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A Note from APSA Executive Director Michael Brintnall:
The APSA 2010 Africa Summer Workshop Siting is being relocated from Kampala, Uganda, and I wanted to let everyone know the basis for this decision and review our plans.
-- The principles of the Africa workshop are to provide an opportunity for African scholars in Africa to work on fundamental topics in the study of political science, to help advance their individual scholarly work, to bolster supporting academic institutes and centers that host our work, and to contribute to a network of scholars on the continent. The theme proposed for the 2010 workshop is Global Perspectives on Politics and Gender. This topic and its subthemes, one of which is sexual identity in politics, are fundamental to political science, and we must not lose the opportunity to advance consideration of them.
-- The situation in Uganda poses problems common to all of the Africa workshops, as well as a number of unique concerns. The common issues include the legal hostility to gay/lesbian identity found in almost all African countries. In response, we are guided by a fundamental goal of the Africa Workshops, as with all APSA initiatives to further scholarship, to advance scholars' abilities to address issues such as these. There is extensive scholarship on law, politics, and rights addressing sexual orientation and gender identity in the global literature and in the work done in African centers such as the Department of Women and Gender Studies at Makerere University that can be advanced through the Africa Workshops, both for the scholars engaged in the Workshops and for the discipline at large. We have also been guided by the premise, openly discussed with the APSA LGBT and other committees, the Steering Committee, and participating African scholars, that if one is to work broadly in Africa with African scholars, it is necessary to work within the existing legal environment
-- There are limits, however, and the unique situation in Uganda reaches them. Proposed legislation, the so-called "Anti-Homosexuality Bill," has revealed an intensely politicized climate vis-à-vis gays and lesbians. The penalties under consideration are horrific, and they include criminalization of thought as well as behavior—including criminal penalties for publishing information or providing funds, premises for activities, or other resources that could be understood as advocating the "promotion of homosexuality."
-- The "Anti-Homosexuality Bill" in Uganda is a private bill that has in some degree been disavowed by the government. Because of the importance of holding this Africa Workshop on topics of politics and gender in an intellectual center in Africa, and the particular opportunity to work with the Department of Women and Gender Studies at Makerere University, we had maintained momentum for the workshop in the hope that some resolution about the legislation would have occurred there that could then have guided a final decision about how to respond
-- It is too late to wait longer. The political climate in Uganda now, along with the possibility that the legislation in some form will pass, and that it will include criminalization of thought as well as harsh penalties, precludes our going forward there with this Workshop. The long lead time to plan and reorient a Workshop session requires that we identify right now another venue where the Workshop topics can be addressed openly. We cannot commit today to send staff and scholars to work in Uganda safely on topics that include the study of sexual identity in politics, and we of course must not remove these topics from our agenda for the Workshops
Consequently, in spite of our best efforts to make the Workshop possible at the Department of Women and Gender Studies at Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda, this summer, we are seeking a new venue for the 2010 Workshop, to occur as soon as possible. Our intention is to continue future Workshops in East, Central, and West Africa, for reasons spelled out above. Tanzania is a likely destination because of its importance in East Africa, the prospect of the University of Dar es Salaam as a host, the presence of a vibrant women's movement with many of speaker possibilities consistent with the Workshop theme, and other circumstances. Like Senegal and Ghana where we have held workshops, Tanzania also has anti-gay legislation, but does not present the corresponding threatening political climate that is emerging in Uganda. We have been continuing our consultations on these issues with APSA committees and others, as we talk with the Workshop Leaders and the Africa Project Steering Committee about selecting a new site.
Finally, a note about consultation and transparency. We had been monitoring the issue in Uganda carefully and with concern and weighing the complex set of facts and issues, as explained above. However, when we posted the call for applications, we did not also share information in the posting about the issues we were considering or explain the basis for the steps we were considering and still had open to us. I regret that this lack of transparency, on such serious matters, may have appeared as indifference to the issues and to member concerns, in spite of the efforts we were making to consult and to continue to find the best path forward.
Michael Brintnall
Executive Director
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