Invisible Children: The Lord's Resistance Army In Uganda

The country known as Uganda was once a British colony just like the majority of its neighbors in East Africa. It was initially intruded into by the Arab traders led by Speke and the British explorers led by Stanley in 1862 and 1875 respectively. They both paid homage to Mutesa who was the King (kabaka) of the Buganda. Uganda remained predominantly under the colony of the British until 1962 when they were granted internal self government by Britain (History World, 2011).

The organization had their time in the spotlight, and they have a lot to show for the time. They have implemented more programs on the ground that was ever surfaced through media during the Kony 2012 campaign. But that never stopped Invisible Children from having the willingness to listen to local communities in Central Africa and give them what they need, instead of taking ideas from the Western world and attempting to implement those ideas themselves. They truly did things right. The media truly altered the way the mass population of the world viewed this organization which is a shame. They were never creating “white saviorism”, they were simply trying to tell a story they believed needed to be heard. In an article in GOOD Magazine, CEO Ben Keesey

‘The war in Darfur” is an armed conflict in the Sudan Darfur region that began in 2003 and is still ongoing, and in 2005 it was later declared as a civil war against Chad and Central African Republic.

Imagine having to fight in a war you don’t want to fight in, seeing friends and family die all around you, but no matter how far you run you can never escape. Child soldiers in Sierra Leone do not have to imagine this - for them, it is reality. Ishmael Beah, who became a soldier at just age 12, as well as researchers such as Christophe Bayer, Fionna Klasen, Hubertus Adam know too well that the events in the war can never be forgotten. The story Beah told in his memoir A Long Way Gone captures the inhumane events that take place in Sierra Leone and tells of a story that many children have to endure. Sources like Harvard claim “among the 87 war-torn countries...300,000 - 500,000 children are involved with fighting forces as child soldiers.” Many of those children are being forced into the war without any choice at all and having to kill others as well. With this information we’re forced to ask the question: how are these children being affected by the war?

In the Central African American Republic, it was neighbor against neighbor. Boys and girls have seen their parents killed. Then a group named Seleka basically enslaved many children. Boy soldiers are young teens that go to war. When they do this, there are major things that they do.

When Ishmael was only thirteen years old a war had broken out in his country, Sierra Leone. This is when Ishmael began to lose his innocent. His experiences during the war and how they damaged his innocent was illustrated in flashbacks, symbols, and motifs. Throughout his experience he grasped onto memories from his childhood and he was able to revive this childhood feeling when he and his friends first see the ocean. Even though he had been through so much on his journey with his friends they had not completely lost all their innocence because everyday things in nature still brought wonder to them. As the story progresses Ishmael was forced into becoming a soldier himself. He was staying in a small village that was safe, had a sufficient

Throughout the continent of Africa, a majority of the territories experienced colonization. Several nations, specifically Uganda, were placed under the rule of Great Britain. Uganda, an East African country surrounded by the Great Lakes of Africa, was one of the last parts of the continent to be reached by outsiders. THESIS STATEMENT HERE.

In 1991, the Sierra Leone Civil War started. Rebels invaded Beah's hometown, Mogbwemo, located in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone, and he was forced to flee. Separated from his family, he spent months wandering south with a group of other boys. At the age of 12, he was forced to become a child soldier. According to Beah's account, he fought for almost three years before being rescued by UNICEF.[1] Beah fought for the government army against the rebels. In 1997, he fled Freetown by the help of the UNICEF due to the increasing violence and found his way to New York City, where he lived with Laura Simms, his foster mother. In New York City, Beah attended the United Nations International School. After high school, he enrolled at Oberlin College and graduated in 2004 with a degree in Political Science.[1]

“The sweetly sickening odor of decomposing bodies hung over many parts of Rwanda in July 1994: . . . at Nyarubuye in eastern Rwanda, where the cadaver of a little girl, otherwise intact, had been flattened by passing vehicles to the thinness of cardboard in front of the church steps,” (Deforges 6). The normalcy of horrible images like this one had cast a depressing gloom over Rwanda during the genocide, a time when an extreme divide caused mass killings of Tutsi by the Hutu. Many tactics such as physical assault or hate propaganda are well known and often used during times of war. Sexual assault and rape, however, during times of war is an unspoken secret – it is well known that rape occurs within combat zones and occupied territories, but

Invisible children targeted the youth by touring to schools (middle school, high school, and colleges), using popular musicians, and of course social media. Invisible children also intentionally targeted and worked with celebrities who were appealing to the youth. Another appealing draw to youth was the products that they used to promote Invisible Children like apparel, bags, bracelets, stickers and “actions kits”. These products enabled participants in the movement to “wear” their involvement, which in turn strengthens their involvement (Karlin & Matthew,

Uganda Throughout the continent of Africa, a majority of the territories experienced colonization. Several nations, specifically Uganda, were placed under the rule of Great Britain. Uganda, an East African country surrounded by the Great Lakes of Africa, was one of the last parts of the continent to be reached by outsiders. Colonization in Uganda has brought many new customs and religion to the land and people.

The “Lost Boys of the Sudan,” are survivors from a tragedy that took place in southern Sudan in the early 1980s (IRC, 2014). It has been roughly estimated that about 20,000 young boys left their families and villages in Sudan. The young boys had fled as a result of the outbreak of civil war that was taking place during the time in southern Sudan. They had faced death and some had been forced into the Northern army, which caused them to flee to Ethiopia (IRC, 2014). The conflict had greatly affected people in South Sudan. I can only imagine what mothers, fathers and siblings had to go through because their son or brother had left them behind. Other civilians and young boys had lost their lives because they were inducted into the army to fight

Imagine being snatched from your bed in the middle of the night and forced to commit horrific war crimes at only 7 years old. In Uganda, this sadly isn’t an unusual occurrence. Children and their families live in fear of being captured and made into child soldiers against their will. Led by Joseph Kony, the Lord’s Resistance Army has abducted over 30,000 children in Uganda and forced them to fight in war. These children are forced to become brutal killing machines, and lose touch with their livelihood, morals and ultimately their childhood. A student at MHS should care about the child soldiers in Uganda because children are the future of a country. If children grow up in inhumane conditions and trained to be violent from a young age, they will grow up into antagonistic adults that our generation will have to deal with later on in life.

Russell stated to have gone and done physical work for the movement, but it was never actually proven. Kony clearly never imposed a threat to the average public, but due to the emotional standpoint that was on display, such as how children were being treated in Uganda, Invisible Children manipulated that fact by augmenting the sympathetic reaction the viewers were giving toward it. Due to today’s society and how often things become viral, a cause with potentially really positive outcomes died off as quickly as it rose, as the general public moved on. Even today in 2016, people will look back on the Kony 2012 and wonder why it died out so fast, and if Kony ever got caught. And unfortunately, despite efforts Kony was never captured. Although it is speculated that people may have never actually helped, even with the money they raised toward the campaign, in the years forthcoming it was surely an impactful movement on

Some of the basic human rights we see as children of the United States are not guaranteed everywhere. One example of this would be the oppressing of children in Uganda. As more and more children were enslaved by the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph Kony, the Invisible Children was founded to raise awareness through their campaign of “Kony 2012.” After eight years of campaigning against the Lord’s Resistance Army, the Invisible Children posted a video titled “Kony 2012.” It began as an experiment, but with over 100 million views in only six days, the infamous Joseph Kony went from an obscure villain to world known criminal. The campaign reached its goal in April of 2012, when President Barack Obama announced that he would reignite the United State’s mission to help the African Union in stopping LRA violence.