Upon exiting from The Hewitt School’s main entrance on 75th street, one can easily see a bright Kony 2012 poster, its slogan “One thing we can all agree on” printed neatly below a merged elephant and donkey image. Approximately 100 steps away on Park avenue, another Kony 2012 poster hangs on an identical telephone pole. One difference: this poster has been defaced.
These two posters go to show the completely divided opinions regarding the “Kony 2012” movement, headed by the non-profit organization Invisible Children. For those of you have been (no offense) living under a rock, here’s a crash course on this controversial movement:
Invisible Children describes itself as an organization which “uses film, creativity, and social action to end the use of child soldiers in Joseph Kony’s Rebel War and restore LRA-affected communities in East and Central Africa to peace and prosperity” where LRA stands for “Lord’s Resistance Army.”
In order to promote their objective, Invisible Children released its Kony 2012 video, a 29 minute documentary with the purpose of educating the general public about Joseph Kony, the atrocities the LRA has committed against African youth, and a proposed a plan of action which includes the following goals:
- Make Kony famous
- Engage policy makers
- Strengthen regional efforts
- Stop LRA violence
- Rehabilitate war-affected communities
On April 5th, the “Part II: Beyond Famous” video was released to answer any arising questions about Invisible Children and Joseph Kony, and April 20th was proclaimed as the date when supporters would “Cover the Night” with Kony 2012 posters in order to raise awareness and make Kony famous. The film says that “we will meet at sundown and blanket every street in every city until the sun comes up. The rest of the world will go to bed Friday night and wake up to hundreds of thousands of posters demanding justice on every corner.”
Yet, come the morning of April 21st, New York City, and many other cities and countries worldwide (for example, Canada and Austrailia),were sufficiently devoid of Kony posters: “Cover the Night” was a bust in comparison to its online impact.
With nearly 89 million hits on Youtube for the first Kony 2012 video (and another 2 million for its Part:II video) and 3.5 million pledges to stop Kony on its website, one has to wonder what is to blame for the small turnout on April 20th. There are two possibilities that could have caused this and both relate to Kony 2012’s loss of popularity from the campaign’s release to now.
On one hand, we can blame the difficulty of translating a solely internet-based movement to the “real world”. Terms like “slacktivism” have been coined to describe the way in which young people today use social media and the practice of reblogging, as opposed to good old-fashioned rallies and marches to protest social injustices in a passive way. We can also blame the unforgiving, fast pace of the World Wide Web which allows once hot-topics to fall into a black abyss of oblivion in a matter of hours after going viral. Perhaps too much time passed in-between the release of the documentary and “Cover the Night” – the frenzied period in which nearly every young person’s facebook, tumblr, and twitter was clogged up with “Kony 2012” posts simply could not be sustained through April.
On the other hand, Kony 2012’s decline also began as a result of a series of questions that arose over the credibility of Invisible Children. In fact, on March 15th, Jason Russell, co-founder of Invisible Children and the director and narrator of “Kony 2012”, was detained for disturbing the peace in his San Francisco neighborhood.
Soon after, young people began to do their own research about Joseph Kony, Invisible Children, and the Kony 2012 campaign; their findings were unnerving. Julia Wolinsky (’14) says: “Kony is not in Uganda anymore – that is vital information that is not shared in the video. Also, if Kony is brought down there is a second in command [waiting to take over]. The children’s army will still continue, just under different leadership. Invisible Children does not have programs to help these children [abducted by the LRA]. What do they want them to do when they get out of this army?”
Others were suspicious of the Kony 2012 movement from its onset, Lily Landau (’14) said: “From the very beginning, it seemed somewhat in-genuine to me. I went on Facebook one day and all of a sudden everybody was an activist. There were no warning signs the previous day. I doubt most of these kids would even be able to point out Uganda on a map. I tried to watch the Kony video because at least ten people begged me to, but I couldn’t get all the way though it. A friend told me to look at [Invisible Children’s] financial statement, outlining where all of their donated money is funneled into. I was not surprised to learn that it’s a rather corrupt business, with a decent chunk of their received donations going straight to [the executives’] own pockets. Besides that, the Kony cause is outdated and Uganda might have more pressing matters at hand that might be more helpful for them to spread awareness about in the U.S.”
Many skeptics of the Kony 2012 movement still acknowledge its power. Stephanie Reyes (’14) said, “I don’t trust Invisible Children, and I think its silly how kids get so worked up over a video and want to be these heroes without any previous knowledge [of the LRA or Joseph Kony]. It shows a lot of ignorance and how people will eat anything up without questioning it. Sure, Kony is [a terrible man], but it’s like people are being brainwashed by this propaganda. Something should be done to stop this guy but this is a problem much more complex than people are led to understand…I feel that maybe [the movement] wouldn’t just [have been] some internet fad that lasts a week if, from the beginning, they use other mediums to spread the word. People were intensely moved by this video, but just a few weeks later, when it was time to prove themselves, they didn’t because it was just this thing they saw on the internet: distant and not worth going out of their way for. Its nuts how people bought these little Kony packs but couldn’t go support what they believe in, which just confirms the flakiness of the whole thing…I think this is a real issue and that if people did get together and think of a reasonable solution that would not hurt the little kids of his army, things would get way better for a lot of people. I would help if I could, but I don’t think spreading a lame video and buying a backpack and posters will help anyone”
Some people were (and still are) ambivalent towards the whole matter. Victoria Morris (’14) said: “I don’t really support it. It’s a cause, and it does have importance, but I think there are more important topics in the world that need attention. I don’t really know that much background on Kony and the situation to have an opinion”
Conversely, Brooke Hassan (’14) said: “I believe what’s actually going on in Africa in important, and I will inform people [about Kony], but I probably won’t donate or support Invisible Children, since it might be a scam”
And there you have it: Kony 2012 has lost support over time as certain truths and uncertainties have arisen among its initial supporters. Of course, the power behind the movement lives on: thousands will continue to watch the videos, sign the pledge, and make Kony famous in 2012.