Kony 2012 or Bust: A Free Write Reflection by Seth Markle
When I checked my email for the first time in the morning of the
premiere of the Kony Campaign 2012, I was struck by the number of
emails from former students who had enrolled in my course
"Contemporary Africa: Resource Wars & Human Rights". Emails simply
with links to the video and short phrases that read: "Have you heard
about this???!!!" or "Check this out!!!!!!!". On facebook, the same
mad enthusiasm. The first thought that came to mind was, "Did they
kill him?" The thought was crude, I know, but for me there could be
no other explanation as to why all of sudden Joseph Kony had captured
the attention of the West. The "they" was in reference to the US
African Command (AFRICOM), the United States' military command post
based out of Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.
Since taking office in 2008, President Obama has embraced the African
foreign policy agenda of the Bush era, pursuing a military driven
strategy designed to strategically secure access to Africa's natural
resources and monitor Islamic movements under the veneer of
multilateral support and good governance. For the past couple of
years, Africom has engaged in the training of suspect African military
armies, building of schools and hospitals and facilitating actual
'regime change'. Indeed, Somalia, the Ivory Coast, Southern Sudan,
Libya, and Nigeria occupies the time and resources of the US
government. But for Invisible Children to imply US complicity in the
form of non-military action against Kony and LRA is false and, more
troubling, quite dangerous. Lest we remember, the last time the US
orchestrated the kill or capture of Kony was in December 2010. This
botched attempt led to even more civilian casualties, child
abductions, rapes -- everything the KONY 2012 CAMPAIGN stands against
-- because Kony and the LRA retreat plan was never taken under
serious consideration by US, Ugandan, DRC and Sudanese military
forces. Whoops. Chalk that up to imperial arrogance and let us check
ourselves in the jumping on Kony-dead-by-December-2012-or-
bandwagon.
Clearly, Invisible Children's "shock" activism approach has raised
more questions than answers. Here are few questions that I have found
most intriguing culled from conversations with friends, students and
colleagues: Why does the International Criminal Court seem to only
target Africans? Did you see the video of members of Invisible
Children holding AK-47s and posing with members of the LRA? Don't you
think it is plausible that this video has received over 50million hits
is because the people in the US, mostly white Americans, think they
can "save" Africa? Have we become so paralyzed and numbed to the
struggles of oppressed peoples around the world, that watching a video
and pressing "like" click somehow seems to signify a legitimate mode
of active solidarity?