ACAS resources

ACAS is producing materials to contribute to the public debate about the Kony 2012 campaign and the military solution it proposes. These documents, and the list of other resources below, are designed for use with high school and college students who are the main audience of the Kony 2012 video.

What Can We Do About Uganda and the LRA? March 27, 2012 | PDF

ACAS Statement to the U.S. Government about the Lord’s Resistance Army and

Central Africa, March 14, 2012 | PDF

Press release: Africa specialists address risks of KONY2012 campaign and military solutions, March 15, 2012 | PDF

Other resources

Note: Use the URLs containing “bit.ly”; they are “tiny URLs” that connect to the full-length web address.

1.    Kony 2012 Video and Invisible Children

The video: http://vimeo.com/37119711 Unofficial video transcript at http://lybio.net :  http://bit.ly/H54QnB Website: www.invisiblechildren.com Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/invisible

Letter to President Obama from Invisible Children, Resolve, and Enough Project http://bit.ly/H7k5Yp

2.    Sources of continuing coverage about Uganda and the LRA

Uganda Speaks – Trending Our Own Story http://ugandaspeaks.com/

allAfrica.com InFocus page on Uganda and LRA http://bit.ly/GSeEw3

AfricaFocus http://www.africafocus.org and particularly http://bit.ly/GSm8BS AfricaFocus is also on Facebook and Twitter.

African Arguments http://africanarguments.org/

Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/search-home Some hashtags to search for include:  #Kony2012, #StopKony, #StopStopKony, #Uganda2012, #Ug2012

3.    African critiques of Kony 2012 video (from the continent and the diaspora)
See also: Uganda Speaks http://ugandaspeaks.com/ (above) and sections 5 (below)

My response to KONY2012 by Rosebell Kagumire, Ugandan journalist.  6:21-minute video http://bit.ly/GTlv8T and transcript at http://lybio.net :  http://bit.ly/GQXHUd

Selling Old Newspapers Shouldn’t Be Profitable: Invisible Children and Kony 2012 by David Sangokoya, a Nigerian-American, creatively discusses stereotypes of Africa.  http://bit.ly/GUPJYu

The White Savior Industrial Complex by Teju Cole, Nigerian American novelist gives criticism in 7 Tweets and comments on response to it. http://www.theatlantic.com : http://bit.ly/GSsbe8

Kony screening provokes anger in Uganda by Malcomb Well, 2:40 minute video http://bit.ly/GRltBb

Women Civil Society Groups in Uganda: Kony2012 Campaign, Blurring realities! at:  http://www.isiswomen.org :  http://bit.ly/H5vrMr

Kony 2012 Video is Misleading by a Ugandan American teenager.  5:47 minute video viewed more than 3.7 million times on YouTube.  (There is one brief expletive.) http://bit.ly/GUbA8U

4.    Other Critiques of the Kony 2012 campaign

See also: African Studies Association list of resources: http://bit.ly/GTALni

Unpacking Kony by Ethan Zuckerman, director of MIT’s Center for Civic Media and co-founder of Global Voices, discusses the simplicity of the Kony 2012 message – and its dangers – and the Invisible Children’s theory of change. At: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/ : http://bit.ly/GUiuWH

Juice Rap News with Robert Foster: Yes We Kony – An irreverent parody of Kony 2012 – a rap about then “white man’s burden” and the role of AFRICOM. 3:37 minute video  http://thejuicemedia.com

5.    History of the conflict with the LRA policies proposals

A Letter From Uganda on #Kony2012 by Sara Weschler of Information for Youth Empowerment Programme in Northern Uganda. This is an excellent summary of recent Ugandan history.  At http://www.truthdig.com : http://bit.ly/GSK9w6

The downside of the Kony 2012 video: What Jason did not tell Gavin and his army of invisible children by Mahmood Mamdani, Director of the Makerere Institute of Social Research at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda  http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/80787

What will it take to end the LRA conflict? By Kennedy Tumutegyereize of Conciliation Resources, reporting on perspective of people in Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, and South Sudan who are affected by the LRA. At: http://www.c-r.org : http://bit.ly/HcK3z2

How Invisible Children’s Kony 2012 Will Hurt – And How You Can Help – Central Africa by Michael Deibert, an expert on the LRA. At:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com : http://huff.to/HipPC4

Conflict and Conflict Resolution: Northern Uganda- Books and articles included in syllabus by Andrew Branch, Fall 2011 http://bit.ly/H1r993

6. Recommendations and commentary on current U.S. policy

Kony: What’s to be done? by Alex de Waal, Executive Director of the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School, Tufts University, discusses the military and non-military framework proposed by the International Crisis Group, at: http://africanarguments.org : http://bit.ly/GQzbaf

KONY 2012, and a military solution to the LRA crisis by anthropologist Richard Vokes, a detailed discussion of the LRA and dangers of a military solution, at:  http://theafricanist.blogspot.co.nz : http://bit.ly/H6giiY

#Kony2012 and the Warping Logic of Atrocity by Scott Edwards of Amnesty International USA, regarding human rights concerns in Uganda and Central Africa. At: http://blog.amnestyusa.org : http://bit.ly/GTwXCk

Kony 2012, Save Darfur, and the US’ place in the world by Rohit Negi, Assistant Professor at Ambedkar University, Delhi. http://bit.ly/GUxrbb

Interview with Ethan Zuckerman by WBZ NewsRadio 1030’s Suzanne Sausville, discusses difficulties of capturing Kony and need to listen to Ugandans about solutions, 2:20 minute audio at: http://cbsloc.al/GSQYOb

7. How KONY 2012 went viral

[Data Viz] KONY2012: See How Invisible Networks Helped a Campaign Capture the World’s Attention by Gilad Lotan, VP of Research and Development at http://blog.socialflow.com : http://bit.ly/GRPXDb

Useful reads on Kony 2012 by Ethan Zuckerman  http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/

8. Central Africa

Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering the Truth 26-minute video produced in 2011 http://congojustice.org/

Africa Canada Accountability Coalition (ACAC), a group based at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia that focuses on ethical advocacy regarding the Great Lakes region – DR Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. http://www.acacdrcongo.org/ Blog: http://blog.africacanada.org/