Beyondkony2012 Sample

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Beyond Kony2012

Atrocity, Awareness, & Activism

in the Internet Age

2012 Amanda Taub

Last published on 2012-04-20

is is a Leanpub book, for sale at:

http://leanpub.com/beyondkony2012

Leanpub helps authors to self-publish in-progress ebooks.We call this idea Lean Publishing. To learn moreabout Lean Publishing, go to: http://leanpub.com/manifesto

To learn more about Leanpub, go to: http://leanpub.com
http://leanpub.com/http://leanpub.com/http://leanpub.com/manifestohttp://leanpub.com/manifestohttp://leanpub.com/beyondkony2012


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Contents

Preface i

Armair Critics Respond 1

Kate Cronin-Furman and Amanda Taub . . 1

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Preface

is book is for those who know a lile about JosephKony and the Lords Resistance Army, and want toknow more.

Invisible Childrens Kony 2012 has become the mostviral video ever. Concerned citizens around the world,from middle sool students to celebrities like Oprahand Justin Bieber, wated the film and shared it withtheir friends. It has now been viewed more than 87million times.

at success was soon met by a critical balash.Critics nearly as varied as the campaigns support-ers pointed out that Invisible Children was offeringan oversimplified, even misleading narrative. eyfaulted the campaign for failing to provide a contextfor the LRA conflict, and pointed out that the videoportrayed Africans as either helpless victims, or heart-

less killers.

is book is both a collection of that criticism, and aconstructive response to it. e authors ea wrotea short essay offering information that they felt wasmissing from the video, or explaining how they thoughtthe campaign could be improved.

e first several apters provide historical and po-

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Preface ii

litical context. Adam Bran, Daniel Kalinaki, andAyesha Nibbe explain the roots of the conflict, andhow it has persisted for so many years. Alex Lileand Patri Wegner discuss various aempts to endthe conflict through peace negotiations, ICC arrestwarrants, and military operations, and why they have

not been successful.

Later apters consider the ethics and effectivenessof awareness campaigns like Kony 2012. Jina Mooreand Glenna Gordon draw on their experiences as jour-nalists to critique the videos portrayal of Africa andthe people who live there. Rebecca Hamilton, Laura

Seay, Kate Cronin-Furman, and Amanda Taub exam-ine the weakness of awareness advocacy. AlannaShaikh explains the ethical dangers of bad aid work.Teddy Ruge offers a different view of Africa, as aplace of dynamic innovation instead of violence andhelplessness. And youth activist Sam Menefee-Libeydescribes his frustration with the tone and substance

of the campaign meant to target his generation. Amanda Taub, April 20, 2012


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Armchair CriticsRespond

Kate Cronin-Furman andAmanda Taub

First came the video. en came the balash. encame the balash-to-the-balash. Except that Invis-ible Children and its supporters didnt just rally to

defend their oh-so-very-viral video, they allengedits critics standing to express an opinion on it in thefirst place.

One particular insult kept popping up: that thosewho questioned the campaign were just armaircritics, inferior to the brave activists who were tak-ing real action and raising awareness of a serious

problem. e most prominent articulations of theargument appeared in the New York Times opinionpages. On Mar 12th, Roger Cohen wrote that hebaed Invisible Children co-founder Jason Russellover his armair critics, because hes put his bootson the ground and hes doing something. Two dayslater, Cohens colleague Niolas Kristof eoed his

thoughts, referring to criticism of the Kony 2012 cam-

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paign as the sneering scorn of do-nothing armaircynics. Similar sentiments could be found across theinternet, on blogs, and in the comments sections ofKony-related articles.

Why should this be su a common defense of a

campaign that is, itself, targeted towards the cou-dwelling masses? People who wated the video andshared it on Facebook, Twier, and Tumblr hardlyhad boots on the ground in Central Africa. Why is itthat mobilizing to ange policy with no informationor context beyond a youTube video should be con-sidered unassailably praiseworthy, while offering a

different perspective based on deeper knowledge andexperience is the act of an armair cynic?

e answer, we believe, lies in the conviction thatmoral authority requires a particular type of engage-ment with the suffering of others. Specifically, theeye-opening discovery of injustice, followed by thedecision to risk life and limb to help. And awarenesscampaigns, with their focus on the personal narrativesof these white saviors, offer a way for the folks athome to cloak themselves in borrowed moral superi-ority.

In this essay, we suggest that this type of advocacy isineffective, and even harmful. e heroic central role

is not available to those whose nationality, gender, or


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poverty prevents them from performing acts of self-sacrifice in order to put their boots on the ground.By focusing only on those who can, it privileges thealready-privileged. Moreover, it demands a simplifiednarrative that is focused on raising awareness athome, and elides the details of how that awarenesswill translate into ange overseas. At the very least,this risks wasting supporters time. At worst, it en-courages them to ba policies that can cause seriousharm, without understanding, or taking responsibilityfor, the consequences.

Armchairs vs. Heroes

e Kony 2012 campaign, like other awareness cam-paigns, is enthusiastically pro-armair. Its goal isto motivate the heretofore-uninformed denizens ofFacebook and Tumblr to ange the world by speakingout against Kony and his atrocities. If their voices

are important enough to be the focus of a multi-million dollar awareness campaign, how can InvisibleChildren or its supporters suggest that experience onthe ground is a prerequisite for a credible opinion?

Additionally, most critics of the Kony 2012 campaignare not armair anything. Rather, they are Ugan-

dans, aid workers, journalists, survivors of LRA atroc-ities, and researers who have lived in the region and


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are experts on the LRA. Boots cant get mu more onthe ground than that. Dismissing these individualsconcerns as sneering scorn reveals a belief that onlycertain opinions are worth listening to. By derid-ing critical voices as do-nothing armair cynicswhose input is less credible than that of the Kony2012 filmmakers, Kristof and his pals are suggestingthat expertise comes from emotional engagement andpersonal risk-taking, not from knowledge or practicalexperience.

Establishing his own credibility as an expert on theregion, Kristof notes: Ive been held at gunpoint

in Central African Republic and ased through theCongo jungle by a warlord whose massacres I in-terrupted. is story eoes the Invisible Childrenfounders tale of their groups origins: ey stumbledupon the conflict in northern Uganda during a sum-mer filmmaking trip in 2003 when the LRA aaedthe car in front of theirs, and subsequently decided to

forgo the comforts of the developed world and committhemselves to helping the LRAs victims.

While bravery and self-sacrifice are admirable, thisbrand of credibility-establishment isnt available toeveryone. Kristof is lauded for a commitment to in-vestigative journalism that doesnt flin from threats

to his personal safety, but female journalists who findthemselves in similarly dangerous situations meet


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with very different reactions. Consider the case ofLara Logan. When the CBS reporter was sexuallyassaulted while covering the protests in Egypt lastyear, variations on the theme of what was an at-tractive blonde woman doing there? were a commonresponse. Not only was there a conspicuous absenceof praise for her bravery in pursuing an importantstory in a difficult context, many reactions denied heragency entirely, asking Why did her editor send herto su a dangerous place?

Likewise, being a westerner, male or female, offerscertain protections even in highly dangerous envi-

ronments. As George Paer memorably wrote in2009, its always the fixer who dies. e list oflocal drivers, interpreters, and journalists who havelost their lives in situations from whi the westernreporters they were assisting managed to escape isheartbreaking. ere was Sultan Munadi, the NewYork Times fixer who died in Afghanistan during a

British Special Forces raid intended to rescue himand Times reporter Stephen Farrell. Farrell survived.And Ajmal Naqshbandi, the Afghan fixer who wasworking with Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogia-como. Naqshbandi was beheaded, Mastrogiacomoeventually released. In 2011, in Syria, driver Mo-hamed Shaglouf was murdered at a epoint by

Qaddafi loyalists. e four journalists in his car - the


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New York Times Anthony Shadid, Stephen Farrell,Lynsey Addario, and Tyler His - were kidnappedand eventually released.

Local human rights workers who facilitate the effortsof international NGOs face similar risks. While re-

searers from New York or London headquarters canrely on the baing of their embassies to assist them ifarrested or expelled, local activists can hardly turn tothe government whose violations they are publicizingfor protection. e stakes are simply higher when youare protesting from within than from abroad.

We are not suggesting that Western journalists orresearers put their own safety ahead of their lo-cal colleagues. Nor do we believe that the bootson the ground narrative intends to privilege thevoices of brave men over foolhardy women, orself-sacrificing foreigners over compromised lo-cals. But scrat the surface of the aa on thecritical response to Kony 2012, and youll find animplicit assumption that only certain voices shouldbe permied to speak. ats the triy thing aboutprivilege - you dont notice it when its yours.

For our part, we are more than happy to cop to beingarmair critics. Unlike the founders of InvisibleChildren, we have never set off for Africa with

a carload of video cameras, looking for people to


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save. is is not due to apathy. We just dont thinkthat our status as privileged Americans gives us theability to save anyone. Nor have we ever beenheld at gunpoint by warlords whose massacres weveinterrupted. It is a source of pride for us that, whenwe are working in dicey environments far from home,we take care with our own safety and the safety ofthose who help us. And we dont think being similarlycautious or reluctant to enact the role of white saviorshould render anyone elses opinions irrelevant andnon-credible, either.

The Trouble with AwarenessCampaigns

e hissing about upholstered seating, like all adhominem aas, ignores the substance of the cri-tiques. No one is saying that the Kony 2012 campaignis flawed because Joseph Kony is an awesome guy

who should be le in peace to maim and murder ashe pleases. Rather, the critics have pointed out thatthe shortcomings of the campaign may lead to realharm.

e policies that Invisible Children advocates havepotentially dire consequences. e campaign calls for

the United States to support the Ugandan governmentmilitarily, but gives no indication of the risks of su


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a policy. ere is no mention of Musevenis troopsviolence against the Aoli civilian population or thefact that forcible internment of the population in IDPcamps resulted in far more deaths than Konys aasever did.

Applauding Invisible Childrens enthusiasm, Kristofexcused their over-simplification of the situation withthe LRA, explaining that: Complexity is, er, com-plicated. is statement eoes Kristofs defenses ofhis own work. Challenged for printing the name andphoto of a 9-year-old victim of rape, he responded thathis actions were appropriate because it was the only

way to raise the issue on the agenda. Asked why hiscolumns about Africa so frequently focus on whitesin shining armor, he suggested that American readerscant be convinced to care about far-off crises unlessthey have a white protagonist to identify with.

While all that may be true, the complexity-stripped,savior-focused awareness campaign also appeals tofollowers precisely because it is oversimplified. Byremoving any reference to potential negative con-sequences, and centering themselves around pure,self-sacrificing savior figures, awareness campaignsoffer their followers a buffer between doing some-thing about mass atrocity, and the consequences

that something might lead to. is is an aractiveproposition: get all the benefits of refusing to stand


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by and do nothing, without any accountability forstepping up and doing something that might havepotential negative consequences.

Saying I support a military operation to captureJoseph Kony because I believe the long-term benefits

of assassinating or capturing him are sufficiently greatthat they outweigh the consequences of this policy,whi will almost certainly include massive reprisalaas against civilians, and the deaths, in bale, ofLRA members who were conscripted into the groupagainst their will is a morally defensible position.However, that defense is not an easy one: it requires

acceptance of the consequences of su a policy, andanowledgement that they may well be tragic.

Contrast that with the pledge that Invisible Childrenasks Kony 2012 supporters to sign, whi calls onworld leaders to provide the African Union effortwith the logistical support needed to arrest JosephKony and his top commanders and protect civilians.Informed readers will realize that this policy is thesame one as in the previous paragraph. But the targetsof Kony 2012 and other awareness campaigns are not,for the most part, informed. (By definition, sucampaigns target the unaware.) And this statementoffers no clues about the potential consequences of

an AU mission to arrest Kony. Its language is un-threatening. Arrest sounds uncontroversial - in the


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United States, police officers arrest people every day.ere is no indication that aieving Konys arrestwould probably first require a military defeat. Andthe reference to protecting civilians makes it soundlike that is an equal goal - or perhaps even the primarygoal - of the AU force, when in fact it is a 5000-strongmilitary brigade tasked with eliminating the LRA.

A supporter who signed this pledge without any ofthat baground information, therefore, would enjoyan enviable position. By following the instructionsof Invisible Childrens merry band of hipster heroes,who have proven their worthiness by leaving the

comforts of southern California to put their bootson the ground in central Africa, supporters get toshare in their moral legitimacy. But the awarenesscampaigns simplified narrative protects them fromaccountability for the consequences of the policiestheyre advocating for. How could they be morallyresponsible if no one told them about the risks?

Viewed in that light, its easy to see why simple cam-paign narratives - be a good guy, like Jason Russell, byhelping him fight the bad guy, Joseph Kony! - are soappealing. But their appeal does not mean that theyare a good idea.

is is not to suggest that awareness raising is never

a productive activity. Awareness campaigns are well-


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suited to combating injustices that arise from prob-lematic public sentiment. For instance, public edu-cation projects aimed at decreasing HIV/AIDS stigmacan directly improve the lives of HIV-positive individ-uals. A reduction in stigmatization will cut down onthe harassment they face and improve their ability tosecure employment and access public services.

Awareness campaigns can also be effective in caseswhere injustices are perpetrated by an actor who isvulnerable to pressure. is keys into the naming andshaming meanism employed by non-governmentalorganizations against abusive governments, whi

assumes that violator governments care about theirreputation. If public opinion can be mobilized tocensure human rights violators, and/or to convinceother governments to punish them, awareness candirectly contribute to ange.

But the situation with Joseph Kony and the LRA isdifferent. Here, the abuses (including abduction, rape,torture, and slaughter of vulnerable civilian popula-tions in central Africa) are commied by actors whodont care how many people know what theyve done.Consequently, the actors most capable of halting LRAatrocities are invulnerable to public pressure. eycant be shamed.

In situations like this, where injustices are perpe-


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trated by actors whose incentives cant be affected bypressure, the avenue for public awareness to produceange is through impact on external actors. Becausethey arent directly responsible for the violations,external actors have a more limited ability to haltthem. At the very least, they must act to alter thestatus quo, rather than simply ceasing the violations,as the perpetrator could do.

External actors options are constrained. ey can tryto directly incentivize perpetrators to stop offending,or they can aempt to incapacitate them. But, forthe reasons noted above, 100 million college students

dont throw their weight behind a campaign callingfor international actors to recognize that althoughits unpalatable, bribing brutal warlords into goodbehavior may be the quiest route to civilian protec-tion. Instead, they mobilize behind simpler messages:Arrest this monster. Stop at nothing.

us, in cases where violations are commied byactors who cant be pressured, awareness raising cam-paigns necessarily take a simplified, law enforcementapproa to complex political problems. Hence, theKony 2012 campaign aims to pressure the U.S. tocommit more resources towards Konys capture andtrial, while ignoring the determinants of the original

conflict. Other awareness campaigns have followeda similar script. e anti-conflict minerals campaign


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for peace in the eastern Democratic Republic of theCongo asks external actors to restrict militias fundingsources, but doesnt concern itself with their under-lying incentives to fight. Save Darfur demandedthat the ICC indict President Omar al-Bashir, but didnot address how ICC involvement might negativelyimpact the pursuit of peace in the region.

Measuring campaign success in YouTube hits and t-shirt sales not only risks confusing increased aware-ness with successful activism, it demands dangerousover-simplifications that ignore the potential negativeconsequences of advocacy decisions. Focusing on

heroic white saviors as a hook to draw the interest ofpreviously-unengaged Western audiences exacerbatesthese problems. Responsible activism does not shirkaccountability for its harms while seeking credit for itssuccesses. Ethical advocates do not insist that othershave no right to speak.

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Beyondkony2012 Sample