In order to raise awareness for atrocities committed against children in Uganda 1,300 college students, including 20 Hopkins students, spent Saturday night outside a block away from the Capitol Building.
This movement was part of a worldwide effort to show solidarity with the Ugandan children that involved over 80,000 youths in 130 cities.
Every night, rural Ugandan children commute nightly by the thousands into cities for fear of being abducted by a rebel paramilitary group known as the Lord's Resistance Army. Since 1987, 30,000 Ugandan children have been kidnapped by the LRA and forced to become killers of their own people, often their own families.
"If you don't fight -- they kill you," sophomore and Hopkins event organizer Ohemma Boahemma said. "We are publicizing a horrible war going on currently in Northern Uganda."
The event, dubbed the Global Night Commute, was one of the largest-ever American mobilizations for Africa -- second only to the Live Aid concerts -- according to a spokesman for Invisible Children, the group that organized the event.
Within a generation known for its complacency, the turnout at the Global Night Commute was remarkable. "Most of our generation seems to believe that we can't do anything -- that you have to be older," Boahemma said. "But most of the people here [in the park] are teens and young adults. We have a voice. A lot of people say that American teenagers don't care. This is proving them wrong."
Boahemma was alerted to the Ugandan cause after the makers of the documentary Invisible Children visited Hopkins earlier this year. She helped arrange
travel to the Global Night Commute with her roommate, sophomore June Tibaleka.
Tibaleka was born in Uganda, and she says coming to the United States enabled her to reach out to her homeland. "When I was in Uganda, I would hear that this or that village had been burned, or this child was abducted, but I felt my hands were tied. Now I have a chance to do something about it."
Boahemma agreed, "Someone like me who is healthy and privileged has a duty to share that privilege."
Students brought sleeping bags to the park, but sleeping was not prevalent. The students produced 700 letters to politicians and created hundreds of art pieces and photographs to be compiled by the Invisible Children group.
Around midnight, about 200 students gathered under a spotlight to dance to the beat of djembe drums. Students jumped and yelled, waving their hands in the air. "This is what freedom is!" the crowd chanted. "Uganda! Uganda! Uganda!"
The consensus of the crowd was that the energy of youth is best spent on dancing, not walking nightly out of fear. One long-haired collegian shouted, "This is what the children in Uganda should be doing. Not killing people!"
The dance party tempered spontaneity with a united and peaceful spirit. At one point, the mob became quiet to hear an older student on a megaphone instruct them in a Swahili saying: "Let my body and spirit sing!" The crowd quickly picked up on the phrase. The vibrant mood was contagious: It took three students less than 60 seconds to initiate a conga line.
Although the students had Africa in mind, the party was distinctly American: students break-danced and waved glow sticks. And while movements for African justice generally attract many African Americans, the turnout comprised mostly white college students. Boahemma expressed her admiration, "There are students here who will never visit the continent they're doing this for. That is humanity to me."
While students danced riotously, others gathered quietly in their own way, wishing liberty and peace to the Ugandan mothers and children through prayer.
The Hopkins Christian community was well represented at the event. Many said they had become interested in the Uganda issue after the University Baptist Church, a student ministry that meets in the Bunting-Meyerhoff Interfaith Center, showed the film Invisible Children earlier this year.
Freshman Dan Knorr is glad for the widening support for African human rights among the faithful, because it hasn't always been that way, he says, "Social justice is something that has gone woefully under-addressed in many circles, especially the evangelical Christian circle, of which I am a part." He says he hopes that Christians will lead a "battle against poverty around the world and at home."
The marriage of religion and empathy with others can be found in Scripture, Knorr explains. "Paul writes in Romans that the fulfillment of the law is to `love your neighbor'." For Knorr, the Global Night Commute helped him better understand this duty. "Sleep[ing] outside in the cold reminded me that the word neighbor is both local and universal in scope."
As students camped out near Capitol, many expressed strong hopes to see actions taken regarding Uganda and most importantly to have changes occur within its walls. "The U.S. government should be doing something actively," Boahemma said.
She recommended that Congress allocate funds for shelters in northern Ugandan cities. She was optimistic about the size of such a project: "It doesn't take that much money, just some food and attention."
A substantial number of students showed greater interest in finding strategies to gradually spread awareness rather than actively pursuing political change.
Nathaniel Brown, a freshman at the University of Maryland at College Park, looked further in the future and went on to propose a long-term vision. "We're working slowly to change public opinion over 20 to 40 years."
Sophomore Johanna Chapin suggested that awareness would come out of the encouragement of personal interactions. "You talk to someone, they talk to someone. Maybe that person will tell a senator's daughter," she said, laughing.
