What if some of the best journalism about horrific war crimes has been written by a comedy writer/celebrity journalist?
In fact, there is no 'what if' about it.
You have probably never heard of Jane Bussman. But you will, and probably sometime before the next presidential election. She may not become as well known as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, but I would be very surprised if we don't see her on their shows. And maybe sooner rather than later. I explain why in the excerpt (below) from an article I published today at RD Magazine (AKA Religion Dispatches) -- an important webzine where our own pastordan (among others) has been hanging out while writing his book, which is due out this fall.
A Comedy Writer Confronts ‘Mind-Shredding Evil’ in Uganda
An atheist comedy writer investigates the Lord’s Resistance Army and emerges with unlikely heroes
By Frederick Clarkson
British comedy writer and celebrity journalist Jane Bussmann had a revelation while interviewing actor Ashton Kutcher at a Hollywood café: She really had to find something more meaningful to do.
So she embarked on a Google quest for the most evil man in the world and found Joseph Kony, head of the Uganda-based Lord's Resistance Army. "In a dramatic change of direction," according to the jacket of the resulting book, "she set out for Africa to interview a respected (very attractive) peacemaker. However things did not go according to plan. Six weeks later, alone in a war torn country, she found herself investigating one of the worst crimes in African history. Until one day, she was standing over a corpse in an open grave, wondering if she would get home alive....".
The Worst Date Ever: Or How It Took a Comedy Writer to Expose Africa's Secret War was published last year and a movie is "in development" by the producers of the Academy Award winning film, Slumdog Millionaire. This may be the most ribald book about the atrocities of war people will ever read. And they may, (as I did), find themselves laughing in the face of what Bussmann calls "mind shredding evil."
For two decades, Kony's outfit has kidnapped tens of thousands of children; turned them into child soldiers and sex slaves; taught them to use rape as a weapon of war; and cut the lips off of critics including young children. Kony, his top commanders and their backer , Omar Hassan al-Bashir president of Northern Sudan, are all wanted international war criminals. The LRA massacres whole villages at a time in Sudan, Uganda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Central African Republic. Two million people in Northern Uganda have been displaced.
Kony's power over his victims is derived in part by his claim to be inhabited by spirits, including one that had jumped to him from Alice Lakwena (a kind of Joan of Arc figure) who led an unsuccessful northern Ugandan rebellion against Museveni in 1987. Some of Kony's kids say they believe in his supernatural omniscience because he always knows exactly when the Ugandan Army is coming, in what numbers, and what kinds of weapons they are carrying.
Indeed. The occasional skirmish not withstanding, Kony has apparently enjoyed high-level assistance in sustaining his lifestyle while evading Ugandan troops ostensibly tasked with stopping him.
Bussmann learned that what is going on in Uganda is what amounts to a "fake war" in the sense that everyone knows what is going on, and that powerful interests are making enough money so that no one wants to rock the boat.
The good news, however, is that President Obama recently signed the "Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act," the main provision of which is
"... to apprehend or remove Joseph Kony and his top commanders from the battlefield in the continued absence of a negotiated solution, and to disarm and demobilize the remaining Lord’s Resistance Army fighters."
A bi-partisan cheer went up when the bill became law. But some groups, including the progressive Institute for Policy Studies and the Africa Faith and Justice Network (a coalition of Catholic orders) are concerned that the hunt for Kony by U.S. or allied Special Forces could lead to reprisal massacres against civilians -- just like last year following a failed U.S. backed anti-LRA campaign by the armies of three countries.
The Enough Project of the Washington, DC think tank, Center for American Progress has worked tirelessly to stop the LRA and bring peace to the region. But co-founder John Prendergast told Religion Dispatches that Kony has refused numerous peace proposals. Prendergast now believes that "the only way to bring an end to the suffering he causes is to support the military efforts to apprehend him in line with his outstanding International Criminal Court arrest warrant. As a peace advocate, it is painful to come to this conclusion, but I realize that there are occasions when force is necessary to achieve peace. This is one of those times."
Bussmann's discovery of Prendergast in Vanity Fair magazine in 2003 had launched her on another Google Quest at the heart of the book. "Damn," she concluded. "I had to meet John Prendergast. He wasn't just hot; he was wise. I wondered how wrong it would be to sit on his knee during the interview." Bussmann found in Prendergast a dashing, romantic interest; "his eyes red from saving the world."
Busssmann's pursuit of the hot and wise Prendergast by way of pursuing Kony became "the worst date ever." But he nevertheless says that Bussmann has the capacity to school people about "some of the worst human rights crimes in the last half century" in a way that "isn't sanctimonious or boring."
There is much more of this article, including lots of links and best of all, my interview with Jane herself, which you will have to read in order to learn the identity of the "unlikely heroes" of her story.