Uganda and the Ugandans

I reckon if I-Love-Everything posters got ourselves a few shotguns we'd have a good chance of taking over Congo.

Anyone on for it?

Anyone on for it?

and endless supplies of Um Bongo will be ours! count me in.

So, I'm in co-charge of a global issues club...We've been studying Uganda this year and have looked at (pretty extensively) the history of the current LRA-gov. conflict and (less extensively) AIDS in the region. Most meetings have been pretty depressing, obv., so i was wanting to lighten tomorrow's up a bit with a culture lesson. Any recommended topics?

Oh, and are we missing some obvious aspect? We were going to raise money for education in Uganda...Any other ideas? Thanks, ILX.

(btw, there's an ebola outbreak in the country right now)

?

don't bring in Idi Amin's recipe book

You may well be the best informed person on ILX at this point?

I'm not up on anything recent in Uganda but a magazine whose back issues might be able to help is <a href="http://www.transitionmagazine.com/";>Transition</a> - this is a really great magazine, Soyinka & Jamaica Kincaid & Toni Morrison and a number of other luminaries sit on the editorial board. It runs articles on African culture & politics as well as African populations in diaspora, some fiction, etc. Is more interesting than the preceding description maybe makes it sound.

Of course this won't help since your meeting is tomorrow but the magazine is so great that it deserves the plug anyway

Most meetings have been pretty depressing, obv.

but - we're always hearing how Uganda is a relative success story, by the standards of the region. Maybe you should cheer yourselves up by studying some of the neighbouring countries and going "thank goodness Uganda is not as fucked as they are".

I heard a while ago that Kampala is so nice that loads of World Bank types buy villas there to retire to.

Check out Ntare Mwine, site here http://www.bewareoftime.com/

US-based Ugandan-American actor/playwright/photographer, did a one man show called Biro based on a true story (pasting info below)

When he did the Uganda premiere of the play, Ntare ended up traveling around the country doing workshops and was shooting a documentary abt the trip that took a big turn and ended up having a large segment dedicated to the LRA due to his travels in the North which was in midst of chaos and his actually finding someone in the LRA who smuggled out footage from LRA camps. When the film was shown in Kampala theaters were swamped as this was the first footage of Kony that most anyone had seen. (doc "Beware of Time")

From the website
“Filmed live at Uganda's National Theatre in 2003 prior to its critically acclaimed international tour, “Biro” is “a brilliant play,” [The Herald, Zimbabwe 2005] which candidly charts one man’s epic journey across Uganda, Cuba and America. Based on a true story, this eloquent and unflinching solo piece “has the ring of unvarnished reality, stained by tears and made bearable by laughter” [The Seattle Times 2005]. Mwine tells the story of “Biro” from his days as a soldier with the Ugandan insurgency of 1979 to his HIV positive diagnosis in Cuba to a present day jail cell in Texas poignantly illuminating the plight of Ugandans who have endured in the face of war, AIDS and dashed dreams. A 2004 New York Times Critics’ Pick, "Mwine's performance is wired, vivid and insistent" - Time Out London 2003

From the rolling hills of Kampala to the internally displaced people's camps in Gulu, Beware Of Time is a haunting and poignant documentary, which exposes the attitudes of HIV positive Ugandans, as well as the crimes and hardships of a quiet, but brutal war ravaging the people of Northern Uganda. Traversing through the country's back roads, the filmmaker, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine discovers conflict and contradiction as experienced by HIV positive people, comes within close proximity to rebel fighting in northern Uganda, and along the way finds himself in conversation with Amule Amin - Idi Amin's brother.”

touches on culture, governance, AIDS so shld hit a bunch of bases
he also just had a show called “Motherland”, haven’t had a chance to check out the link yet but http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=824680674294026487&q=ntare+motherland&total=1&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0a

also see Big Dada, a musical/cabaret performance abt Idi Amin, developed in Uganda by S. African playwright Brett Bailey, (6? 7 years ago) its an experience, sadly don't think there are any recordings commercially available but worth checking, there are some pics & short video clip here http://www.thirdworldbunfight.co.za/site.html

cpl reviews of show http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1556431.stm
http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/bigdada-rev.htm

mebbe too late for class but hope is of interest

I was gonna say H to thread but I didn't think you were still on here!

hey Chris, not here much but check in every so often

Hey, thanks so much for the help...I'm definitely going to track some of these down, esp. Beware of Time/Biro and Transition...

Has anyone here ever been to Uganda? It looks like I may be going to Kampala in late January/early February and I was wondering if anyone had any info about where to go/what to do.

That said, reports of recent rioting in the streets are worrying me a bit.

I've met a few Ugandans, lovely people - but then so are most East Africans I've ever met

This is a bump so GBX can give recommendations.

My sister is in Uganda and blogging: http://pamafricanqueen.blogspot.com/

If there's any discussion of the Invisible Children/Kony 2012 video going on here I've missed it. Very conflicted about this - on one hand the thing's become enormous and people are at least talking about it. On the other hand I found the video so oversimplistic that I had to stop watching. Deeply uncomfortable with the idea of tugging America's heartstrings into supporting military action, whatever the rights and wrongs of this particular situation.

This piece here is pretty good background, although I'm not sure what his solution is either.

I thought this was a good basic overview of the Stop Kony campaign and the ensuing backlash:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/mar/08/stop-kony-invisible-children

People at work were all about this yesterday. I heard people at coffee place and at the barber shop today talking about it. Whatever happens, it is clearly an incredibly successful campaign.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/14/kony-2012-screening-anger-northern-uganda?INTCMP=SRCH

it has its own bustling thread on 77

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc

was hoping this would get revived & discussed on ILX proper. the half-hour video that catapulted kony into the american pop spotlight is horrible, imo, but incredibly well-engineered and obviously quite effective. "invisible children", the group that produced it, seems highly suspect to me. the founders are evangelicals with financial ties to the politicized christian right, and they're huge dorks besides:

http://i.imgur.com/sbaiR.jpg
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0apW3vgd3Mc6Y/x610.jpg
[images lifted from, uh, "elsewhere"]

with all that in mind and full awareness of the grim history of such things, i'm generally in support of the goal promoted by the video: the maintenance of a small group of american military advisers stationed in uganda and specifically dedicated to assisting in the capture of joseph kony.

the founders are evangelicals with financial ties to the politicized christian right

this bothers me too - since i teach in san diego, these guys are all over the school system and we have assemblies at my school where we watch invisible children videos

but if i were to get down on evangelicals with ties to the politicized christian right, well, i'd have to get down on like 1/4 of my students

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/16/jason-russell-arrested-invisible-children-kony_n_1354455.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

Quite a strange story. One of the co-founders was apparently arrested for being drunk, vandalising cars and playing the imaginary banjo.

Make him famous

omg the video on that link

I didn't really realize the whole meltdown took place in broad daylight

that statement is something else too, never mind all the folk actually out there doing hard, substantial on-the-ground work, his narcisstic video goes viral and it's enough to push him over the edge due to the "emotional toll" - please! Maybe if they didn't want scrutinised so hard, they should have made the video and whole project better. Congratulations to IC on making this all about themselves.

cocaine is a helluva drug?

I feel the video should have been longer. Who honestly would you have stopped filming at that point?

Still pretty (o_O) 12 seconds none-the-less.

you guys have seen the bizarre vanity music videos this guy produced using the donations to invisible children?

fuck these guys and the evangelical horse they rode in on.

I haven't! Tell me more?

yeah what about these music videos??

http://boingboing.net/2012/03/15/revealed-kony-2012s-siniste.html

prepare to be weirded out

I havent used FB or Twitter in past few weeks, so I completely missed out on this meme.

I don't know how it's possible, but this manages to be even more insane than yesterday's naked video.

just in case people missed the video in the page i linked to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWACLKaOC08&feature=player_embedded

warning: that actually made me almost vomit, no joke.

amateurist are you on '77?

what is '77?

other than a year

a good Talking Heads album

it's the place where most of the #kony talk has been happening

Request Access to 77 Borad

is it like a christian pyramid scheme à la invisible children?

omg at bree. heck of a lady.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpl3-q3VbWU

I love the internet. It just won.

no sterling, the child soldiers of uganda just won. don't you see?

ummm http://www.tmz.com/2012/03/18/jason-russell-video-naked-meltdown-kony/#.T2WqFphpdVg

JayAre686: 46 minutes ago
You totally hear him say, "iPhone, Siri *clap, clap, clap* yay!" This is effing insane.

I was about to say I was looking forward to the south park episode about this stuff, then I realized that this already basically was a south park episode.

...is it just me, or is it a little convenient how clear and close that was?

I mean I'm getting joauquin phoenix vibes about all this now tbh.

Tbf he does seem pretty dehydrated.

Also if you aren't fortunate enough to know what the Invisible Children music video is quoting, here you go

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kBeD1L_nd4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Trayce OTM. This really feels like a lame built-to-be-viral schtick.

somehow i doubt they paid michael jackson any royalties.

i don't think this is all a big prank, it's too elaborate and they did take a lot of peoples' money.

i can see a court challenge to their status as a charity.

One time I was on tour and we stayed somewhere in New Jersey with some guy that was really weird and creepy that we found on couchsurfers. He was doing the same kind of thing, charity for Africa through youtube videos or something. Definitely a different guy than this. He was like a guido version of Ali G.

the invisible children organization is a lot bigger than just this one guy and in any case 2 out of 3 of the founders / CEOs are still sane

how do u kno?

the invisible children organization is a lot bigger than just this one guy and in any case 2 out of 3 of the founders / CEOs are still sane

― the late great, Sunday, March 18, 2012 3:17 PM (27 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"sane" probably. questionable definitely.

keep in mind they get funding from the same fundie sources as the anti-gay campaigns in california and elsewhere. and that about 30% (at most) of their money actually goes to africa. and that they are making million-dollar videos starring themselves that barely mention uganda using the money sent in by well-meaning folks.

do i think that they think they're doing wrong? no. they are as ensnared in the southern california narcissistic-self-actualization/salvation-through-charitable-impulse stuff as their marks donors.

yall are missin out on the "#kony" 77 thread btw

I tried to get amateurist to bite but nooooo

b-b-but i don't get it! what is it?

http://i.imgur.com/wM2FC.jpg

its just a whole other thread where we've been talking about this for a bit and the convo is lengthy and by turns engaging and lolzy

a+ would thread again

ok hook me up. not sure how but yeah.

why would a thread about this subject need to be on 77?

grady said he put it there to avoid rando googlers, though frankly i think rando passionate googlers would increase the fun quotient

amateurist: Request Access to 77 Borad

it is true that they get their money from some of the same fundie sources that pay for anti-gay campaigns in california

on the other hand the same is true of the red cross, etc

one of my exes now works with the international criminal court in places like sierra leone and nigeria, one time she told me that people from the ICC and UN sometimes call flights to africa from the US "flying churches" because those flights are mostly missionaries doing charity work

i know what that feels like, i've gotten annoyed by the same thing both times i've been to israel though i imagine it wasn't quite so stacked w/ white kids in christian hiking apparel

So, how is Uganda thesedays?

asking for someone I know...

i thought this was gonna be a hip new band

Yeah, there's a Robert Wyatt song that has a similar kind of title.

Anyway...

What does your friend want to know? Are they interested in the political situation or as a holiday destination?

'How things are'

Not a holiday, anyway..

http://www.africanews.com/2017/02/20/uganda-currently-strained-by-refugees-from-south-sudan/

But South African trumpet player Hugh Masekela is gonna do a benefit concert there

http://www.theugandatoday.com/all-uganda-today-posts/2017/02/south-african-jazz-singer-hugh-masekela-to-jet-in-this-wednesday/