“This is by far one of the most important appointments that the Centre for Asian Studies in Africa has made since its establishment in late 2022,” says CASA director, Prof Alf Gunvald Nilsen. He’s referring to the recent appointment of Prof Haidar Eid, a literary scholar from Al Aqsa University in Gaza, as an honorary research associate affiliated with the Centre for the period from October 2024 to October 2027.

Prof Eid, who was evacuated from Gaza with his family by the South African government in early December 2023, is currently based in Johannesburg. An internationally renowned literary scholar, he earned his PhD at Rand Afrikaans University and has published widely in the field of postcolonial literature and postcolonial cultural studies. His most recent book, Decolonizing the Palestinian Mind, was published in 2023, and builds on the work of the likes of Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, and Ghassan Kanafani to discuss what genuine liberation and freedom might mean in a new period of unprecedented pressure on Palestinian culture, identity, and futures.

“We are making this appointment in a very specific context,” says Prof Nilsen. “Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza over the last year has been accompanied by the total and very literal destruction of its university sector, in a process that is commonly referred to as a scholasticide – the deliberate destruction of an entire educational infrastructure.” Prof Eid’s own institution, Al Aqsa University, located in Gaza City and Khan Younis, is a good example of this: the university two campuses suffered large-scale damage after it was shelled by Israeli forces in January this year. At the time of the attack, the university served as a shelter for displaced people.

“In such a situation, it is incumbent upon the academic community to extend its solidarity to its Palestinian peers, and to find ways of enabling scholars from Gaza and Palestine to continue their academic work and to sustain the production of critical and impactful knowledge. That is what CASA is aiming to do with this appointment – for us, this is about practising solidarity through academic collaboration and engagement with colleagues in the Palestinian academy.”

“At this point in time,” Prof Eid commented, “it is of utmost importance for Palestinian scholars to feel that there are academic institutions out there that care about our intellectual integrity after the destruction of the nine Palestinian universities in Gaza as a result of Israel’s genocidal war. Because of its own history, post-apartheid South Africa has been in the forefront of actual international solidarity with the Palestinian people. I am indebted to the Centre for Asian Studies in Africa at UP and Prof Alf Gunvald Nilsen for offering me this opportunity.”

During the first year of his affiliation with CASA, Prof Eid will be working on a new book, Banging on the Walls of the Tank: Dispatches from Gaza, which will be published in 2025. Both personal and political at the same time, the book is a testimony of Prof Eid’s experience of being a Palestinian refugee residing in what has been called the largest open-air prison on earth. It will also a provide a voice from within, offering a way out of the man-made quagmire in Palestine.

“I’m very excited at the prospect of working closely with Prof Eid over the coming years,” Prof Nilsen added. “In the very near future, he’ll contribute to CASA’s February 2025 symposium Making Democracy as a Community of Life and we also look forward to launching Banging on the Walls of the Tank later in 2025. There’s much important and engaging work to be done, and I’m extremely happy to have Prof Eid on board as a member of the CASA team.”