Nora's Narrative: A Journey Through Words

On March 5th 2012, Jason Russell released a 30 minute video on YouTube exposing the harsh realities of what was taking place in Uganda and Central Africa by the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Joseph Kony. Kony had been abducting children from their households and forcing them to kill and become child soldiers for him against their free-will (Russell, 2012). This absolutely horrid violation of human rights was unknown to the rest of the world, and so Russell took it upon himself to bring Kony’s actions to the attention of the U.S. government through social media. After Russell was told by the government that nothing could be done to send American troops to Africa, he gathered support and donations through sharing the truth about Kony on all social media platforms. Eventually the Kony 2012 cause became so big that the President signed off on sending American soldiers to Africa with the goal of detaining Joseph Kony (Russell, 2012). 

Watching the 30 minute ‘Kony 2012’ video for the first time left me absolutely speechless. I could not string together a single sentence that would have accurately summed up how I felt in that moment. I was sitting in a local cafė while watching it, and all of the movement and commotion around me disappeared as I could not pay any mind to what was happening around me – I was so utterly immersed in what I was watching. I imagined myself in the shoes of one of Kony’s child victims, and what my life would look like if it were me living in Uganda at risk of Kony’s terrible tactics. As scary as the world can be, I never felt unsafe as a child. My home, neighborhood, and school were constant safe spaces for me and I simply cannot imagine a world where I do not feel safe at home. I feel naive simply saying I tried to put myself in the shoes of his victims – because the truth is I will never understand how they felt or what happened to them. I am heartbroken that so many of the abducted children were never found, and that Kony was never found and tried in the court of law (despite even the U.S. government’s involvement). To think that anyone is capable of partaking in the acts that Kony did simply disgusts me and disappoints me. 

I believe the Kony 2012 campaign taught us several lessons. First and foremost, it shows us the sheer power that social media has in amplifying worthwhile causes. So much awareness was brought to the Kony 2012 campaign that it led to our government taking part. This cause tells me that even the impossible is possible if you can gather enough support and attention. Social media platforms make it easy to reach target audiences in a matter of seconds – and we should use this power for good. Rather than amplifying messages that spread hate, as a society we need to be able to sift through what is shameful to be posting on social media, and what is of utmost importance. Messages transmitted through social media platforms are consistently able to reach teenagers, young adults, adults, and all sorts of niche populations – this is a privilege. We need to understand this privilege and as individuals constantly look for messages on social media that need to be shared and spread so they do not get diluted in a sea of nonsense. After I watched the Kony 2012 video and learned about the campaign, I know for a fact that I will be staying much more vigilant moving forward when I come across activism campaigns on my social media platforms.

Citations:

Russell, J. (2012b, March 5). Kony 2012. YouTube. 

Bal, A. S., Archer‐Brown, C., Robson, K., & Hall, D. E. (2013). Do good, goes bad, gets ugly: Kony 2012. Journal of Public Affairs, 13(2), 202–208. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1475