Are We Really “Saving” Africa?
Featured, Social Justice — By Penny Carothers on September 21, 2009 at 12:10 amInvisible Children is a high-visibility organization that has achieved a great deal with its film and outreach efforts. The organization was born in the spring of 2003, when three young filmmakers traveled to Africa searching for a story. What they found was the longest running civil war on the continent, fought by child soldiers who were abducted from their homes and families. The filmmakers, and eventual founders, created the documentary “Invisible Children: Rough Cut” upon return to the States, which became the basis for the organization and the work they do today advocating an end to the war and rehabilitation of abducted children. Much of their work involves calling for an end to the reign of terror of the rebel Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and cause of so much destruction against the Acholi people in Northern Uganda.
The Invisible Children campaign has raised awareness, but at what cost?
Invisible Children has a mighty support-base, the envy of more established organizations. Their followers are deeply committed and passionate about their work and go to great lengths to advance the cause of the organization. Their work is admirable. Recently, they appeared on Oprah by camping outside her studio for several days until she put them on the air. In April, they sent 1,700 people to a lobby day where participants asked their representatives to support Senate Bill 1067, a bill aimed at ending the civil war and rescuing Kony’s child soldiers. They have rallied thousands of high school and college students to take part in their awareness-raising events, and have recently (like the ONE campaign) relied on “powerful” people like actresses and members of Congress to inspire, motivate, and get their message out to the public. It is possible that they have done more than any other organization to bring the forgotten war in Northern Uganda 1 to the attention of the American people and government. Many credit the organization with emboldening and inspiring youth that had been disaffected and apathetic until they met the passion and conviction of the Invisible Children staff. The rise of this movement of young people can be credited with the US government’s responses to Invisible Children’s lobbying efforts, which were partly responsible for sending a US senior level diplomat to the Juba peace talks between the LRA and the government of Uganda (held between 2006 – 2008), and over $17 million USD in reconstruction funds through USAID. Their stated goal is to see Joseph Kony apprehended and the abducted children returned to their homes, and they are on their way with Senate Bill 1067.
In addition to their advocacy efforts, the organization has an extensive network of Northern Ugandans on the ground developing and running programs benefiting the war-torn region (of which most are of the Acholi tribe). They run a Schools-to-Schools program that links Northern Ugandan schools with American schools, which sends children who could otherwise never afford it to school, and they are developing a handicrafts program that will benefit adults and children in the area. In email correspondence I conducted with the organization, they appear to take seriously the importance of putting leadership in the hands of the Ugandan people. Over ninety percent of their Uganda staff is Ugandan and they rely heavily on community input. As Erica D’Alessandro stated, “The Schools for Schools program would not be able to implement any of its funding without the input of the School Development Committees at each of our partner schools.”
In many respects, Invisible Children is treating the Ugandans with whom and for whom they work as partners. However, in some egregious cases, they are missing this important component that has been an important part of their success. I am echoing the voices of many others, particularly those who are more knowledgeable than I when I say that, like all NGOs, Invisible Children needs to take seriously the potentially negative impact they can have as arbiters of immense resources – both monetary and more importantly, rhetorical.
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16 Comments
Penny,
I think this may be the most important and provocative article the Writers Collective has ever published. Thank you for your hard work. Thank you also for the article’s integrity, fairness, and generosity.
Agreed. Burnside is proud to finally run this.
Wow. That was well written, and very thought provoking. Thanks for your honesty, Penny. I really appreciated that (it’s hard to say I enjoyed it…)
Wow- that was really informative and very well-researched. I’m glad you wrote it; it does make me think a little harder about the best ways to effect change in developing countries. One of my (very wise) college professors said that our tendency as people was to simplify stories and conflict and life in general, and that he was working to ‘muddy the waters,’ so to speak, to bring out the complexities involved in various (environmental) issues. I think he would really appreciate your article, because it does bring up some of the complexities that people prefer to distill down in ways that are harmful. Good job
(I’ll be sure to e-mail it to my prof!)
Good. Thank you.
As one who has been to Africa several times, and who has family there doing “mission work” (are we not all missionaries in our work?!), I appreciate this piece.
And I just have to agree: Yes.
Thought-provoking, knowledgeable, and full of insight-the girl has done it again! Nice job Penny. Your hard work is apparent in every line. I am so proud to see you pursuing your passion. “America’s solution to Uganda’s problem” is only made more obtuse by your use of specific campaign and lobbying examples-really drives the message home. Well done!
Penny,
First, you have single-handedly elevated Burnside Writers Collective to a status comparable to a serious, credible publication. I’m no longer sure if we will ever be able to see stories about basketball or beer here without thinking, “what happened to BW; they were once writing on the cutting edge of social justice issues?”. I may never have another piece published here for lack of meeting the new quality standard you’ve provided with this article!
Second, you’ve touched on a point I’ve been thinking about for some time. What is our responsibility in Africa when in fact we can’t seem to get Americans to even reach out to our suffering neighbors, literally next door or sleeping in the parking garage where we work. In preparing a sermon on James 1:27 last week, I realized that there was no way I would see success in getting people to answer a call to action when that would require them to think about distant Africa. Instead, I worked very hard to get them, maybe for the first time, to take a much small step. I called them to help our “orphans and widows” in our neighborhoods. It is my hope and prayer that after people have a life-transformation with efforts locally (and invite others to do the same), there will be an army of folks whose hearts are so prepared to help others in the name of Jesus, that we will no longer have to look to secular NGOs, but instead see millions of transformed Christians ready to serve, bless, and help the world (whether from the US, Africa, or anywhere).
Whoa, whoa…let’s not get too hasty here about cutting out all the beer/basketball articles.
Which gives me an idea for an article about beer AND basketball.
Thanks guys. I really appreciate your words.
I also want to thank Invisible Children, and specifically Erica D’Alessandro, for her willingness to spend the time engaging with someone who was questioning her organization. She spent a lot of time developing lengthy and thoroughly responses to my questions and critiques. She is the main reason this article actually has a hope of being accurate and fair. (And I hope she and IC feels that it is – if not, I’d love to hear why.)
Thanks again everyone for taking the time to read 4,000 words about this topic!
Penny, your piece is amazingly well researched and well written. Thanks for not only pointing out problems, but also for offering candid and practical thoughts on how to better approach these issues.
Penny writes “What does it mean to serve, to pursue social justice in Jesus’ name, to lay down one’s life, to care for the least among us? The answers to problems like world hunger, family homelessness, AIDS orphans, and child soldiers are incredibly complex – but our response can be very simple.”
Yes, that is precisely what I love about the Jesus of the New Testament – he acts, and calls us to act – simply, directly and faithfully.
And yes, our lives, interactions and the consequences of our actions are incredibly complex. For example, who among us does not have a cell phone? A key component of every cell phone is coltan. Every ounce of coltan, that we use every day, has been smuggled out of the Congo. And every dollar, spent on behalf of our cell phone usage has gone to a variety of terrorists, kidnappers, murderers and rapists. (according to Wikipedia, about 5.5 million people have died in the wars in the Congo since 1998).
So I circle back to the nearly eternal question “What would Jesus do?
Would Jesus use – or not use – a cell phone? Would Jesus refuse to wear clothing made in Asian or African sweatshops?
And of course, what would Jesus expect each of us to do?
I firmly do not believe that Jesus would want us to live under a cloud of guilt. In fact, quite the opposite, Jesus calls us to be agents of fully orbed liberation.
Some of us will do that as individuals, some will work with large scale organizations. And I am convinced that it is not the celebrities or the petitions that will manifest the kingdom of God on earth; it will be each transformed life. And yes, it begins with each one of us.
And yes, the harvest, and the need is great; beyond measure in fact, but the New Testament is the blueprint for how a small group with a vision can transform the world.
Consider those few individuals who have refused to leave the world as it was – from St. Francis, to Mother Teresa to M. Ghandi. There is nothing stopping us from initiating our own faith in action – except our own inertia.
The ultimate deception is that we can’t do anything.
Our small individual steps are the best we can do – and they truly are the best we can do.
Excellent article.
In thinking about the debate over whether to encourage taking out Joseph Kony by any means necessary, or to advocate for the non-violent solution of peace talks, it occurs to me that there is a third option: praying that Jesus would personally visit Joseph Kony.
It’s completely impractical and maybe even impossible, but it’s happened before. A man named Saul used to murder Christians. Until he met Jesus.
Penny,
I really appreciated this article. IC played a big role in motivating me to spend a semester in Uganda last year. I did so through my school and ended up at Uganda Christian University in Mukono. It did a lot to challenge my western savior complex. Your article deftly navigates a sticky issue. I’ve been invited to work with the IC chapter on campus and I’ve struggled to respond in a nuanced way (that is, balancing my inner Sachs and Easterly).
All this is to say – it is good to know that there are people like you working to elevate the conversation and push past the damaging stereotypes of all things African. There is so much more to East Africa than the war and poverty – or smiling children and grateful recipients of aid.
I also have to point out your comments on trade in the beginning of your article to say that it is SO REFRESHING to hear someone (outside of academia) portray free trade as part of the solution to poverty, rather than the source of all evil. Clearly the issue is more complicated, but I’d love to see an article or two on farm subsidies for readers without an economics background.
Keep up the good work! I look forward to reading your next piece and
Cheers,
Jonathan