The powerful documentary Invisible Children, still being shown in high schools across America is now so far out of date as to be history. The war depicted in the 2003 movie ended in 2006. It’s like Spielberg showing Saving Private Ryan to raise funds for the poor displaced people of bombed-out France.The I.C. organization raised more than $7 million in 2006 from this film and apparently is spending the money on worthwhile projects in Northern Uganda, yet the image people have of today’s Uganda suffers when young people at yet another school are emotionally moved to set up an Invisible Children Club to help people who no longer face the issues depicted in the film.
The movie’s subject, Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Revolutionary Army had the dubious distinction of having waged the longest running magic war in African history. Over 22 years, Kony's LRA kidnapped an estimated 20,000 children for use as fighters or sex slaves. As part of their initiation, these children were often required to kill their own parents so they would have no homes to return to. Once kidnapped, children were used as pack mules, carrying LRA supplies until they were too weak to walk, at which time they were killed or simply left to die. Kidnapped boys served as targets and decoys, sent to the front lines -- unarmed -- whenever the Ugandan Army engaged the LRA. Kidnapped girls that Kony or his senior commanders found attractive became their "wives" (Kony is reputed to have 60). Troublesome captives had noses, lips, and/or ears cut off, and were then made to eat their own flesh. More than one million people were displaced as the result of Kony’s terror. For years, the city of Gulu was a prison of fear as the LRA would scour the streets by night for new recruits. But no longer.
Today, Kony is a fugitive from the International Criminal Court, hiding in Congo. His generals are on trial by traditional courts, undergoing rituals of re-entry into the village. The people in the displacement camps are returning to their land. My friend Dennis Ndyabawe recently visited Gulu which he says, “is so full of mzungus, it’s hard to find the natives.” The mzungus – white people – are aid workers from the UN, WorldVision and dozens of other NGOs including I.C. helping people to recover and re-settle.
The Kony War is another Idi-Amin-esque piece of indelible history that hinders Uganda’s progress as a nation. So, with all this peace, why is the I.C. organization still showing the original film? A reworked film would be as much a lesson in the courage of the people who lived through the war as the current one is a lesson in tragedy for those where were in it… only the new version would be the truth. And Uganda would benefit from that tale.
