In signing the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda referred to the findings of a Ministerial Committee comprising of scientists from the Ministry of Health and Makerere University, in which it is stated, inter alia, that: “there is no definitive gene for homosexuality; homosexuality is not a disease but merely an abnormal behaviour which may be learned; homosexuality can be influenced by environmental factors; the practice needs regulation; and there is a need for further studies to address sexuality in the African context”.

President Museveni took these findings to mean that homosexuality is created, not inborn, and as an “abnormal” behaviour is deserving of punishment, and that intervention should be made in social and legal norms and conditions to eradicate it.

The Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria asserts that the findings of this committee are, in part wrong, and that they have also been misinterpreted, misrepresented and misused. History shows us that the misuse of research findings by dehumanising nationalist discourses contributes to a decline in human rights and entitlements to citizenship.

The Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria thus calls upon the government of Uganda, and all academics and scientists in that country, to respect scientific progress on, and understanding of, human sexuality and indeed to heed the Ministerial Committee’s call for further studies on African sexualities, in all their diversity.

The Faculty further rejects the use of the “African context” as a basis for legislation that ultimately erodes the human rights of Ugandan citizens. The misrepresentation of African identity, by rigidly associating it with only heterosexuality, denies a critical engagement with the scholarly knowledge that has already been produced on pre/postcolonial sexualities and the multiplicity of African identities.

We challenge the wilful misuse of academic research as a basis of the Anti-Homosexuality Act. We call for the freedoms of all citizens of Uganda, and the promotion of inclusivity and diversity as a basis for legislation and public policy.