation racked by 20 years of conflict due to general bureaucratic inefficiencies and corruption. Spending on infrastructure to support massive reconstruction efforts and development programs ceases to exist in an effectively positive manner, where social and economic conditions across the demographic spectrum continue to move preciously towards a crises threshold, and a combination of apathy, dependence, and disease threaten to retrogress the gains accumulated from the so called ‘capacity driven’ model of development.

The irony of this saga, is lost in no small part on the generation of youth who have grown up and who know only of conflict; and who have for the past seven years been gently eased into the cash flow comforts levied by the vestiges of humanitarian aid - oblivious of the international attention that has now been turned upon them – and where ironically, the cost of an internet connection makes access to social media financially and technically arduous. Disconnect.

In a cash strapped economy such as Northern Uganda, one thing is certain. The attention drawn to the plight of Northern Uganda will undoubtlby bring in foreign money in the form of tourists dollars not to mention expenditure from Invisible Children’s well known high salary and benefits base. Despite the well known and well documented negative affects of the ‘volun-tourism dollar’, such dollars in the vacuum of effective national fiscal policy and institutionalised corruption provide a very real means of economic security. This fact, hidden amongst the tens of millions of conscious (and un-conscious) thoughts for Northern Uganda remains one of the most positive aspects of this global debate: Connect.

Long after attention has moved on to another internet sensation, the population of Northern Uganda will continue to fight, in their own way, as they always have, for justice, equality and access to social services from their government, devoid of international support and attention, in the hope that for once in the history of Northern Uganda, they will realise peace.

[I am a recent Masters graduate in Peace and Conflict studies at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda who has for the last six months been living and working in Northern Uganda with former victims of the LRA conflict.]

ends

© Scoop Media