Kony 2012? First and foremost; Imperialism out of Africa!

An online video released on the 4^th 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.