Kony 2017: From Guerrilla Marketing To Guerrilla Warfare

In 2012, a previously obscure charity group burst onto the scene with a viral video that rapidly spread across social media. Called KONY 2012, the video attempted to make African warlord Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) famous. Despite its success, the video was rapidly discredited due to its simplistic content and its "white savior" narrative.

Five years later, both the LRA and Invisible Children have disappeared from the spotlight, as the public focused on the actions of objectively worse groups like ISIS and Boko Haram. Nonetheless, neither completely vanished, and deep in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo they remain locked in an ongoing conflict.

As well, the tactics used by Invisible Children remain as controversial as ever. Over the last few years, the NGO has deployed an expansive long-range radio network through central Africa, which locals use to report locations and descriptions of recent LRA attacks. Somewhat questionably, this information is then relayed to a number of armed groups on the ground fighting the LRA, including the US, UN peacekeepers, local government forces, and even a private military corporation (PMC) which is being funded by the same foundation backing Invisible Children.

Within this environment, the author suggests Invisible Children's actions continue to be guided by a naïve misunderstanding of the situation. Many fear that the radio network they have created, and the operators they have trained, will make civilians be seen as active collaborators in an ongoing military conflict.

This article by David Gauvey Herbert is a deep and descriptive look at Invisible Children's operations, far from public scrutiny. It is an insightful follow-up to the KONY 2012 phenomenon, and in many ways shows that concerns about the way the organization runs its programs were well-placed.