The African Literature Association approved a resolution at its annual meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, that called for the academic boycott of Israeli institutions of higher learning. The president of the African Literature Association is Tejumola Olaniyan, the Louise Durham Mead Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor Olaniyan holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Ife in Nigeria. He holds a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. from Cornell University. He is the co-editor of The African Diaspora and the Disciplines (Indiana University Press, 2010).
The resolution reads in part: “The African Literature Association is dedicated to the right of students and scholars to pursue education and research without undue state interference, repression, and military violence, and in keeping with the spirit of its previous statements supports the right of students and scholars to intellectual freedom and to political dissent as citizens and scholars; it is resolved that the African Literature Association (ALA) endorses and will honor the call of Palestinian civil society for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.”
The mission statement of the African Literature Association states that it is “an independent non-profit professional society open to scholars, teachers and writers from every country. It exists primarily to facilitate the attempts of a world-wide audience to appreciate the efforts of African writers and artists.”
The mission statement of the African Literature Association states that it is “an independent non-profit professional society open to scholars, teachers and writers from every country. It exists primarily to facilitate the attempts of a world-wide audience to appreciate the efforts of African writers and artists.”
What is the connection between the mission statement of the ALA and boycotting Israeli academic institutions?