Stop Kony or #Kony2012, which ever you prefer, has become the latest rallying cry for many activists to stop the atrocities in Uganda.  Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), heads a resistance movement in central Africa that abducts children enslaving them as child soldiers making them commit unspeakable crimes.  I’m sure most of you know this because of the video put out by the group, Invisible Children.

Invisible Children, almost overnight, showed the world what exactly was going on central Africa awakening the activist inside all of us to the crimes Kony and his cronies were committing.  The spotlight on Kony became very bright.  Invisible Children did exactly what they wanted to do, bring awareness to very serious situation, and it is commendable at how effective they were at doing it.  A viral video aimed at hopefully getting 500 thousand hits that ended up getting 30 million in just three days is no slouch.

However, with all of the recent attention garnered by Invisible Children, a number of people are criticizing the organization who is supposedly lending a helping hand.  Many critics believe that this video overly simplifies a very complex issue and that this idealistic video cushions the realities facing those wanting to help.  Although critics agree the video is educational, Josh Kron and J. David Goodman of the New York Times believe “the video [is] a pitch-perfect appeal to so-called slacktivism, a pejorative term for armchair activism by a younger generation, often online”.

The other big criticism concerns how Invisible Children spends its money.  The organization was forced to reveal their financial records due to mounting public demand.  According to Invisible Children’s 2011 financial records, about a third of the money raised in 2011 went directly to helping the children in Uganda.  The rest went of the money went to travel, salaries, and film costs. In my opinion, this split does not seem so bad.  Only spending about a third of the money seems natural for an organization that has to not only try and help the situation, but also explain it to people.

Unequivocally, Kony is bad guy, who has to be stopped, but just stopping him won’t be enough, as critics correctly point out this 30 minute video doesn’t discuss all of the different factors involved in the volatile political situation that is occurring in central Africa.  I completely support the campaign to stop Kony, but also understand that capturing or killing Kony won’t simply end the violence.  It is naïve to think it will.  Not until the region’s poor governance is fixed will any semblance of sustainable peace be possible.

This whole situation can be traced back to the 1980s.  The forces of Yoweri Museveni toppled the regime of Tito Okello and Museveni with his new found power sought to impose his authority on the Acholi population in northern Uganda who was previously closely allied with Okello.  As a result of Museveni’s desire to impose his will on the people of northern Uganda, a number of resistance groups sprung up in an effort protect themselves, including the LRA.  All of these resistance groups, except for the LRA were defeated.  This region spiraled into violence and  many outsides didn’t take notice of the violence until the early 2000s when the Ugandan government, still headed by Museveni, took aggressive measures against his own people in that same northern region, basically establishing concentration camps.  The LRA was not alone in their violence against Ugandan people – the Ugandan government also had a hand in it.

While the video’s depiction of Joseph Kony is accurate, it isn’t the whole story.  The video failed to convey the hand that Ugandan government and regional politics have on the situation.  The LRA is as much a consequence as a cause of the violence in central Africa.  The region’s weak governance must be dealt with before any real progress can be made and this will only happen with a very large engagement of peacekeeping troops.  The deal currently brokered between the big shots in Washington and the activists is just a way for Washington to pat itself on the back as a humanitarian crisis victory.  For victory to be possible in my eyes, a coordinated plan with clearly articulated objectives between various nations, the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, the African Union, and the local governments would be necessary, rather than some recent motivation spurred by media attention.

All concerns and criticism aside, Kony is a bad guy, but if you think focusing on a singular man will change the carnage and right the course for central Africa making everything instantly better, then you are woefully mistaken.  This region has real problems and needs real help.  #Kony2012 is a good first step; let’s just make sure it’s not our last step.