Why the sudden spotlight on Joseph Kony, a man the headlines ignored all these years?
It's amazing to see how much interest the viral video on Kony has generated. Kony has surfaced once or twice in the news before - but never on this scale. A small group of activists have essentially hijacked the global agenda, sparking a debate on a man who is still largely a mystery to the outside world. It's great to see so much interest.
What compelled you to write a book on Kony?
For years I'd been mystified by the man. I'd been working as a reporter for Reuters in Nairobi, covering Uganda from afar. I couldn't figure out how this bizarre character, surrounded by abducted recruits, could survive for so long. So I decided to try to meet him and ask.
When and how did you meet Kony? For those who have not read your book, could you provide a brief narrative?
The book traces my journey through northern Uganda and southern Sudan in search of Kony. I meet all kinds of fascinating characters along the way: an escaped child soldier called Moses, a Spanish missionary named Father Carlos, and a host of others. As the journey unfolds, I delve into the reasons why the war has lasted so long. When I finally met Kony, in a clearing in eastern Congo in 2006, I felt I had already understood far more about the man and his war.
Could you recapture the minutes of that encounter? How long was the meeting? Was it arranged? By who?
He emerged from the forest wearing a white suit, followed by a trail of child soldiers, brandishing Kalashnikovs, their feet flopping on over-sized Wellington boots. I went to shake his hand and he almost jumped out of his skin - he seemed so nervous to be confronted by strangers, outside of his kingdom in the bush, where his word was life and death. I was lucky: the government of southern Sudan had contacted Kony and started peace talks. The meetings gave me a rare chance to meet Kony, otherwise I doubt I ever would have found him.
Most encounters with the notorious have a sense of drama. What is the myth and reality of the man called Joseph Kony?
Yes - seeing Kony for the first time was extraordinary. He almost seemed more scared of his visitors than we were of him. He mopped sweat from his brow with a flannel; his eyes bulged, he looked terrified. But a few days later I saw him addressing elders in a makeshift hall in the bush. He was a mesmerising speaker - captivating his audience with proverbs from his Acholi language. At that moment I felt I had had a true glimpse of the man that had managed to hold his rebel movement together against all the odds.
Was it a chilling experience to meet a man in flesh who can kill without compunction? Or is it, again curiously, a normal moment?
He was at pains to appear normal, though for me it was a huge moment. "I am not a terrorist," he said. "I am a man, I am a human being, I am Joseph Kony." Yet it was impossible not to look at him and think of the atrocities he had committed. To be honest, I was relieved that he had finally appeared after all the months of waiting. At the same time, there was an almost guilty excitement in finally standing face-to-face with Africa's most wanted man. Looking back though, I remember how haunted he seemed. He was a man trapped in denial over his crimes. There was something deeply sinister about him that stays with me even now.
You have posed a seminal question in your book: "How could one man leading an army of abducted children hold a country hostage for over 20 years?". Could you answer it now, outside of the book?
The short answer is: we let him. For many years there was no real interest in the war, in the rest of Uganda, or in the outside world. It suited the west to turn a blind eye; we needed a success story in Africa, and Uganda was supposed to be it. Kony was airbrushed out of the picture. President Yoweri Museveni also could have done a lot more to tackle the conflict - but for years it was left to fester until it became a far bigger problem than it should have been. Neglect, incompetence and laziness - that was the story in northern Uganda for many years.
In your book, you address the issue of how Kony is not the whole problem but a part of the larger problem of Ugandan government's calculating ineptitude.
Kony preyed on his own Acholi people. Yet at the same time, they were deeply alienated from President Museveni's government in Kampala. The rebels ruled through fear, but they also had sympathizers. People hated Museveni so much, they were willing to embrace a killer like Kony.
What caused the transformation of Kony into what he is today? (Your book has people who knew him a young boy recount how he never fought despite provocation by older boys.)
Like all great monsters, Kony had a blind spot. He was obsessed with the atrocities committed by Museveni's forces in northern Uganda after he seized power in Kampala in 1986. But he became so adept at telling himself a victim story, he became desensitized to the suffering he was causing. In his mind, the atrocities he ordered were "punishments" for Acholi who would not support him. He was able to convince himself he was doing good even as he slid deeper into evil.
US's strategy in sending troops to Uganda is being seen as a way to gain a stronger foothold to counter China's growing economic clout in the region.
Not really. It's true that the US is locked in a broader competition with China in east Asia, and that China's growing influence in Africa raises some concerns in Washington. But it's easy to read motives into US policy that may not be there. In this case, I think the explanation is more straightforward: Uganda has long been one of America's closest allies in Africa, and there is genuine concern among some in Washington over the LRA's destabilizing influence in the region. The US has military advisers working in countries all over the world. I don't think countering Chinese influence is necessarily high on their list of reasons for doing the same in Uganda, though it might be somewhere in the background.
Uganda's recent discovery of oil has most analysts saying that it requires very little now to connect the dots to see where the US's interests lie.
The oil industry has been a curse for many African countries - it encourages corruption, distorts the economy, and alienates communities around the wells. Uganda needs more accountability and transparency, otherwise it might suffer the same fate as other African producers.
The current craze to catch Kony as propagated by Invisible Children is being seen by many as too simplistic and misleading.
There are questions over the film. Some people in Uganda feel it is patronizing and paints an out-of-date picture of the conflict. After all, Kony left Uganda in 2005 - the war there has been over for years. But the fact remains that he can still kill and terrorise people with impunity in other parts of central Africa. There is a chance - however far-fetched - that this campaign might prompt the US to take more robust action to capture Kony. Realistically, they are the only power likely to succeed in capturing him. It might seem too much to hope for, but if IC succeeds in getting Kony sent to The Hague, the skeptics will be forced to eat their words.
The UPDF with all it forces, did not succeed in catching Kony. Will a mere 100 US personnel targeting four countries facilitate success?
For years the Ugandan army did not make much of an effort to catch Kony. Let's not forget that the Ugandans invaded Congo twice during the 1990s instead of focusing on the Lord's Resistance Army. The officer class enriched themselves by looting Congo's resources. The army has improved in more recent years; soldiers have made big sacrifices as peace-keepers in Somalia. But the reality is that the problem in catching Kony has been primarily one of political will, rather than capacity. The strength of the US advisers lies not in their numbers, but their expertise, and in particular intelligence-gathering. With all the assets at the US disposal, they should be able to find Kony.
Some analysts say it suits Museveni to have Kony as a diversion from his own track record and vested interests. Comment.
That may have been true back in the 1990s, I'm not sure it's true now. Kony had faded from the headlines in Uganda a long time ago. It is fair to say that for years, Museveni gained legitimacy by presenting himself as the leader who had overturned the brutal rule of dictators from northern Uganda. As long as Kony was at large in the north, the atrocities he committed did in some sense remind people in the south that Museveni was their ultimate protector. Yet my sense is that narrative belongs in the past. Uganda has new issues and new problems to confront.
What led to the breakdown in the peace negotiations between Museveni and Kony in 2006?
Kony was always paranoid. I don't know the inside story, but the gulf of mistrust dividing both sides was perhaps too wide to cross.
Do you believe that Museveni and Kony are two sides of the same coin for Uganda's problems?
Museveni has been in power since 1986. It is inevitable that in that time, power will become vested in personalities, rather than institutions. My fear for Uganda is that Museveni has not done enough to cultivate a system of checks and balances that are capable of resolving the country's tensions. In a sense, the trajectories of both men were started in Uganda's cycle of conflict in the 1980s. Let's hope that Kony will vanish and new leadership will soon emerge to re-invigorate Uganda's political culture, which has been dominated by one man for too long.
What are the US interests in East Africa in the new decade and how important is the US-Uganda alliance?
Uganda is one of America's most important African allies - it occupies a strategic location in central Africa, and President Museveni has not hesitated to endorse US policy for the continent. I expect those ties to remain strong - Museveni and the US both need each other.
How do you see the Kony hunt pan out from now on in the aftermath of the viral video phenomenon?
There are already reports that militaries from Uganda, Congo and South Sudan are starting a new mission to catch him. I'm concerned that a hastily put-together operation could do more harm than good. We know Kony tends to retaliate against his pursuers by massacring civilians. Lets hope he does not do the same again. The best option would be for highly-trained, well-equipped US special forces to conduct a mission to catch him. They have far more capacity and expertise in this area than anyone in the region, and they should use it to arrest Kony.
From the time you wrote The Wizard of the Nile to now, what has changed about Uganda? And btw, why call Kony a ‘wizard'?
Ha! I always thought of Kony as the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz. In Oz, the wizard is a terrifying character, who speaks in a thunderous voice, and makes people tremble. But when the visitors pull back the curtain, they see he is just an ordinary man. Kony is guilty of horrific crimes. But at the same time, he is just a man. The fact he has been able to survive for so long and cause such suffering is more a reflection of the many vested interests in Uganda and beyond who have profited from the continuation of the war than it is his evil genius. Kony didn't succeed - we failed.
In your view, what drove Invisible Children to offer a redux version of the documentary? What are your views on the video and its purported mission?
Some people have rightly criticised the video for painting an out-of-date picture of the conflict in Uganda. But the fact is that Kony is still killing and terrorizing people in central Africa - in Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic. Invisible Children have raised awareness - let's hope it translates into effective action to stop him.
The video has become an adjunct to the explosion of geo-political analyses on the politics of terror in East Africa. Does that help?
That people are interested in what goes on in far-flung parts of the world - even places that rarely make it into the mainstream news. The video itself does not pretend to journalistic objectivity - but it does tell a compelling story. It's a technique others will no doubt try to copy to shine a light on other forgotten conflicts.
* (Matthew Green is Afghanistan and Pakistan correspondent for The Financial Times)
- Website: www.matthewgreenjournalism.com
- Twitter handle @mattgreenAfPak
- Books: The Wizard of the Nile, The Hunt for Africa's Most Wanted (Portobello, 2008).
