Maps in the News: Kony, Uganda, and Child Soldiers
A group of activists posted a video on YouTube recently about a civil conflict in Africa that began 30 years ago. The video was long and sad, but within a few days over 75 million people had watched it.
The video details the story of Joseph Kony, who became head of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a guerilla group in Uganda, in the mid-1980’s. The activists wanted to bring attention to how Kony began a terror campaign kidnapping thousands of children and forcing them into child warfare, rape, and murder.
The top map above (click to enlarge) depicts the countries in the world where child soldiers have been used in active combat by militias, including Uganda and other countries of central Africa. The second map shows the countries where warlords and militias are actively fighting as of 2008. Again Uganda and other central African countries are included. The third map shows the countries with non-state wars. The maps are from the Penguin State of the World Atlas available in the GIS Research and Map Collection (GRMC) and Atlas Collection on the second floor of Bracken Library.
The atlas is an excellent resource for maps, charts, and other graphics detailing many social issues from around the world. The atlas includes maps about education, warfare, gender equality, the world economy, energy resources, and health. The atlas was published in 2008, so the data used to create the maps and graphs is current.
A reference copy is always available in the GRMC so that the maps can be scanned and used as visual aids for papers and presentations. Several copies of the atlas in the Atlas Collection may be circulated for 28 days or longer.
For more information about this atlas or using maps as visual aids, please contact the GRMC Monday through Friday from 8:00 to 5:00 at 765-285-1097 or email Melissa Gentry at mgentry@bsu.edu.
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