MyWeku

Kony 2012 is a short film created by Invisible Children, Inc. and released on March 5, 2012 to highlight the plight of the victims of one of Uganda’s long standing conflicts. The film used the tag “Stop Kony” to garner support from social media and charitable organisations and to help propel the cause to hitherto unheard of levels. The supposed aim of the campaign was to help arrest Joseph Kony by December 2012, the time when the campaign expires. The film spread virally with an estimated 86 million views on video-sharing website by the end of March 2012. 

However, there has also been a backlash, especially amongst Africans, about the portrayal of the conflict and the man – Kony – himself. Some believe the facts about KONY2012 are inaccurate and the scale of the conflict has largely been exagerated. One such individual is @rosebellk who alleges that some of the events around Joseph Kony and the conflict has been oversimplified. There is also strong resentment to what some Africans see as a paternalistic and patronising attitude towards African affairs by the West. @rosebellk’s video criticising the KONY2012 capmpaign is below followed by the original KONY2012 Campaign video.