Kudos for Finding Kony

 

Robert Gribbin, Finding Kony: A Novel.  A review by Alan G. Johnston.  Note:  both Robert Gribbin and Alan Johnston were in the Peace Corps group that arrived in Kenya in October 1968.  They both spent many years in Africa.

 

On March 5, 2012, a U.S.-based NGO, Invisible Children, Inc., released a short documentary film called Kony 2012.  The intent of the film, meant for world-wide distribution, was to make the infamous Ugandan warlord, Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), so famous that he couldn’t hide.  The goal was to have him arrested and brought to justice by the end of 2012. The film quickly went viral, garnering more than 100 million views and becoming the most “liked” video on YouTube.

The film highlights the announcement by Barack Obama in October 2011 that the U.S. would be sending 100 Special Forces military advisors to assist the Ugandan Defense Force in the search for Kony.  The African Union quickly authorized a force of 5,000 military from Uganda, D.R. Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan to carry out the hunt for Kony, with communications, intelligence, and logistics support from the U.S. advisors. By this time, Kony and his LRA had fled from Uganda to somewhere in Central Africa.

In the end, the hunt proved futile, although the LRA as a fighting force was greatly diminished.  By April 2017 the United States concluded that the LRA no longer posed a threat to Uganda and the Special Forces were withdrawn.  This is where Robert Gribbin and his new novel, Finding Kony, steps in.  He calls on his protagonist, freelance journalist Paul Simmons, to take over the search.  Gribbin calls on his lengthy experience throughout Central Africa to provide an authentic context for this dangerous adventure.  We have met Simmons before as he risked his lifetime after time pursuing stories in South Sudan during a civil war (in Serpent of the Nile).  He is a Black American former Peace Corps Volunteer and now freelance journalist based in Mombasa, Kenya.  Once again, he gets himself into some very tricky positions interviewing victims of LRA atrocities in Uganda in search of hints as to how to find Kony. He eventually heads off first to Chad and then by land through Sudan into Central Africa, illegally crossing more than one border, in his search to find and interview Kony to find out what Kony has to say about his goals and motivations.

Gribbin is particularly adept at providing a realistic and convincing picture of the complex environment of embassies, customs and immigration agencies, UN organizations, peace-keeping forces, NGOs, traditional leaders, and para-military groups.  It is clear that Gribbin has visited refugee camps and knows his way around the isolated and dusty towns and villages through which his fictional journalist must track his quarry.

This is a tale of adventure intertwined with real world humanitarian issues and the quest for justice.  The International Criminal Court has indicted Kony for crimes against humanity.  Is that case any closer to being resolved?

4/17/2023