Since the release of the Kony 2012 video, many painful thoughts have run through my mind.
Thoughts of sin aroused in me.
Thoughts of my state of hopelessness.
Thoughts of how we the Acholi people have been misunderstood by others.
I say this because…
I am an Acholi. In 1988, my uncle as he was getting off a bus at our Village in Acholibur was shot at by Joseph Kony’s rebels. In 1992, as we gathered to celebrate Christmas as a family the rebels came on the Christmas night and attacked and killed people at the Village trading centre, this was the last Christmas that we had in the Village as we were later displaced across the Nile to Masindi District. In 1996 at the helm of the war, my father was posted to work in Gulu and on one instance the car that they were travelling in was ambushed and burnt, he stayed in the bush for three days. My cousin was shot and I personally saw her intestines fall out as she was being brought to the hospital in Gulu, my other cousin was adducted by the rebels and he has never returned home to this day.
This all happened in the first twenty years of my life. When I think about this it’s painful and hurts and I feel bad. I am sure that if my grandmother watches this video today, she will weep in memory of her husband that the rebels killed, if my uncle watched this video fear and hopelessness would reawaken of the rebels re-abducting him, he would reconsider his plans of returning to our village. Is this good?
The solution to our problem is not to capture Kony but to help us continue in this process of healing, the thought of capturing Kony arouses more anger, more pain and feelings of revenge that are unbiblical. In fact if you asked me ten years ago what I would do with Kony if I captured him, I would revenge all the evil he has brought on my family. Now I realize that revenge is for God, I personally have handed Kony over to God. The gospel of Jesus has helped me over come these feelings, the thought of arresting Kony arouses sin in me, reminds me of how hopeless I am and how people do not understand me.
Justice is not only going to happen when our oppressor is captured and taken to The Hague, there are many leaders in Uganda who have done far worse atrocities and qualify as well to go to the Hague even before Kony but no one seems to say anything about them. Justice is going to happen if we the oppressed are restored and given living hope. This hope is what the oppressor took; taking the life of the oppressor does not bring back any hope. I have realized that hope is not in the cows, land, food or other material things we owned, because when Kony took all these from us, we lost hope and life was meaningless. Hope is in life eternal, hope is in Christ. This hope no man can take.
The focus in Northern Uganda should no longer be Joseph Kony the man that oppressed us for 23 years, but it should be on we that were oppressed. I believe that this Acholi problem needs a biblical and African solution of restoring the broken hearted. We urgently need to raise leaders that will give hope to the hopeless. Therefore the kony 2012 Video is not the solution, hope to the oppressed is the solution.
KILAMA DENNIS, Academic Registrar Africa Renewal Christian College
