Kony 2012: Humanitarian Work or Narcissistic Consumer Activism

With over 78 million views and counting, Invisible Children's (IC) KONY 2012 awareness campaign captured international attention in the span of a few days.

Uploaded March 5, the 30-minute video "aims to make Joseph Kony famous...to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice," according to IC. Kony leads the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), which terrorized the Acholi region in Northern Uganda until 2006 through rape, sex slavery, murder, and kidnapped children-made-soldiers, or kadogo.

Initially, this sounds like a humanitarian organization rallying well-intentioned people towards a good cause. A bit of scrutiny, however, reveals a number of problems with the methods of IC.


IC co-founder, board member, and director/narrator of the video Jason Russell holds a degree in Cinematic Production from the University of Southern California, and points to numerous celebrities as his role models, according to an 2011 interview with PMC Magazine.

Oprah, Bono, Steven Spielberg, Walt Disney, and Steve Jobs are among his heroes and heroines, i.e., he models after a media celebrity, a musical celebrity, a videomaker celebrity, an artist celebrity, and a corporate celebrity, all of whom are textbook examples of, well, celebrities.To be sure, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Malcom X, or Dorothy Day acquired something of celebrity status, but that was secondary to their activism, not vice versa.

Nothing of course is wrong with his heroes and heroines, or that he might lack the formal understanding of activism and social change. Rather, how they shape IC's approach is a problem. Take for example how the video focuses more on IC's work than on the complex issue itself, which the video simplifies and dramatizes. These are not the things that make social change, let alone an activist.

"I am a rebel soul, a dream evangelist," who wants to "redefine international justice" and "the concept of humanitarian work," Russel said in the same interview with PMC Magazine. As prone to idealistic visions as I can be, even this seems clearly unrealistic.

"There's something inherently misleading, naive, maybe even dangerous, about the idea of rescuing children or saving Africa...It hints uncomfortably of the White Man's Burden," said Yale political scientist Chris Blattman. Ugandans and other Africans who watched the video were quick to pick up on this, and many criticized or outright disapproved of the video, as a number of YouTube posts may attest.

“The White Savior Industrial Complex is not about justice. It is about having a big emotional experience that validates privilege,” said Nigerian writer Teju Cole via Twitter Mar 8. “Close to 1.5 million Iraqis died from an American war of choice. Worry about that.”

"It's not simply a matter of flicking a switch and saying, yep, we voted. Let's stop Kony now," said freelance journalist Michael Wilkerson, who's lived and reported in Uganda. when featured on NPR to speak about the issue Mar 8.

As the video explains, the International Criminal Court called for the arrest of Kony in 2005 for crimes against humanity and war crimes. In 2006, the Ugandan army forced the LRA out of Uganda to parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and Sudan, after the LRA continually refused to sign peace agreements.

Since then, the Ugandan government has launched programs to initiate interior recovery. Last year 100 Special Forces advisors, by order of U.S. President Barack Obama, aided the Ugandan army as it sought the LRA across these three countries.

Yet in spite of U.S. and Ugandan government efforts, only once during the video does Russell admit that Uganda is "relatively safe," instead focusing attention on the fact that Kony is "still out there," glossing over the fact that he has lost much of his power.

While Kony is indubitably a criminal of horrendous magnitude and ought to be found and tried, a number of issues have been raised regarding the campaign.

The campaign specifically targets youth. A quick check of the publically available YouTube statistics reveals that, of registered users, the majority of females who watched the video are between the ages of 13 and 17 (18 to 24 for males). IC acknowledges in its 2011 annual report that youth account for the majority of its support, and are predominantly responsible for its 60% growth last year.

It would be difficult for IC to argue that teenagers can make politically informed decisions regarding such a complex issue by means of this video alone or with the scarce resources on their website. The majority of females who watched the video are not even eligible to vote, yet are solicited for money and political support.

IC admits that within the viral video "many nuances of the 26-year conflict are admittedly lost or overlooked," and that the it is only an "entry point to the conflict," according to the Critique page of their website invisiblechildren.com. This may be so.

However, "nuances" being "overlooked" softens the reality that approximately 23 minutes of the video focus on sentimental clips of Russel's son, vague hints of social transformation, cinematic highlights of the campaign, and an advertisement for their "activist kit" product, while a mere 6 minutes describe the conflict or Kony’s activities.

If one purchased one of these before they sold out, "people will think you're an advocate of awesome" with your activist ("swagtivist" or "slacktivist," as some observers have labeled it) shirt, bracelets, stickers, and buttons.

The problem is not that IC targets youth or funds its campaigns in Central Africa by providing commodities to consumers per se. After all, TOMS and Ethos water, among other nominally philanthropic companies, do much of the same. Rather, the problem lies in the fundamental message this type of activism conveys.

Can we as human beings genuinely practice benevolence, activism, or civic duty by simply buying things – by sharing a video or tweet from our iPhones or personal computers, without leaving the security of our routines?

Yes, social media facilitated in part the Arab Spring and Occupy movements, but that does not mean social media will inevitably transform the social order of the world or invariably bring about justice, as the video suggests and Russel believes.

And yes, some funds raised by donation and selling products go to direct services for the Central African campaigns. All of 32.4% of IC’s expenditures went to direct services in 2011, according to its financial report.

Regardless, we need caution regarding such consumer activism and humanitarian injunctions to act (vicariously) against social ills, particularly when some of the same sort of troubles happen here, such as sex trafficking, and while other, less apparent forms of violence occur within the day-to-day functions of Western life.

IC works to increase the accessibility and infrastructure of education in Northern Uganda, lobbies the US Government, established radio warnings, search and rescue teams, and similar operations to address issues stemming from the LRA, according to its website.

So IC does its share of work in raising awareness, however inaccurately, searching for the dwindled LRA, and implementing recovery efforts in Central Africa.

But before buying in to the latest humanitarian cause, we should do the research and get informed of the efficacy and methods of the group asking for our support. Do the means justify the ends?

Moreover, the next time we feel compelled to "do something," we ought to look at what we can do, right here.