May 3, 2026
Sometimes the most important academic doors open not through formal applications, but through shared work and mutual recognition.
That’s how I found myself, last week, officially named Honorary Lecturer in the School of Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal—home to the Ujamaa Centre for Community Development and Research, and the beating heart of contextual, decolonial biblical scholarship in Southern Africa.
This appointment, pending final confirmation from Prof. Philippe Denis (Head of School), comes at the end of a five and a half years publishing arc that has taken me from Alicante’s writing desk to peer-reviewed pages in Theology (assessed by Prof. George Pattison), Journal of Theology for Southern Africa (JTSA), and invitations from Bible & Critical Theory, Black Theology, and Brill’s Biblical Interpretation.
But the real catalyst has been UKZN itself.
It began with JTSA—South Africa’s flagship theological journal, founded in 1972 and home to Desmond Tutu, David Bosch, and Itumeleng Mosala. My article “One Hand Sticking Out the Cloud: Four Centuries of Twin Resurrection Hope in Black Christianity” was accepted straight to publication by Prof. Gerald West. “Daughter Zion in the Dock” followed, submitted directly to his desk.
Then came the deeper conversation: Annalize van der Merwe (UKZN Press) connected me to West’s supervision network. West himself—pioneer of Contextual Bible Study, global leader in ordinary reader hermeneutics—responded personally. Dr. Sithembiso Zwane (Ujamaa Director) is now reviewing my UKZN Press proposal for Transdiasporic Lament and the Revelationary Spirit.
This isn’t coincidence. It’s convergence.
The monograph argues that Black Relational Eschatology (four centuries of maternal witness at auction blocks, lynching trees, Marikana mine shafts) and Relational Geometry (the geometric structures of threshold consciousness in Enoch-Metatron, NDEs, visionary states) are the same discovery. Love refuses dissolution. Theology names why. Phenomenology maps how.
UKZN is the perfect first home: transdiasporic scope connecting American hush harbors to Soweto mothers; Ujamaa methodology grounding phenomenology in community practice; West’s tradition of reading Scripture with the poor and bereaved.
The Honorary Lecturer title formalises what’s already true: this work belongs at UKZN.
What’s next? UKZN Press submission (proposal ready, Zwane reviewing). A five-year Transdiasporic Lament Research Programme with Ujamaa. Joint publications, Contextual Bible Study resources, a symposium.
Grateful to West, Zwane, van der Merwe, Professor P. Denis, to my dear friend and associate Kenny Corris, and to Darren—whose “Yesssssss” in a Spanish room five years ago started it all.
The threshold isn’t emptiness. It’s home.
Watch this space.
Mark Edward Chard is Honorary Lecturer, School of Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal. SBL #10003741. ORCID: 0009-0004-9342-5223.