As you may have noticed judging by your Facebook newsfeed, a video entitled KONY 2012 went live March 6 and immediately became viral. In a matter of days, the video had received more than 40 million hits on YouTube and Vimeo. (It has now garnered nearly 80 million hits on YouTube alone.)
The video was created by a not-for-profit organization called Invisible Children, which is devoted to bringing awareness to the activities and practices of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in central Africa. The organization has shown their films to Niles North students in the past several years. Invisible Children especially strives to end the LRA leader Joseph Kony’s practices of abducting and abusing children, forcing them to become soldiers, killers, or sex slaves.
Kony became leader of a pre-existing rebel group in 1987 and renamed it the Lord’s Resistance Army. The LRA earned its reputation for brutality when Kony began abducting children to serve as soldiers and “wives” for his officers as he found himself running out of volunteer soldiers.
Invisible Children was founded in 2004, and has had some success in stopping the LRA. On Oct. 14, 2011, Invisible Children received a letter from the White House stating that President Barack Obama had deployed a small team of U.S. forces to central Africa to advise the region’s military forces and work towards removing the LRA from the battlefield.
While this was a great step forward in the fight to stop the human rights violations committed by Kony and the LRA, the rebel group and its leader remain free. The intent of Invisible Children’s latest video is to educate the public about Joseph Kony and his tactics in order to raise support for his arrest and the disarming of the LRA. Invisible Children also wants Kony to be famous so that if/when he is arrested he’ll be a concrete example of international justice and will send a message to other war criminals that the atrocities they’re committing will not go unnoticed.
KONY 2012 calls on viewers to help in making Kony a recognized figure. In the video, Invisible Children provides numerous ways for viewers to get involved. First, they’ve selected 20 “culture makers” (celebrities ranging from TV personalities Oprah and Stephen Colbert to singers, actors, and athletes such as Taylor Swift, Ben Affleck and Tim Tebow) to use their star power and influence to spur more support for Kony’s capture. The video also targets 12 policy makers (including former U.S. president Bill Clinton, House Speaker John Boehner and former U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice) since they have the influence to ensure that the American advisers in central Africa remain there until Kony is apprehended.
Viewers are encouraged to go to these public figures’ Facebook pages and Twitter accounts, write them letters and e-mails, tweet them or call them in order to gain their support for the cause.
Besides spreading the word about the movement through social media, Invisible Children is selling “action kits” which contain posters, fliers, lawn signs and bracelets for advocates to use to “make Kony famous.” Supporters may start advertising Kony and his practices as soon as they watch the video, but all of their efforts will culminate on April 20, with an event that Invisible Children is calling “Cover the Night.” On this day, activists will unite at sundown and spend the night covering their streets and cities with signage advocating for Kony’s arrest.
For more information on how to get involved, watch the KONY 2012 video or visit http://www.kony2012.com.
