Celebrating 27 Years of Torture

I spent the last week working and traveling in northern Uganda, staying in Gulu for the majority of my time there. Over the last two years I’ve spent somewhere around a collective of two weeks in the center of what was once considered by Jan England and the United Nations as the world’s most pressing, dire, and ultimately forgotten conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda (GOU) – consisting of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and its military wing, the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF). Two weeks is nowhere near enough time to consider my hand to be on the pulse of the everyday realities of life in Gulu; while I work in post-conflict recovery and conflict legacies, I can’t pretend to grasp what it is to live through what I write or read about on a daily basis. 

Because of that lack of understanding, I have always viewed Gulu through the lens of the literature on the conflict that I either read about or contribute to. The Acholi Inn has meaning not because I used their shower, but because it was mentioned in Green’s The Wizard of the Nile; Pece Stadium has an importance not because I watched a soccer game there, but because the atrocities carried out within its grounds were discussed in Living With Bad Surroundings. Conversations with local politicians and stakeholders, or even boda drivers who mention the conflict while taking me to the bar, provide words that seem trapped in typeset. When you associate your surroundings with the catalog of material you read back in the comforts of home instead of the reality in front of your eyes, history is perpetually abstract and stagnated, bound to the pages of a book.

I worked at our Gulu office on Tuesday, and at the end of the work day I was told that we had the next day off for a national holiday. Wednesday was NRM Day, a celebration of the party’s 27 years in power. The co-worker who told me about our day off, an Acholi who lived through the LRA conflict, described it as “being forced to celebrate 27 years of torture.” On my way to lunch yesterday afternoon I passed by a large parade ground, filled with hundreds of UPDF soldiers marching in formation in front of a smattering of observers.

As we passed the rifles and bayonets flashing in the sun, the words I had been reading for years were finally released from the page.

I can only imagine that, for northern Ugandans, NRM Day is comparable to Native Americans in the United States taking a day off work for Columbus Day. This was not a celebration of liberation, but rather a forced recognition that history reflects the narrative of victors, not the reality of the marginalized. One imagines that had the LRA managed a successful insurgency and taken Kampala, an LRA Day would have replaced NRM Day; instead of taking off work in recognition of forced displacement and decades of government-sponsored rape, pillage, and murder, the people of northern Uganda would be forced to accept child abduction, torture and brutality as the means to whatever end was deemed as the conclusion.  

There is no good side because in reality they are good, but because the play requires them in order to reach a resolution. And just like a play, this was a farce, a perception of events consumed by an audience with no say in the story being told.  

I didn’t know what to do after my colleague made his remark. All I could do was drift my eyes away from his, shake my head and smile for fear of not knowing how else to react. My books and my job are his life. Those soldiers in formation, the Acholi Inn and Pece Stadium are my landmarks shaped through literature, read in coffee houses and apartment complexes 8,000 miles away from Gulu.  For him and every other Ugandan I have interacted with north of the bellowing Nile, those bayonets were nothing more than acknowledgement of subjugation. 

I had nothing but silence to offer my colleague, and I have no sage words to close with. I still think, perpetually and ultimately, that mankind is virtuous, wise and considerate of each other. But yesterday was confirmation that this is a thought not ground in fact, that our daily experiences can be nothing more than smokescreens created by somebody powerful enough to convince us that what is a myth is in fact tangible and real. Guns, uniforms, and marches will always be more immediate than words on a page, even if their motions are ground in nothing more than the spoils of the victor. 

Kidepo Valley - Scenes from the Water Buffalo Apocolypse

I recently went on a two day safari in KidepoValley, far enough into northern Uganda that we had the option to cross over into South Sudan. We would have too, had our driver shown any sort of enthusiasm toward driving, being around animals, or being anywhere but back home in Gulu. If I was forced to preach Bible verses at an anti-vegetarian rally sponsored by the NRA, I would still have been more comfortable doing it than our driver at Kidepo.

Despite our driver's best efforts, the safari was still a great time. Last year I took a safari outside Nairboi and saw tons of giraffes, zebras, ostrich, and a few lions in the distance. In Kidepo I was humbled by walking out of my door and seeing elephants grazing in the distance, not to mention being seven feet away from a lion who was taking a break from snacking on a water buffalo's face. Here are a few pictures taken by the various lovely ladies I was with; I'll add more as I get them.

A Ridiculous Swipe at Invisible Children as Academic Standards Hit Rock Bottom

I'm a few hours away from traveling back to Gulu, the past epicenter of the conflict between the Lord's Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda.  This time I'm traveling for recreation more than for work, a testament to how far Gulu has come after being ground zero for thousands of night walking children less than a decade ago. A large part of this transition is due to the huge amounts of NGOs that flocked to Gulu following a cessation of hostilities, with the influx of Westerners leading to a demand for high end grocery stores, restaurants  and hotels. The organization I work for -  the Refugee Law Project - has an office there, and hundreds of other organizations, including Invisible Children, have offices as well. Hopefully within the next few years there won't be any, although that would be wishful, naive thinking. 

I've made my thoughts on Invisible Children's advocacy efforts in the United States more than audible since returning from my first trip from Uganda, and especially following the release of the Kony2012 video. But as the uproar around the video died down, so did my criticism. Even if the organization pulls off something as half as successful as the video in the future, I'm sure I'll still keep my voice down.  I've hurt people I cared about in the process of dissent, and while that isn't a reason to keep my opinions down, at this point the group is irrelevant to my life, my work and my interests. The more I work around the post-conflict recovery situation in northern Uganda, the more I understand that there is no single good way to solve any one particular issue. Focusing on the way not to solve an issue is, at this point in my thinking, counterproductive. 

That the uproar over the video is still going on is rather bemusing to me. I just don't see the point. Sverker Finnström's latest essay on the subject, "KONY 2012, Military Humanitarianism, and the Magic of Occult Economies", is masterfully written, but it doesn't bring anything new to the discussion. Finnström is an academic I highly admire; his book Living With Bad Surroundings is one of my favorites not only on northern Uganda, but as a piece of non-fiction as a whole.

Manuel Barcia, on the other hand, was unknown to me until today, when Al Jazeera published his article, "Whatever happened to Kony 2012?" Barcia's article is full of so many blatant miscalculations and factual inaccuracies, it's hard to imagine that it passed through the eyes of a single Al Jazeera editor.

The thesis of the article is fair enough:

"The failure to achieve what the Kony2012 filmmakers had aimed for - capturing Joseph Kony and bringing him to justice - raises some important questions about the effectiveness of foreign meddling in African affairs. It equally warns us of the concealed dangers behind the export of "good will" from the West towards other parts of the world. As the ancient aphorism goes: The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Again, it brings nothing new to the discussion and might seem a bit overarching in its premise (that a video by idealistic and incompetent foreigners is what finally raises these questions seems to give too much credit, but I digress), but the the central idea isn't off-base. From there, all illogical hell breaks loose.

Following his thesis, Barcia brings us this bit of insight:

"Another enduring failure in the West is the underestimation of the resourcefulness of African warlords. Only twenty years ago, US marines were routed at the battle of Mogadishu by the men - both military and civilians - loyal to Mohamed Farah Aidid, who at the time was terrorising the Somalian capital and taking the lives of men, women and children for fun.

Unfortunately, and in spite of all our supposed Western superiority and technological advantage, we have continued to make the same mistakes time and again. Not even a Hollywood blockbuster like Black Hawk Down, where the errors of the US military commanders were laid bare, has taught us anything."

I'm curious as to whether Barcia's knowledge of US intervention into Somalia is based solely on the film, as if the hell that Army Rangers faced that day - and the pre-conditions to intervention, Western humanitarian blunders leading to the Mogadishu raid, and basic misunderstanding of Somali clan structures and loyalty - were perfectly captured on the screen by Josh Hartnett and his men and they valiantly returned fire against a drugged up militia. The mission failed for numerous reasons, and poor planning and lack of contingency options were two big ones. A body count of 21 US, Pakastani and Malaysian dead, compared to the estimated 3,000 Somali causalities, however, is not a route. 

And in spite of our "superiority" and "technological advances", where has the United States, in the continent of Africa, made the same mistake again? The images of American soldiers being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu had a direct impact on non-intervention during the Rwandan genocide, a fact well known by Bagosora and realized in the butchering of 10 Belgian soldiers; the West pulled out and the killing began unimpeded. American troops on the ground on the continent haven't engaged in battle in over 20 years, perhaps save the NATO Libyan air assault. 

Finally, into the fray then, we have Joseph Kony. Barcia's recount of LRA history (in one neat little paragraph!) is filled with the boring, often inaccurate storyline of the LRA's beginnings. Religion here, child abductions there, analysis or historical competence nowhere. We are then left with this jaw dropping piece of insight, sure to shatter any semblance of requirements that one must reach to enter the world of academia:

"Singling out Joseph Kony and making him famous, as the Invisible Children filmmakers wanted, may have impeded Kony from frightening his own people, the Achuli, but has hardly stopped him from killing, raping, and kidnapping other peoples in South Sudan, the DRC, and the Central African Republic, many of whom perhaps would have never been bothered by Kony and his LRA had not been for the Kony2012 campaign that forced him to withdraw from Uganda and go in search of new pastures."

Where, oh where, to begin? I suppose with "frightening his own people", which is akin to describing Saddam's treatment of the Kurds as "a bit spooky." No mention of Museveni or the UPDF's actions toward the "Achuli" is mentioned, which could be because Barcia is actually attempting to discuss the "Acholi", but couldn't quite get that little bit of information correctly spelled.

The rest of the sentence is completely inaccurate; as in false, a lie, a complete misunderstanding of not-too-distant past and current history. The LRA have not operated inside northern Uganda since the 2006 Juba Peace Talks. Half the reason there was such an uproar against the Kony2012 video was that it portrayed events as if they were currently happening, but were in actuality years old. How on earth an academic director at a major university attributes the Kony2012 video to the dismissal of LRA outside of Uganda, an event that took place close to six years before the video was released, is beyond me.

The rest of the article focuses on conflict-minerals and their fuel of warfare in Eastern DRC, as well as US interests at stake that helps fuel the brutality. There is nothing nuanced or overtly insightful, but the historical inaccuracies are kept to a minimum. Finally, in closing, Barcia writes:

"The Kony2012 creators have now a magnificent platform to expose and examine not just the story of a religious nut mass murderer, but also some deeper issues that have contributed for centuries to the spread of violence and bloodshed in Africa. We can only hope they use it."

This conclusion directly follows Barcia's (albeit correct) assertion that the film follows traditional Western imaginings of an African hell, filled with conflict and children in need of rescuing. The problem is that Barcia takes the same route. By referring to Kony as a "religious nut mass murderer" it sheds the same image that he pertains to disdain. There are no political or economic motivations behind Kony and the LRA, just a madman killing because he can.

Barcia had the platform to at the least, get his information right. He couldn't use it.

Wildlife/Human Conflict in Northern Uganda

The Observer recently published an article I wrote on conflict between humans and wildlife in northern Uganda. The editors at the newspaper have a curious habit of changing your article however they see fit without informing you before publication, but this one is in better shape than the first article I had published with them.

If you're interested in the story, you can access it at either of these links. Only one of them has a very large, goofy picture of my face, however:

http://allafrica.com/stories/201301070166.html

http://www.observer.ug/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22980:how-to-mitigate-human-wildlife-conflict-in-north&catid=37:guest-writers&Itemid=66