Invisible Children club drops affiliation, cancels screening amid Kony 2012 criticism

Mark Robinson

Assistant News Editor

A social-advocacy campaign that promotes catching the “worst living criminal” has created a firestorm of controversy for its organizers in the last month.

“Kony 2012,” the latest documentary by the Invisible Children organization, calls for the capture of Joseph Kony, a Ugandan warlord who has ravaged central Africa for the last three decades.

Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army. He was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2005 for crimes against humanity that include the kidnapping and brutalization of more than 30,000 children. President Barack Obama sent 100 armed troops to Uganda last October to aid attempts to capture Kony.

In the 30-minute video, Invisible Children co-founder Jason Russell calls for 2012 to be the last year Kony roams free.

The documentary marked the launch of a social-media campaign to persuade famous entertainers and politicians to “make Kony famous” so that he could no longer exist inconspicuously.

In the weeks since the release, the Invisible Children organization has been criticized about finances, intentions and credibility. The founders released a response to the criticisms on the organization’s website, but their reputation was already in question.

As a result, the VCU Invisible Children club will no longer affiliate or directly support the Invisible Children organization.

Ashley Zehrt, the club’s president, said the decision to cut ties with organization is based on the politicized stance taken in “Kony 2012.”

By emphasizing the power of politicians and entertainers, Zehrt said, Invisible Children devalued the voice of its strongest ally: the youth.

“Kids have put so much effort and money and time into supporting Invisible Children, and their change in motivation has really taken away from the voice of the youth,” the junior international studies major said.

Invisible Children was scheduled to screen “Kony 2012” at VCU in the Commons Theatre on Tuesday, but the club chose to cancel the event, Zehrt said. The showing would have been “irrelevant,” Zehrt said, because everyone has seen the video.

Zehrt said she thought the “Kony 2012” documentary painted a picture of the Ugandan children as objects of pity, which the club rejects.

“It was misleading, and I don’t know if it was intentional, but it seemed manipulative,” said Zehrt, a supporter of Invisible Children for the last nine years. “That’s why we need to change our group. … There is still rebuilding that needs to be done in Uganda. If kids totally lose their momentum in this cause, then it’s a tragedy.”

After “Kony 2012” debuted, membership in the VCU club swelled to more than 250 members. But criticisms of Invisible Children’s finances caused some to question if more money should be going directly to Uganda, Zehrt said.

Reports have cited the organization’s financial records – which are available on their website – that show only 37 percent of their money goes to programs on the ground in Central Africa.

The club will now directly support an orphanage or secondary school in Uganda, which they are in the process of choosing, Zehrt said.

Ugandan criticism of the Invisible Children campaign played a major part in the club’s decision to drop affiliation, Zehrt said.

Not all Ugandans agree on the matter, though.

Rogers Kasirye is the executive director of the Uganda Youth Development Link and the chairperson of the East Africa Policy Alliance.

Kasirye moved from Kampala, Uganda to Richmond last summer after being named one of eight VCU Humphrey Fellows. The program brings midcareer professionals from developing countries to the university to pursue further research and training in their field.

Despite the organizational criticism of Invisible Children, Kasirye said the Kony 2012 campaign has brought international attention to the exploitation of children as pawns of war.

“The subject of recruiting and using children in armed forces is now on the table,” Kasirye said. “We are going to begin to ask to what extent were our children exploited? Why are children generally, all over the world, being used in war?

“We, as people and members of civil society, (must ask) what can we do to prevent such a heinous crime from happening,” he said.

In 2007, Kasirye headed a study about child trafficking in northern Uganda on behalf of the International Labor Office. The project was funded by the U.S. Department of Labor.

For a section of the study, researchers interviewed 47 former child soldiers in northern Uganda, some as young as 12 years old. Seventy-four percent said they were orphans; more than half said they were kidnapped and forced into ranks with the LRA and other militias, the study shows.

Aside from being forced into militias, some children were used as sex slaves or trafficked for weapons and other valuables, the study shows.

At the time of publication, the study said that the LRA was responsible for abducting 30,000 children, a number that is consistent with the figure provided by Invisible Children in “Kony 2012.”

Invisible Children has been criticized for exaggerating the influence of Joseph Kony and the LRA in the region, but Kasirye’s study explicitly calls for Kony to be brought to justice for “heinous crimes done with impunity against humanity.”

Kony did leave northern Uganda in 2006, prompting some to question the Invisible Children campaign’s relevance; Kasirye is not one of them. If even one child is unaccounted for, he said, Kony should still be a priority.

“I think the use of social media is a very strong force, a strong power, and the people who abuse children, who exploit children, the dictators that we have in Africa, must know that today if you commit a crime, in two minutes people will know all over the world,” Kasirye said.

“Kony 2012” has more than 100 million combined views on YouTube and Vimeo. It’s the fastest video to hit that mark in the history of the Internet.

Still, critics of the Invisible Children campaign question its ability to accomplish anything further. The organization and its supporters have been maligned for promoting what some critics call ‘clicktivism’ or ‘slacktivism’ – the idea that one can change the world by reposting a video on a social network.

Tracy Ta, a freshman psychology and criminal justice double major, is the vice president of the VCU Invisible Children club. She said the ‘slacktivism’ criticism is unwarranted.

“I think realistically there are people who will share (the video) and then do nothing else. … What I hope is that while this energy is still up, we can keep people energized so they don’t just trickle away with the press,” she said.

Chief among critics’ concerns of “Kony 2012” itself is the filmmaker’s depiction of the conflict as an oversimplified version of a complex problem.

David Lett, a sophomore political science major, said Invisible Children did oversimplify the conflict in the video.

Even so, he sees the documentary as an entry point into the conflict for people who didn’t know about it before. It’s the individual’s responsibility to do their own research about the issues the organization raises, he said.

The message of the campaign is getting lost amongst the criticism of the messengers and the manner in which it was delivered, Lett said.

“With a lot of the criticisms I think people are missing the point, whether it be where the money is going, or if Invisible Children supports the Ugandan government. They’re overcomplicating the problem and missing the bigger picture,” Lett said. “Kony is a bad guy. He needs to be stopped, point blank.”

In “Kony 2012,” the filmmakers call for supporters of the campaign to go out at midnight on April 20 and cover every surface of their town or city with posters of Kony’s face to make him famous. The intent is to prompt action that will eventually lead to his capture, the filmmakers said.

Several “Cover the Night” Facebook events in Richmond have hundreds of people who plan to participate; Lett is one of them, in spite of the possible legal consequences. He hopes the police use discretion in handling the event, he said.

In the city of Richmond, it’s illegal to put posters on public property. Each offense is punishable by a $50 fine.

Charles Klink, Ph.D., associate vice provost for student affairs and enrollment services at VCU, said the university can punish anyone who is charged and convicted of an offense outside of the university, including illegally placing posters.

He challenged supporters of Invisible Children to do something more substantive to contribute to the campaign.

“In my mind, there are environmental issues when you do something like that. Then there’s a social justice issue because someone is going to have to clean it up and pay for it,” Klink said.

On Friday, the African Union said it would send 5,000 troops to hunt for Joseph Kony, the Associated Press reported. As of press time, Invisible Children has not made an official statement about the announcement. CT