Many of you may have seen that Invisible Children’s latest project, “Kony 2012″, took up a sizable amount of internet traffic last night. In keeping with ACAC’s principles of critical self-reflection, here is a collection of thoughtful pieces which raise some important questions about the well-intentioned but highly problematic “Kony 2012″ campaign.
Please note that ACAC does not necessarily endorse or agree with any of these bloggers or authors, these posts are simply starting points for further discussion. We encourage you to form your own opinion on these matters.
We are concerned with presenting a balanced account of the debate surrounding the video campaign. If you would like to contribute an alternative perspective to this discussion, whether it be your own thoughts or a blog post, we strongly encourage you to send it to us at contact@acacdrcongo.org so that we may feature it in this discussion.
We will be sharing our own thoughts on this soon, so stay tuned for more.
Julie Okot Bitek – Commercializing Children’s Suffering is Macabre. Julie Bitek examines how the voices of the Acholi people/Northern Ugandans have been excluded from Western advocacy campaigns about Northern Uganda.
Targets or Captives? Obama’s LRA Challenge – What might be some of the unintended consequences of the military solution/military advisers which Invisible Children is advocating for? Prof. Erin Baines explores this issue.
What Does Kony Want? – A Photo Essay by Prof. Erin Baines.
Kony 2012 – Why I Love the idea but hate the campaign.
Taking Kony 2012 Down a Notch – Max Kersten from Justice in Conflict appeals for sober second thought.
Securing Rights – Let’s Talk About Kony. A valuable discussion by Daniel Solomon on the questions of morality, public narratives, and organizing narratives surrounding the Kony 2012 campaign.
Selling Old Newspapers Shouldn’t Be Profitable – Invisible Children and Kony 2012. A reminder that the LRA is largely no longer in Uganda, and focusing on Uganda as if the LRA were there now may not be entirely accurate.
The Visible Problem with Invisible Children. A lengthy discussion on the problems with Invisible Children’s approach and their framing of the issues.
KONY 2012: Thinking beyond the campaign. A critical perspective coming from a Canadian youth magazine.
Foreign Affairs- Obama Takes on the LRA. A well thought piece from Mareike Schomerus, Tim Allen, and Kloen Vlassenroot looking at some of the political calculations behind Obama’s commitment to supporting the Ugandan army/UPDF in their hunt for Joseph Kony.
How Matters – Good guys, Bad guys, and the People in between. Another considerate piece, which has a valuable discussion about the ethics of using Jacob’s suffering in the film.
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Thanks for linking to my post on how-matters.org. @InnovateAfrica & I hosted a live chat today to reflect more the issues that came up from our posts on #StopKony. Read more at: http://www.how-matters.org/2012/03/12/searching-for-closure-a-kony2012-postscript/