Turning the tide

A big thank-you to everyone who downloaded a free copy of my book Saving Darfur. I made it available as an antidote to the StopKony 2012 campaign, offering as it does a more nuanced view of the Lord’s Resistance Army – and other African conflicts. In all, 316 of you downloaded the kindle edition yesterday making a considerable dent in the 75m views that Invisible Children has racked up. I think we can win this yet.

Get a book for free

You don’t need me to tell you that the Kony 2012 video thing has made a bit of a splash. Among the old Africa hands that I consider worth listening to on subjects like these, it is either a patronising piece of guff that at least raises awareness of an obscure, forgotten war, OR it is a patronising piece of guff.

In many ways, we should have seen this coming. As I blogged at the end of last week, this is what happens when Save Darfur becomes the model for campaigning. Building a mass movement may well create political will – but that is only one part of actually finding a solution.

That was the gist of my book on Darfur.

And one chapter describes Joseph Kony’s war in Uganda – and beyond – fitting it into the complex regional politics that have created so many armed proxies that bedevil Africa. Not only that, but I met him, stared into his vacant eyes and realised that he was only a part of the problem.

So in the interests of promoting debate

For 24 hours on March 13 I’ll be making the kindle version of the book available for free.

It is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B006EJ0BI2

Or if you are in the US, here: http://www.amazon.com/Saving-Darfur-Everyones-Favourite-ebook/dp/B006EJ0BI2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1331566786&sr=8-2

And will be free, I believe, from midnight PST

My friend went to Africa and all I got was this idea for a lousy T-shirt

A UN-AU convoy forms up before heading to Siliea in West Darfur in 2008.

Kony 2012 is not an aberration. It is the inevitable next step in a trend among charities and advocacy groups trying to connect distant disasters with donors, voters and policymakers in the west. That is laudable. But a consequence is that it has confused causes and effects, spawning a new breed of campaigner that measures success in terms of hits, letters sent, wristbands sold, T-shirts worn, videos watched, tweets retweeted – and untruths spread. It is a form of charity that seems to have become more about salving consciences than actually helping people.

The defence is that such actions raise awareness. True. They do. And it turns a foreign disaster in a faraway land into one that matters in Congress or Parliament. (Foreigners, of course, don’t vote. People who buy their T-shirts new do.)

But what is the point if the simplistic slogan on a dog bowl or G-string is based on a flawed analysis? The danger is that you build a mass movement that writes letters to MPs, builds pressure for a course of action – but the course of action fails because of its basis in a misleading analysis.

Save Darfur is the example I know best. The movement did an incredible job of mobilising popular support, helped have President Omar al-Bashir indicted at the International Criminal Court and pushed for a failing African Union peacekeeping force to be rehatted in United Nations blue. And you know what? Darfur hasn’t been saved. They were the wrong solutions.

All that awareness. All that goodwill. Wasted.

Sadly this has now become the model. Tweets, wristbands and charity singles rule. Will it raise awareness? Yes. Will it make a difference? No. Does anyone care? No. We’ve all shown the world how much we care. And got a nice new T-shirt.