Meeting Joseph Kony (Uganda 2006) and the power of the camera

A bit of additional information relating to my previous post about Kony 2012. I have recently subscribed to a documentary channel on youtube called Journeyman Pictures. It is a very interesting channel covering a vast amount of issues in many countries including Iran, Afganistan, Argentina, and Belarus. Recently on the 8th March 2012 two videos were released about Kony: one documenting an unpredictable meeting with the LRA leader in 2006 (shown below) and the second from 2010 following the Ugandan army 'manhunt' in catching Kony.


Meeting Joseph Kony - Uganda June 2006

Initially I was dubious on which lead this 15 min short film would take after the amount of criticism that KONY 2012 got the day before. This documentary is more journalistic than KONY 2012 and provides a broader look on the subject of the LRA and not just focusing on Kony. The title initially grabbed me as seeing the phrase 'Meeting Joseph Kony' was bizarre after hearing that he was hard man to find. However this footage was shot in 2006, and  it is unbelievable that in such a short space of time this man has apparently literally disappeared from the face of the world. 

The power of the video camera is very evident here. Firstly the reporter and cameraman is British and he is not seen throughout the film. Yet his presence is made through asking very direct and specific questions such as: "do you believe that the spirts talk to him (to Kony)?" and "how many spirts does Kony have?" to which the solider replies very confidently: "yes", "three". I was very confused by this until I found out that 'hearing' spirits is common culture throughout Africa. I think the most shocking part of this film is not really seeing the destruction that the LRA have done but the meeting of Kony himself, who, in some ways, has become the new social media Face of Terror.

What Kony had to say didn't come as a surprise. He was clearly informed that a camera was in the area so obviously he was not going to admit to the crimes he is charged with. The first time the viewer sees Kony he does a hand action which resembles holding a camera. Interestingly there are no visible child soldiers in the film apart from one young child holding a gun at the beginning. Kony begins by saying that Journeyman Pictures is the first journalist to interview him in his jungle hideout in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and issues a chilling statement: "now you have seen me, I am a human being, like you." He describes himself to be a freedom fighter but actually he comes across as a lying, manipulative man. The presense of the camera significantly alters his actions and words. The journalist also comments on a slight change of attitude from the leader when he is talking to his 'recruited' men about what would happen if he was in power. 

In this short film we see the power of the camera and the way it can change peoples behaviours. Stella A. Bain and James S. Baxter state in their report on "Interrogative suggestibility: The role of
interviewer behaviour":

"All witnesses, victims and suspects enter an interrogation with a general cognitive set regarding the situation. This cognitive set is influenced by uncertainty about the subject-matter of the interrogation, the degree of interpersonal trust witnesses feel towards the interrogator, and their expectations regarding what is about to happen. This general cognitive set can facilitate either a resistant or suggestible behavioural response to the interrogation."

~ http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1348/135532500168029/pdf (accessed 11.03.2012)

The viewer has to consider the validity of the interview.  This interview is useful as it gave Kony the chance to speak instead of just being known by his face and his 'presence' across Uganda. But it is clear that the pressure of being interviewed and documented on film means that Kony's statement is highly unreliable and the viewer has to rely on the other images that Journeyman pictures also screens in the film. I leave this blog entry by quoting a statement the sociologist Ann Oakley, made about Interviews in 1981:

“Interviewing is rather like a marriage: everybody knows what it is, an awful lot of people do it, and yet behind each closed front door there is a world of secrets.” 

~ http://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1073&context=utk_nurspubs (accessed 11.03.2012)