Life after Kony is a long-term project about the survivors of the LRA war. Led by the notorious warlord Joseph Kony, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is responsible for Africa’s longest running conflict. At its peak, the rebels’ brutal insurgency displaced nearly two million people in large areas of northern Uganda. Tens of thousands of people were killed and about 30 000 children were abducted and forced to work as soldiers, porters and sex slaves.
The northern region was destroyed during the war and a massive redevelopment plan was put in place. Millions of dollars were spent to redevelop the region and today there is improved infrastructure and thriving businesses many places in the north. However, the people who returned back from the «bush» are fighting to survive. The women who married commanders and gave birth to their kids came back to a society that considered them as «outcast». Today, most of the returnees, both women and men, struggle to live normal lives. Poverty, unemployment and an almost non-existing focus on mental health make life hard. Many of the people who returned from the “bush” still live with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder.
