Joseph Rao Kony (pronounced IPA: [koɲ];^[6] born sometime between July and September of 1961)^[1] is the head of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan guerrilla group. While initially enjoying strong public support, the LRA allegedly turned on its own supporters, supposedly to "purify" the Acholi people and turn Uganda into a theocracy.^[2] Kony proclaims himself the spokesperson of God and a spirit medium, has nurtured a cult of personality, and claims he is visited by a multinational host of 13 spirits, including a Chinese phantom.^[2] Ideologically, the group is a syncretic mix of mysticism, Acholi nationalism, Islam, and Christian fundamentalism,^[7] and claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments and local Acholi tradition.^[8][9]

Kony has been accused by government entities of ordering the abduction of children to become child-sex slaves and child soldiers.^[10] An estimated 66,000 children became soldiers and two million people have been internally displaced since 1986.^[11] Kony was indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2005 but has evaded capture.^[12] The LRA operates in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan.^[13]

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Kony was born in 1961^[1] in Odek, a village east of Gulu in northern Uganda,^[2][14] to father Luizi Obol and mother Nora, both farmers.^[15] He is a member of the Acholi people.^[2][16] Kony enjoyed a good relationship with his siblings, but was quick to retaliate in a dispute and when confronted he would often resort to physical violence.^[17] His father was a lay catechist of the Catholic Church and his mother was an Anglican.

Kony was an altar boy for several years but stopped attending church around the age of 15^[17] and also dropped out of school.^[2] As a teenager, Kony was apprenticed as the village witch doctor under Jamie Brow, his older brother, and when Jamie died, Kony took over the position.^[18]

Cult leader[link]

Kony first came to prominence in January 1986, as the leader of one of the many premillennialist groups that sprang up in Acholiland in the wake of the wildly popular Holy Spirit Movement of Alice Auma (also known as Lakwena and to whom Kony is thought to be related).^[2] Their relative loss of influence after the overthrow of Acholi President Tito Okello by Yoweri Museveni and his National Resistance Army (NRA) during the Ugandan Bush War (1981–1986) spurred resentment among the Acholi. Kony, along with a small group of followers, first moved beyond his home village of Odek on 1 April 1987.^[19] A few days later, he met with a small group of former Uganda National Liberation Front soldiers and managed to recruit them for his group. His first raid, carried out shortly afterwards, was on the city of Gulu.^[19]

Lord's Resistance Army[link]

Lord's Resistance Army insurgency
Events
1987–1994 1994–2002 2002–2005 2006–2008 Juba talks 2008 Garamba offensive Lord's Resistance Army Holy Spirit Movement Joseph Kony ICC investigation
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Kony's group was originally called the United Holy Salvation Army (UHSA), and was not perceived as a threat by the NRA. By 1988 it had become a major player in Ugandan affairs: an agreement between the NRA and the Uganda People's Democratic Army (UPDA) left members of the UPDA unsatisfied, and many joined the UHSA as a form of rebellion. One such person was the UPDA founder Odong Latek, who convinced Kony to use standard military tactics instead of attacking in cross-shaped formations and sprinkling holy water. The new tactics proved successful, and the UHSA won several small victories against the NRA.^[20] The NRA responded by significantly weakening Kony's group through a military campaign named Operation North. The operation was devastating to the UHSA and, with their numbers reduced from thousands to hundreds, they engaged in retaliatory attacks against NRA collaborators and terror against general civilian population. The LRA say that spirits were sent to communicate this mission directly to Kony.^[20]

The bulk of Kony's foot soldiers were children.^[17] While estimates of the number of children conscripted since 1986 vary, some put the figure as high as 104,000.^[17] When abducting the children, Kony and his army often killed their family and neighbors, thus leaving the children with little choice but to fight for him.^[17] In 1992, Kony renamed the group the United Democratic Christian Army.^[21] For a decade, starting in the mid-1990s, the LRA was strengthened by military support from the government of Sudan, which was retaliating against Ugandan government support for rebels in what would become South Sudan.^[1]

Indictment[link]

On 6 October 2005, the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced that arrest warrants had been issued for five members of the Lord's Resistance Army for crimes against humanity following a sealed indictment. On the next day Ugandan defense minister Amama Mbabazi revealed that the warrants include Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti, and LRA commanders Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odiambo, and Dominic Ongwen. According to spokesmen for the military, the Ugandan army killed Lukwiya on 12 August 2006.^[12] The BBC received information that Otti had been killed on 2 October 2007, at Kony's home.^[22]

On 12 November 2006, Kony met Jan Egeland, the United Nations Undersecretary-General for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief.^{[citation needed]} Journeyman Pictures released a 2006 interview with Kony in which he proclaims, "I am a freedom fighter not a terrorist."^[23][24] He told Reuters: "We don't have any children. We only have combatants."^[25]

Religious beliefs[link]

Kony was thought among followers and detractors alike to have been possessed by spirits; he has been portrayed as either the Messiah or the Devil. He reportedly made annual trips to the Ato Hills in Uganda, where he would allegedly ascend to the highest of the hills and lie down in the hot sun for days. Kony believes in the literal protection provided by a cross symbol and tells his child soldiers a cross on their chest drawn in oil will protect them from bullets.^[17] He also believes in polygamy, and as of 2007 he was thought to have 88 wives, claiming Old Testament authority for this, along with 42 children.^[4][26] Kony insists that he and the Lord's Resistance Army are fighting for the Ten Commandments. He defends his actions: "Is it bad? It is not against human rights. And that commandment was not given by Joseph. It was not given by LRA. No, those commandments were given by God."^[27]

Betty Bigombe remembered that the first time she met Kony, his followers used oil to ward off bullets and evil spirits.^[28] In a letter regarding future talks, Kony stated that he must consult his self-styled holy spirit. When the talks did occur, they insisted on the participation of religious leaders and opened the proceedings with prayers, led by LRA's Director of Religious Affairs Jenaro Bongomi. During the 1994 peace talks, Kony was preceded by men in robes sprinkling holy water.^[14] According to Francis Ongom, a former LRA officer who defected, Kony "has found Bible justifications for killing witches, for killing [those who farm or eat] pigs because of the story of the Gadarene swine, and for killing [other] people because God did the same with Noah's flood and Sodom and Gomorrah."^[29]

Action against Kony[link]

Uganda[link]

The Ugandan military has attempted to kill Kony throughout the insurgency. In Uganda's attempt to track Kony down, former LRA combatants have been enlisted to search remote areas of the Central African Republic, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo where he was last seen.^[30]

United States[link]

After the 11 September attacks, the United States declared the Lord's Resistance Army a terrorist group.^[31] On 28 August 2008, the United States Treasury Department placed Kony on its list of "Specially Designated Global Terrorists", a designation that carries financial and other penalties.^[32]

In November 2008, U.S. President George W Bush personally signed the directive to the United States Africa Command to provide financial and logistical assistance to the Ugandan government during the unsuccessful Garamba Offensive, code-named Operation Lightning Thunder.^[33] No U.S. troops were directly involved, but 17 U.S. advisers and analysts provided intelligence, equipment, and fuel to Ugandan military counterparts.^[33] The offensive pushed Kony from his jungle camp, but he was not captured. One hundred children were rescued.^[33]

In May 2010, U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law the Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act,^[34] legislation aimed at stopping Kony and the LRA. The bill passed unanimously in the United States Senate on 11 March. On 12 May 2010, a motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill was agreed to by voice vote (two-thirds being in the affirmative) in the House of Representatives.^[35] In November 2010, President Obama delivered a strategy document to Congress, asking for more funding to disarm Kony and the LRA.^[36] In October 2011, President Obama authorized the deployment of approximately 100 combat-equipped U.S. troops to central Africa.^[37] Their goal is to help regional forces remove Kony and senior LRA leaders from the battlefield. "Although the U.S. forces are combat-equipped, they will only be providing information, advice, and assistance to partner nation forces, and they will not themselves engage LRA forces unless necessary for self-defense," President Obama said in a letter to Congress.^[38][39]

African Union[link]

On 23 March 2012 the African Union announced its intentions to "send 5,000 soldiers to join the hunt for rebel leader Joseph Kony" and to "neutralize" him while isolating the scattered LRA groups responsible for 2,600 civilian killings since 2008. This international task force was stated to include soldiers "from Uganda, South Sudan, Central African Republic and Congo, countries where Kony’s reign of terror has been felt over the years." Prior this announcement, the hunt for Kony has primarily been carried out by troops from Uganda. The soldiers will begin their search in South Sudan on 24 March 2012 and that the search "will last until Kony is caught".^[40]

[edit] Kony 2012

Kony received a surge of attention in early March 2012 when a 30-minute documentary titled Kony 2012 by film maker Jason Russell for the campaign group Invisible Children Inc was released. The intention of the production is to draw attention to Kony in an effort to increase United States involvement in the issue. The Huffington Post commented: "The 27-minute video was posted on Vimeo and YouTube by Invisible Children and became a worldwide trending topic on the Internet. Personally, I have never seen an outpour of support from people on my Facebook news feed like this."^[41] The video has been viewed more than 80 million times as of 17 March. The film has quickly received attention from celebrities.^[42] Invisible Children hoped to raise Kony's notoriety enough to provoke a massive overnight poster campaign, which took place 20 April 2012.^[43][44]

See also[link]

	Uganda portal
	Biography portal

• International Criminal Court investigations
• Lord's Resistance Army insurgency
• The World's 10 Most Wanted

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Green, Matthew (2008). The Wizard of the Nile: The Hunt for Africa's Most Wanted. Portobello Books. ISBN 978-1-84627-030-7. 
• Briggs, Jimmie (2005). The Innocents Lost: When Child soldiers Go to War. Basic Books. 
• Bussman, Jane (2009). The Worst Date Ever: War Crimes, Hollywood Heart-Throbs and Other Abominations. Macmillan. ISBN 0-230-73712-9. 

External links[link]

• Hague Justice Portal: Joseph Kony
• Joseph Kony on Interpol's wanted list

The Creators is a non-fiction work of cultural history by Daniel Boorstin published in 1992 and is the second volume in what has become known as the Knowledge Trilogy. It was preceded by The Discoverers and succeeded by The Seekers.

Contents[link]

The Creators, subtitled A History of Heroes of the Imagination, is the story of mankind's creativity. It highlights great works of art, music and literature but it is more than a recitation or list. It is a book of ideas and the people behind those ideas. It encompasses architecture, music, literature, painting, sculputure, the performing arts, theater, religious expression and philosophy. It can be viewed as a companion to The Discoverers which chronicled the history of invention, exploration and technology. The Creators traces the creative process from pre-history Egypt to modern times and like The Discoverers, follows both a topical and chronological structure. Boorstin writes in "A Personal Note to the Reader", "After The Discoverers... "I was more than ever convinced that the pursuit of knowledge is only one path to human fulfillment. This companion book, also a view from the literate West, is a saga of Heroes of the Imagination. While The Discoverers told of the conquest of illusions - the illusion of knowledge - this will be a story of vision (and illusions) newly created..." If The Discoverers is the story of the inventive human mind then The Creators is the story of the searching soul. The work is in twelve major parts that have been grouped into four books.

The Riddle of Creation: Prologue[link]

Part I. "Worlds Without Beginning"

Part II. "A Creator God"

Book One: Creator Man[link]

Part III. "The Power of the Stone"

Part IV. "The Magic of Images"

Part V. "The Immortal Word"

Book Two: Re-creating the World[link]

Part VI. "Otherworldly Elements"

Part VII. "The Human Comedy: A Composite Work"

Part VIII. "From Craftsman to Artist"

Part IX. "Composing for the Community"

Part X. "Conjuring with Time and Space"

Book Three: Creating the Self[link]

Part XI: "The Vanguard Word"

Part XII. "The Wilderness Within"

Praise and criticism[link]

The Creators was widely praised by both professional and non-professional readers but had its share of critics. It has been criticized for factual mistakes, poor research, literary ignorance, incorrect conclusions, a bias toward Western culture to the exclusion of other cultures, a tendency to overlook the negative and lack of attribution.^[1] Kenneth S. Lynn, a Harvard professor of history, accused Boorstin of philosophical bias and blatant myth-making. He has been called superficial because his works are popular with the general public.^[2]

Writing style and themes[link]

Boorstin follows the pattern he established in the previous book, The Discoverers. The book is built around the lives and contributions of individuals. These vignettes are the anchor of the work and reflects the author's belief that history is molded by men and women of daring and genius rather than ideological movements or academic theories. The subtitles in all three books of the Knowledge Trilogy pay homage to this idea. The trail of personal vignettes stretches from Confucius to Pope Gregory to Bach to Mozart to Dostoyevsky - a panorama of creators. Boorstin also adheres to an incremental approach to history. Although genius is unpredictable, it still builds upon the accomplishments of those who came before. Repeatedly Boorstin links changes in the way we view ourselves to artistic and creative changes.

The Question of Western culture[link]

Boorstin announces in his "Note to the Reader" (above) that he approaches the subject from a Western orientation. His concern is not strictly identifying great creators and their creations but also asking "Why?" and this question forms the basis of his Western orientation. Why were European painting styles and techniques in constant flux while China's remained relatively unchanged? Why did music acquire polyphony and instrumentation and evolve into a myriad of related "styles" while Indian music saw little evolution? Why did architecture undergo such radical transformation in the West? Why did Europe become the land of literacy and books? These question led Boorstin to certain proposals.

He suggests that "people of the Book" (Jews and Christians) came to view themselves in a different light than other cultures. Their belief in a Creator God led them to view human creation as participating in God's creation. As their God created, so did they also. They became a creative people, scrutinizing, questioning and imagining.^[3] Other cultures had moments of creative impulses but the idea of creativity for its own sake was not sustained. Other cultures, for other reasons, declined the creative road. Hinduism viewed the universe and our lives as cyclic, having no beginning, ending only when we merged with the Oneness and escaped this world.^[4] Buddhism did not ask "Why" but instead preached submissive acceptance of our lot in life.^[5] Confucianism concerned itself not with ultimate questions about God and the universe but with rules for practical, daily life.^[6] Although China had an ancient painting tradition, the intertwining of calligraphy with art as well the codification of the rules for painting resulted in an unchanging, static style.^[7] Islam held that Allah alone was Creator and claiming an act of creation was considered heretical.^[8] The Koran itself was not considered a document penned by Muhammed but a sacred text created at the beginning of time.^[9] Islam went so far as to ban the display of the human image which had dire consequences for the development of painting, sculpture, photography and much of the performing arts in the Islamic world.

With the rest of the world thus discussed, Boorstin begins his journey with the first Western state, Greece. The Homeric poems of the Gods, recited so often, became theater when participants and spectators separated.^[10] Greece initiated the cultural patterns that persist and define the Western world - dance, theater, poetry, sports, sculpture, literature, architecture, philosophy and democracy. At some point they began asking and attempting to answer fundamental questions about the world and themselves. When Europe rediscovered the writings of Greek philosophers, an artistic Renaissance exploded upon the scene. Along the way, the reader is introduced to a pantheon of heroes of the imagination - Moses, Plato, Aristotle, Paul of Tarsus, Dante, Michelangelo, Dostoyevsky...all of whom advocated the free pursuit of learning. Boorstin considers this pursuit fundamental to Western culture.

Although the focus is on the West, references to other cultures are included. The chapter "The Road Not Taken: The Japanese Triumph of Wood", is devoted to Japanese architecture. Chinese art and the reasons for its unchanging nature over time are discussed in "The Painted Word: The Inward Path of Tao". Islam, its art and attitudes toward art, are featured in "Satan's Handiwork".

The impact of literature[link]

Literature and its development comprises a major portion of the book. This reflects the high regard in which Boorstin held the written word. He has stated that the book is the greatest technological invention of all time.^[11] He suggests that literary evolution both changed and reflected new ways of thinking about the self. Indeed, literature was the driving force behind changes in personal perspectives starting (once again) with Greece. In another reference to incrementalism he traces the path from writing to religious poetry, the two being intertwined. Boorstin suggests that poetry in both form and substance was written to remember. Prose, a new form of literature, emerged and with it the theater. The play was transformed from a religious exercise to a creative one that saw the appearance of comedy, drama and tragedy. Because prose was not in a form that made for easy memorization, a greater imagination was required by the author. The theater served those purposes admirably and Greeks both loved and excelled at the performing arts.^[12] The spectators who viewed these works began asking the same questions and changing their perspective.^[13]

The introduction of prose also led to education and the areas of study became the foundation of a Classical education to this day - rhetoric, logic, grammar, astronomy, mathematics and philosophy. The latter existed because of the skeptical nature of some Greek thinkers who dared to ask why; it could only exist because of prose. Boorstin proposes that prose also encouraged the development of democracy by inviting participation from the citizenry. Other literary forms rose. The epic and its tales of gods and heroes and their great deeds continued, although somewhat abated. History as story began with Herodotus (fifth century BC) and The Histories. But it was the novel, what Boorstin calls "re-creating life out of life",^[14] that democratized literature. The novel inspired new ways of thinking about ourselves and our world and the forms created were revelations to the Western mind - the essay, the biography, stories of our own feelings and views,^[15] adventure tales and streams of consciousness in which time itself is manipulated. The author had finally discovered the self as a resource of art, the internal rather than the external universe serving as the source of inspiration.^[16]

Other creations[link]

Boorstin places the origins of Western music in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. The early practice of congregational singing of psalms (adopted from Judaism) ceased with the introduction of the choir. This institution gave rise to the Gregorian chant and one of the most important creations in music, polyphony, still the hallmark of Western music.^[17] Over time, the emphasis within Music turned to the instruments rather than the human voice. Again, a change in attitude allowed the new event. Up to this time Church leaders had looked askance upon "wordless" music but the Reformation induced a change of assumptions. From Bach, the acceleration of instrument creation led to yet another peculian Western invention, the orchestra. Boorstin demonstrates repeatedly how one creation led to another and another. The concerto and symphony were created and opera caused a sensation. Music moved out of the palace into the concert hall for the masses.^[18] Music continued to evolve and new forms like atonality were heard in the rush to be creative and innovative.^[19]

As an example of megalithic architecture, Boorstin selects Stonehenge.^[20] The Pyramids of ancient Egypt ("Castles of Eternity") and the famous architecture of Greece ("Temples of Community") precede the work of the Romans. Concrete, the dome, the arch, one creation after another change the physical shells that gather and protect us. The final evolution of grand architecture, the skyscraper, gives us the architect as hero.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: The Creators

• Raymond Keating - Columns: Book Review: The Creators: A History of Heroes of the Imagination
• Hilton Kramer, NY Times, Entranced by the People Who Made History
• NNDB
• Answers.com - Daniel J. Boorstin
• Booknotes interview with Boorstin on Creators, December 6, 1992.