Response from Julie Okot Bitek

One of my friends used to live in Uganda and one day when we were having a lunch together she talked about a poet whom she met at the African Symposium on March 25th at UBC.

Thank you to my friend, our media team was able to connect with Julie, who is an award-winning writer who was raised in Uganda, graduated from UBC with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Art and currently lives in Vancouver. It turns out that she has worked with professor Baines and they are friends on Facebook as well! Sometimes the network of people surprises me.

As in the following email, Julie got to know about our project through professor Baine’s Facebook post. The impact of the social media is evident. It is intriguing how SNS are working as the hub of information exchange for the professionals.


It was encouraging to receive some feedbacks on our project from Julie. Please read her email posted below.

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I've been interested in Invisible Children for years and they've driven me nuts for as long as I've known about their existence. It wasn't always so bad. My resentment came from the fact that a couple of unemployed teenage surfers could become the "voice" of northern Ugandans by virtue of their video cameras was disturbing enough, especially since (we who called that place home, we who were familiar with the issues, came from different disciplines and are grown up, articulate and knew what was at stake) we, who been writing and talking and screaming for attention about the situation over there since M7 took over power in 1986, were largely ignored by traditional media. All to say that I noted your blog via Erin's post on facebook and commented on it.


I wish I lived in northern Uganda. I don't. Both my parents were born in Gulu and I identify Gulu as my hometown. I've lived in Vancouver since 1990 and had the chance to go home only once since. However. I've got family that lives there, all with various ideas about IC. I wrote about IC for Blackstarnews here but now I see that that idea has evolved into what has been brilliantly called voluntourism.


Kudos on your work so far. It is so important that as many voices as possible keep at it.

-Julie Okot Bitek

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Thank you for sharing your responses to our project and the opportunities for learning. We really appreciate the bonds we are creating with people who have passion for the issue.