African Arguments

Top Menu

  • About Us
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate

Main Menu

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Swaziland
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
  • About Us
  • Write for us
  • Contact us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter
  • RSS feed
  • Donate

logo

African Arguments

  • Home
  • Country
    • Central
      • Cameroon
      • Central African Republic
      • Chad
      • Congo-Brazzaville
      • Congo-Kinshasa
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gabon
    • East
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Dijbouti
      • Eritrea
      • Ethiopia
      • Kenya
      • Rwanda
      • Seychelles
      • Somalia
      • South Sudan
      • Sudan
      • Tanzania
      • Uganda
      • Red Sea
    • North
      • Algeria
      • Egypt
      • Libya
      • Morocco
      • Tunisia
      • Western Sahara
    • Southern
      • Angola
      • Botswana
      • Lesotho
      • Madagascar
      • Malawi
      • Mauritius
      • Mozambique
      • Namibia
      • South Africa
      • Swaziland
      • Zambia
      • Zimbabwe
    • West
      • Benin
      • Burkina Faso
      • Cape Verde
      • Côte d’Ivoire
      • The Gambia
      • Ghana
      • Guinea
      • Guinea Bissau
      • Liberia
      • Mali
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Nigeria
      • São Tomé and Príncipe
      • Senegal
      • Sierra Leone
      • Togo
  • Politics
    • Elections Map
  • Economy
  • Society
  • Culture
  • Specials
    • #EndSARS
    • Covid-19
    • Travelling While African
    • From the wit-hole countries…
    • Living in Translation
    • Red Sea
    • Beautiful Game
  • Podcast
  • Debating Ideas
Politics

Beyond Kony 2012: a new E-book

By African Arguments
May 15, 2012
1649
0
Share:

Amanda Taub – blogger at Wronging Rights – has been quick out of the blocks in producing what would appear to be the first book-length analysis of the Kony 2012 phenomenon.

Taub is clearly well-connected, and has managed to attract an impressive line-up including Adam Branch (long-time academic on N.Uganda), Bec Hamilton (of Fighting for Darfur fame) and Laura Seay (@texasinafrica).

You can buy for $0 to $3 here

The book’s description tells us that it’s “˜for those who know a little about Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army, and want to know more.’

And it looks at the “˜story’ systematically and analytically from the history of the conflict to the phenomenon of viral advocacy videos in campaigns related to African conflicts.

You can see the full description here:

“˜Invisible Children’s Kony 2012 has become the most viral video ever. Concerned citizens around the world, from middle school students to celebrities like Oprah and Justin Bieber, watched the film and shared it with their friends. It has now been viewed more than 87 million times.

That success was soon met by a critical backlash. Critics nearly as varied as the campaign’s supporters pointed out that Invisible Children was offering an oversimplified, even misleading narrative. They faulted the campaign for failing to provide a context for the LRA conflict, and pointed out that the video portrayed Africans as either helpless victims, or heartless killers.

This book is both a collection of that criticism, and a constructive response to it. The authors each wrote a short essay offering information that they felt was missing from the video, or explaining how they thought the campaign could be improved.

The first several chapters provide historical and political context. Adam Branch, Daniel Kalinaki, and Ayesha Nibbe explain the roots of the conflict, and how it has persisted for so many years. Alex Little and Patrick Wegner discuss various attempts to end the conflict through peace negotiations, ICC arrest warrants, and military operations, and why they have not been successful.

Later chapters consider the ethics and effectiveness of awareness campaigns like Kony 2012. Glenna Gordon and Jina Moore draw on their experiences as journalists to critique the video’s portrayal of Africa and the people who live there. Rebecca Hamilton, Laura Seay, Kate Cronin-Furman, and Amanda Taub examine the weakness of “awareness” advocacy. Alanna Shaikh explains the ethical dangers of bad aid work. Teddy Ruge offers a different view of Africa, as a place of dynamic innovation instead of violence and helplessness. And youth activist Sam Menefee-Libey describes his frustration with the tone and substance of the campaign meant to target his generation.’

Table of Contents

Preface

Contributors

How Civilians Became Targets: A Short History of the War in Northern Uganda

Adam Branch

Kony2012: Treat the Political Causes of the LRA, Not Just Its Violent Symptoms

Daniel Kalinaki

The Making of a “Humanitarian Emergency”: Night Commuters, Invisible Children, and the Business of Aid and Advocacy

Ayesha Nibbe

Three Strikes and Kony’s Still There: What I Learned from Negotiations with Joseph Kony and the International Criminal Court’s Efforts to Indict Him

Alex Little

Peace from Juba: Peace Talks between the LRA and the Government of Uganda (2006-2008)

Mark Kersten

Can a Military Intervention Stop the Lord’s Resistance Army?

Patrick Wegner

Ethical or Exploitative?: Stories, Advocacy and Suffering

Jina Moore

The Power of Images: Who Gets Made Visible?

Glenna Gordon

Learning From Save Darfur

Rebecca Hamilton

Avoiding “Badvocacy”: How to Do No Harm While Doing Good

Laura Seay

What Have They Got to Lose?

Alanna Shaikh

Moral Agents and Patients: Trayvon Martin and Invisible Children

Hawa Allan

Armchair Critics Respond

Kate Cronin-Furman and Amanda Taub

Africa’s New Status Quo: Connected, Bold and Vocal

TMS Ruge

Beyond Kony2012 – Reasserting the Transformative Power of Youth Activism

Sam Menefee-Libey

Previous Article

What does the rise of the far ...

Next Article

Sudanese stalemate as neither North nor South ...

mm

African Arguments

Leave a reply Cancel reply

  • neocolonial academia
    Society

    Reducing risk for whom? Neocolonial patterns in Western academia

  • african documentaries
    CultureSocietyTop story

    Six African documentaries you must see

  • Politics

    Khartoum Should Not Count On an Article 16 Deferral of the ICC

  • 80845
    Followers

Interactive Elections Map

Keep up to date with all the African elections.

Most read

  • kenya refugee camps closure

    Whether or not Kenya closes its camps, much damage has been done

  • Will President Samia Suluhu Hassan address gender inequality in Tanzania?

    Tanzania has a female president. Does it have a feminist president?

  • central african republic us: Several foreign partners are involved in the CAR, from the UN to Russia and France, but few have the perceived neutrality to intervene diplomatically. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe.

    Why the Central African Republic and the US might need each other

  • elections: President Idriss Déby of Chad has been in power since 1990. Credit: Paul Kagame.

    Chad elections: President Déby seeks a sixth term in a region for old men

  • Podcast: COVID-19 – What’s next for Tanzania?

Brought to you by


Creative Commons

Creative Commons Licence
Articles on African Arguments are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
  • Cookies
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions
  • en English
    am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu
© Copyright African Arguments 2020
en English
am Amharicar Arabicny Chichewazh-CN Chinese (Simplified)en Englishfr Frenchde Germanha Hausait Italianpt Portuguesest Sesothosn Shonaes Spanishsw Swahilixh Xhosayo Yorubazu Zulu