Mfarhanonline Social Media News: The non-profit organization Invisible Children and its viral video Kony 2012 , which has become an international sensation in the past couple of weeks, is continuing to stir controversy. Not only have critics raised questions surrounding Invisible Children and its methodologies, but numerous reports are now verifying that local Ugandans too are in fact angry about the campaign. The non-profit African Youth Initiative Network (AYINET) , which calls itself an organization to help rehabilitate victims of war, organized a public screening in the town of Lira in northern Uganda on Tuesday night. Northern Uganda was one of the regions worst affected by Joseph Kony’s rebel group, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). While the Kony 2012 film has become the most viral video in history , this was the first time that most Ugandans in Uganda — the majority of whom have no access to the internet — saw the film firsthand. The reactions featured in this video report on the screening are a far cry from the outburst of support that pummeled through Western nations. One local Ugandan featured in the video, an LRA survivor who only had one arm due to the other being blown off in a land mine, seemed pained at some of Invisible Children’s campaign strategies. “If people in those countries care about us, they will not wear t-shirts of Joseph Kony for any reason,” he said. “That would celebrate our suffering.” Another local Ugandan stated, “We wanted to see our local people who are killed. So these are all white men, different from northern Uganda.” “What has angered people is that the video is about a white person, not about the victims,” said Emmy Okello, a radio journalist in Lira featured in another report . “All of them came here hoping to see video that tells their story.! ” These sentiments echo other crowd-sourced views surfacing from Uganda. SEE ALSO: KONY 2012 Update: Al Jazeera Launches “Uganda Speaks” According to reports, the reactions in Lira erupted into stone-throwing. As a result of this aggresion, AYINET has postponed further screenings of the video in Uganda indefinitely. Meanwhile, Invisible Children has not been indifferent to the Kony 2012 backlash. Earlier this week, the organization released a video responding to its critics. But while it defends its marketing and financial tactics, it doesn’t address the resentment of Ugandans at seeing “white people” tell their story. Indeed, like the original Kony 2012 video, it’s told from a Western, rather than Ugandan, perspective. What do you think of these latest developments in the Kony 2012 controversy? Should Ugandan reactions prompt another video response from Invisible Children? Let us know in the comments. More About: africa , kony 2012 , Uganda , World Social Media reviews series maintain by Mayya
0 comments :
Post a Comment