Apparently out of nowhere it swept the globe. Within ten days of the Kony 2012 video’s release in early March, it had been viewed nearly 100 million times. In its call for the immediate arrest of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader, Joseph Kony, the video featured an appeal from International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo.
Ugandan government spokesmen cautiously welcomed the video while pointing out that Kony would continue to remain difficult to catch as long as he was roaming the forests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR) and South Sudan. Fred Opolot of the government’s media centre said, “People who are thinking it’s taking long to eradicate the LRA menace need to appreciate the overwhelming geopolitical complexities involved in the hunt for these guys.”
An analyst at the International Crisis Group, Ned Dalby, agreed that geographical, logistical and political realities severely complicated the hunt for Kony. The armies of DRC, CAR and South Sudan lacked professionalism and while the US-supported Ugandan army units spearheading the hunt for the fugitive LRA leader were more professional, they were not being allowed to enter Congolese territory, Dalby said.
The international impact of the video, however, drew much media comment. In The Guardian, John Naughton noted that the video had “gone viral” by successfully exploiting the potential of YouTube, operating “outside the control of conventional gatekeepers and editorial sieves”. He said it had the potential to increase pressure on Western leaders.
Despite criticism of the simplistic nature of their message, the video’s makers – a San Diego-based activist group called Invisible Children – stepped up their campaign with plans for a worldwide ‘cover the night’ protest on 20 April. They also appeared to be gaining support from congressmen and senators of both the main US parties.
Professor Mahmood Mamdani of Columbia University cautioned against the influence of “millions of well-meaning and well-intentioned but ill-informed people”. Ugandan journalist Rosebell Kagumire commented in a YouTube response: “The war is much more complex than just one man named Joseph Kony… This is another video where I see an outsider trying to be a hero by rescuing African children.”
