Ugandans to Release Their Own Kony Video

'UgandaSpeaks' wants local voices to be heard
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 20, 2012 9:01 AM CDT

The Kony 2012 video made a lot of Ugandans mad—and not because of the atrocities it depicted. Now Ugandan bloggers, outraged by the viral sensation's lack of actual Ugandan voices and the fact that, as one says, their story was "grossly mistold," are working on their own video in hopes of reclaiming the story, al-Jazeera reports. "We don't need other people to tell our story the wrong way," one blogger explained. "They can talk to us and get the right information."

"The story was not really telling an Ugandan story," another blogger agrees in a preview video. "It was telling an American story." The group has set up a website called UgandaSpeaks, and should release its video later today. It will let Ugandans tell their stories, addressing current issues, and the way they're improving their own lives. The Kony video, another blogger explains, plays into the stereotype of Africa "being poor helpless, defenseless, which isn't the case." Al-Jazeera notes that Invisible Children has maintained that it created its video for American, not Ugandan, eyes. (More Kony 2012 stories.)

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