An online video released on the 4th
of March has gone viral, depicting the brutality of Ugandan rebel army leader
Joseph Kony. Within the first four days on the web over 50 million people had
watched the 30-minute long film made by the charity organization “Invisible
Children”. The main topic of the video is an exposition of the crimes committed
by Kony, such as child abduction, rape and the mutilation of prisoners. Joseph
Kony’s wide use of child soldiers is also criticized. Many people who have seen
the video are outraged at Kony’s brutal actions, and rightly so. However the
video tells only part of the truth, and Invisible Children’s intentions are
more than shady.
Ten
years after
That this video has appeared now is
somewhat surprising. The Lords Resistance Army, of which Joseph Kony is the
leader, has been around for almost 30 years. The civil war in Uganda reached
its high point in 2003, since then the LRA has been defeated majorly. From 2000
onwards, the LRA even had to leave Uganda and has since been operating in a
vast area covering parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan and
the Central African Republic. It is believed that now Kony’s LRA consists of no
more than 200 – 1500 soldiers. Frankly there are more kids with guns in the
gang parts of Los Angeles. All in all the conflict, is although not finally
resolved, pretty much over. Most of the people in Uganda that fled their homes
in 2003 have by now returned.
So why has the issue all of a sudden
come up again? We can’t say for sure whether it is just these activists
deciding to bring their campaign to the forefront this year or any other
reason. It is interesting however, that the campaign mainly focuses on the
presence of US military advisers and US military help for the Ugandan
government. Close ties to Uganda definitely benefit the US in more than one
way. Hasn’t Uganda just recently discovered oil in its Western part and is
expecting 2 billion Dollars oil revenue until 2017?
Dictators
in Africa
Another question that comes to ones
mind is: Why Kony? Not that his crimes could in any way be forgiven, but
Central Africa hasn’t exactly got a good record when it comes to criminal heads
of state. Uganda’s” president”, Yoweri Museveni, is one of Africa’s longest
serving dictators and has been trampling human rights since 1986. He came to
power after a rebellion against then dictator Milton Obote who came to power in
1979 in a rebellion against former dictator Idi Amin.
In the video by “Invisible Children”
it is suggested, that in the conflict in Uganda Joseph Kony was the absolute
bad guy. In fact, Museveni’s forces did not behave much nicer. Several human
rights organizations claim that the Ugandan military forces commonly practise
rape. And activists in Uganda report severe human right violations, such as the
use of child soldiers, by the Ugandan army!
So the good versus bad scenario does
not work here, rather, as so often in civil wars, both parties committed
atrocities in the interest of the clique they represented. The victim was the
Ugandan people being threatened in their livelihoods by both government and
rebel forces.
And this is another point not
mentioned in the film, namely that there is indeed a material root of Kony’s
rebellion. This root is the systematic discrimination of the Southern,
economically strong part of Uganda over the North. This dates back to colonial
times, when then the Northern Ugandan population was mainly used as slave
labour by the British colonialists.
Caught
in the web of Imperialism
Uganda, as well as Africa in general,
is highly dependent on foreign capital. The industry of African countries often
relies on a single raw material or agricultural product. In Uganda, these are
mainly agricultural products such as tea and coffee, accounting for a third of
Uganda’s exports. Now obviously oil will get its place too. The profits made in
these sectors are mainly taken home by the imperialist capitalists abroad, paid
for by extreme poverty in the Third World. In fact over one third of the
Ugandan population lives beneath the poverty line of 1.95$ a day.
Some of the crumbs of the gigantic
profits that the imperialists pour out of Africa are, however, given to the
local helpers, the national bourgeoisie. Characteristic for African countries
is a very small, highly corrupt bourgeoisie with strong resemblances to a
clique. Uganda gets a rating of 2.4 on an international corruption scale,
ranging from 1, absolutely corrupt, to 10, not corrupt at all.
The countries are made economically
and politically dependent on the imperialists.
So-called development aid, portrayed as a humanitarian gesture, is one
of the main tools to foster dependency. By giving back to these countries some
of the revenue taken out of them, the imperialists keep Third World governments
in line. Thomas Sankara, progressive leader of Burkina Faso once said: “The
hand that feeds you controls you”. And if these governments don’t act as they
are supposed to, the development aid is quickly withdrawn. Needless to say that
Uganda gets a third of its capital inflow in the form of development aid, and
“president” Museveni is considered a trusted ally in the region.
Dodgy
charity
The maker of this rather questionable
video is a charitable organization called “Invisible Children”. They present
themselves deliberately cool and trendy and rebellious in the video to appeal
to a lot of young people who want to change the world for the better. Behind
the scenes the reality looks different.
Of the funds raised by “Invisible
Children” only 32% went to actual projects in Uganda. Most of it was spent on
film making, travel expenses and not to mention the nice $80,000 salary the
three founders of the charity pay themselves. And of the 32% getting to Uganda
a lot of it will have ended up in the hands of corrupt government officials,
which can not be avoided when working on the ground.
After all, the solution they propose,
military aid to the Ugandan government, is a bad solution and much more harmful
than good. It is pouring fuel into an open conflict, training an army that
rapes its own population and regularly breaks up demonstrations of dissidents
and even tortures them. Finally with over 300,000 death civilians in Iraq and
Afghanistan in mind, the product of former US “humanitarian interventions,” the
US seem to be the least trustworthy when it comes to saving children’s lives.
Real Revolution, not
facebook revolution!
It is not to be doubted that a lot of
the young people who shared the Kony 2012 video on their facebook walls had
good intentions. “Invisible Children” makes use of the rightful disgust many
people have about imperialisms plundering in Africa. They focus on the least
important figure in the murderous wars for profit and power in Africa and do
not speak about the most important and most barbarous one: US Imperialism.
The role of facebook and twitter, so
emphasized in the Kony 2012 video, is a false solution. We can not go forward
seeing protest as something passive, even consumerist (buy the bracelet, the
poster etc.) that happens in the virtual world by simply sharing a video. Protest and revolution should be rooted in
the real world of material forces. And, rather than the video suggests, people
should be active participants, taking their fate into their own hands rather
than being pressure groups for politicians.
Ending the misery of exploitation and
imperialist dominance that has befallen Africa for almost 500 years is an
important task ahead. It is however not the task of white, middle class kids in
front of their computers but of the working people in Africa themselves. We can
help them by fighting imperialism and capitalism here in our country and that
way break the capitalist shackles imposed on the Third World.
