Kony 2012 sparks discussion at USU
In response to the recent Kony 2012 social media campaign, students and teachers at USU took part in a panel discussion Monday to raise awareness and funds for Central Africa. The panel was organized by Steps, a humanitarian club at USU.
Professors and students with of various disciplines met to discuss and answer questions about Kony 2012 and other issues relevant to central Africa. Members of the panel explained how the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, has murdered, raped, mutilated and tortured the people in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the eastern portion of the Central African Republic for about 20 years.
The Kony 2012 video, uploaded to YouTube in March, encourages viewers to share its anti-Kony message through social media. The film states that the goal of the project is to depose Kony before the end of the year. Since going online, the video has logged 87 million views on YouTube alone.
Panel member Matthew LaPlante, an assistant professor in the journalism and communications department, said oversimplification is a problem when trying to understand the issues surrounding the people harmed by Kony.
“There’s a tendency, I think, for us to believe that when you go to places that are not developed, that those places are more simplistic,” LaPlante said. “The problems and the solutions to problems seem simplistic. The advice that I would give in working in remote areas is to avoid the temptation to oversimplify the greatness and the vastness of the problems that are faced.”
Patricia Ayaa, a native Ugandan and student majoring in civil engineering at USU, said Kony doesn’t stack up to her definition of celebrity, in response to the way the Kony 2012 video portrayed Kony as almost a celebrity.
“What I think about when I think the word ‘celebrity’ is someone famous, but some people look up to them in some way,” Ayaa said. “Even if it’s for a good cause, I’d rather give the money than wear a bracelet or anything that says ‘Kony.’ Because of the thing that he has done, there is no way.”
LaPlante said he thought the irony of Kony 2012 was “lost across the communication gap.”
“I like the idea of bringing exposure,” LaPlante said. “Any time you try to celebritize an issue, you are going to be stepping on a bunch of toes. I’m not sure the Kony 2012 endeavor quite respected the complexity of the issue.”
Panelist Ann Laudati, assistant professor of human geography, said perspective and specificity is needed when talking about the many issues in a “tumultuous Africa that remains poor and helpless.”
“What we don’t learn from Kony is that there are thousands of people, years of hard work, from Ugandans, from different organizations with Uganda,” Laudati said. “We don’t hear those voices. They are not even part of it. In fact, they’re invisible. In fact, the Invisible Children is based on this idea that there are invisible children. These children have been invisible until they’ve been found by the West.”
Christopher Conte, an associate professor in the history department, said there is more violence in Africa than Americans think.
“It’s impossible to talk about violence in Africa in a couple of minutes and can it,” Conte said. “People are still not over the violence that they experienced in this region. It’s embedded in their society, in their culture, in the way they speak about the world, the way they understand their cosmology.”
Panel members said they like how people want to facilitate positive changes in Africa, but some ways are more beneficial than others.
“We’re trying to concentrate on resettling the people in (Uganda), because most of these people have lived in camps their whole lives,” Ayaa said. “People in northern Uganda, most of them don’t even have toilets. Many people don’t have food. They’ve not been going to school for a long time. They don’t have a means of money to help them out. So if you can help – say, contribute to the NGOs that are trying to help out in resettling the people – then that would be one way to get involved.”
Ayaa and other panel members said loaning money to the people in Uganda to rebuild farms or businesses is a great way to help, instead of giving money to non-profit groups that pay much of their money to overhead costs.
LaPlante said whatever route people choose to lend aid, they shouldn’t be overly optimistic about the effect of social networks.
“Changing your Facebook status is not going to help anybody in the Congo, I promise you,” LaPlante said.
– tavin.stucki@aggiemail.usu.edu