After the ‘Kony 2012’ YouTube video which was a great phenomenon, ordinary Ugandans felt that their voice were never heard and their story told. The Invincible Children’s video was viewed more than 100 million times and shared globally like has never been done before.
The phenomenon was said to be the greatest, eclipsing the likes of Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber who were previously considered to be the kings and queens of viral videos. The #Kony2012 is now officially the most viral video / phenomenon in history.
Great that Lord’s Resistance Army rebel leader, Joseph Kony, is now more known to the world, the bad side of the campaign is that the story told on the video was shallow, mediocre and just cements the Western view of Africa. Nevertheless, the video attracted equally as much criticism from the world as from many Ugandans online who mostly felt ignored and unappreciated.
To correct this, a group of Ugandan netizens and bloggers have launched an online project called UgandaSpeaks, to “..recapture the narrative about Joseph Kony and Northern Uganda from Invisible Children and its #KONY2012”.
The bloggers then released this video
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eONJChJv1xE
Invisible Children said that their video not meant for the Ugandan audience but for the US audience.
Invisible Children started working in Uganda in 2005. Then, Ugandans were relied on on slow and expensive internet connections. A home internet connection was a luxury which could only be afforded by the elite while most Ugandans relied on cyber cafes. That has changed.
4 sub-marine cables have connected the East African coast to the rest of the world bringing down the cost of internet connection and so leading to greater uptake. Now most of the East African middle class can afford the internet meaning that the #Kony2012 video could not be only popular in US and not seen in Uganda.
It is now harder for Western visitors to distort the African story.
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