Dr. Mbye Cham, beloved professor, pioneering scholar, filmmaker, and mentor, devoted more than four decades of his life to Howard University and to the advancement of African literature, film, and cultural studies. His passing leaves a profound void in our community. Despite the loss, his legacy endures as reflected in the outpouring love from current and former students who are continuing to build on his intellectual lineage.
Born in Banjul, The Gambia, in 1947, Mbye Cham’s path to academe was shaped by local and global developments across Africa and the world. He began his education at The Gambia High School and later enrolled at the University of Dakar in Senegal. Cham journeyed abroad to pursue further studies and earned his B.A. in French at Temple University, an M.A. in French at the State University of New York at Buffalo, and his Ph.D. in African Literature at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, then one of the most prominent centers of African Studies in the United States. These formative years cemented his lifelong commitment to African and world literature, oral traditions, and cinema as cultural forms that could both critique and transform societies.
In 1980, Dr. Cham joined Howard University as an assistant professor in the Department of African Studies. Over the years, he rose through the academic ranks to become professor, chair, and institutional leader. He was part of a remarkable cohort of Africanist scholars at Howard that included Professor Suleyman Nyang, Professor Wilfred David, Professor Robert Cummings, and Professor Robert Edgar. Mentored by these colleagues, Cham quickly distinguished himself as a scholar of integrity, humility, and vision.
From 2006 to 2016, he served as chairperson of the Department of African Studies, guiding it through a period of growth as it expanded from exclusively graduate training to also include undergraduate teaching. His leadership was marked by fairness, openness, and a capacity to anchor the program intellectually and institutionally.
In 2014, Dr. Cham became the Founding Director of Howard’s Center for African Studies. Under his leadership, the Center secured recognition by the U.S. Department of Education as one of only ten National Resource Centers for African Studies in the country—and the only such center at a Historically Black College or University. The Center has since awarded hundreds of scholarships and fellowships to undergraduate and graduate students, offered language instruction in numerous African languages, supported faculty research, and organized impactful events bringing together scholars from around the globe. This achievement remains one of Cham’s most enduring legacies: he positioned Howard as a national and international leader in the field of African Studies.
Dr. Cham’s scholarship reshaped how African and Caribbean literature and cinema are studied, interpreted, and valued. His extensive body of work spanned monographs, edited volumes, essays, and book chapters, touching on oral traditions, Francophone and Anglophone literatures of West and Southern Africa, and the intersections of culture and development.
Cham’s scholarship canonized and preserved the works of towering figures such as Ousmane Sembene, Haile Gerima, Mariama Bâ, Djibril Diop Mambéty, and Chinua Achebe, while also highlighting emerging voices and issues in African film. His intellectual reach was broad, but always grounded in the conviction that African cultural production was central to struggles for liberation and development.
Dr. Cham’s reputation extended far beyond Howard’s campus. He was frequently invited to serve on film juries across the world, including as President of the Official Jury for Long Feature Films at FESPACO in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. He presided over juries at the Southern African Film Festival in Harare, Zimbabwe, and contributed to competitions like the Paul Robeson Film Awards, Prized Pieces Film and Video Competition, and the Annual ROSEBUD Awards.
His expertise was also sought by international organizations such as UNESCO and the World Bank, where he served as a consultant. In these roles, he championed the importance of cultural production to development and decolonization, ensuring that African perspectives were not only represented but also foregrounded.
Though widely recognized as a scholar, Dr. Cham was also a filmmaker. His commitment to documenting African stories extended into his own productions. Recently, he completed a nearly twenty-year film project on the life of Gambian sculptor Ebou Sillah. He was also near completion on Ghana Boys, a documentary recounting the journey of Gambian boys brought by Kwame Nkrumah to Accra in 1961 to study. These projects reveal Cham’s lifelong dedication to preserving African histories, voices, and memories in multiple forms.
Beyond his scholarship and leadership, Dr. Cham was known for his generosity as a deeply caring educator and mentor. He served on countless dissertation and search committees across the university, guiding students with rigor, patience and care. Former students and colleagues remember his deep humility, advocacy for students, collegiality, calmness in trying times, willingness to listen, and his unwavering commitment to African-centered scholarship.
As we mourn the loss of Dr. Cham, we also celebrate his extraordinary life. He was a preeminent scholar of African film and literature, a builder of institutions, a filmmaker, and a mentor. He was a model for all of us in the field. He helped position Howard University as a leading center for African Studies in the United States and globally. He shaped the fields of African cinema studies. He created and nurtured spaces for African stories to be told, studied, and celebrated.
Most importantly, he impacted lives—with care, kindness, rigor, and vision.
We extend our deepest gratitude to his dear wife, children, and grandchildren for sharing him with us so generously. In giving him to Howard, to Africa, and to the world, you allowed his wisdom and spirit to enrich us all. May the blessings he poured into so many lives return to you in abundance.
Our Dear Dr. Cham, we do not say goodbye. We say thank you—for the paths you cleared, for the knowledge you shared, for the lives you touched. Jërëjëf. You are now among the honored ancestors, and we call upon your spirit to continue guiding us. Rest well, Dr. Cham. We are forever grateful.
Select Publications:
African Experiences with Cinema (1996, co-edited with Imruh Bakari)
“African cinema in the nineties.” African Studies Quarterly 2.1 (1998): 47-52
“The female condition in Africa: A literary exploration by Mariama Bâ.” A current bibliography on African affairs 17, no. 1 (1984): 29-52
“Contemporary society and the female imagination: a study of the novels of Mariama Ba.” African Literature Today 15 (1987): 89-101.
Cham, Mbye B., and Claire Andrade-Watkins. “Blackframes: Critical Perspectives on Black Independent Cinema.” (1988)
Cham, Mbye, and Anne Mungai. “African women and cinema: A conversation with Anne Mungai.” Research in African Literatures 25, no. 3 (1994): 93-104
“Djibril Diop Mambéty: Sounds in the Keys of Ordinary Folk.” Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art 21, no. 1 (2007): 68-73
“African Cinema: Between the “Old” and the “New”.” Black Camera 12, no. 1 (2020): 133-139
“Islam in Senegalese literature and film.” Africa 55, no. 4 (1985): 447-464
“Senegalese Literature: A Critical History.” (1986): 567-569
“Artistic and Ideological Convergence: Ousmane Sembene and Haile Gerima.” Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies 11, no. 2 (1982)
3 Film and History in Africa: A Critical Survey of Current.” Focus on African Films (2004): 48
“Art and ideology in the Work of Sembène Ousmane and Haile Gerima.” Présence Africaine 129 (1984): 79-91
“The Creative Artist, State and Society in Africa.” A Current Bibliography on African Affairs 17, no. 1 (1984): 17-28
“Film Production in West Africa: 1979-1981.” Presence Africaine 124 (1982): 168-189
“Artista, arte y sociedad en África.” Estudios de Asia y Africa (1985): 43-57
“Ex-iles: essays on Caribbean cinema.” (No Title) (1992)
“Language as Index of Character, Humor and Conflict in Arrow of God and A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe.” A Current Bibliography on African Affairs 17, no. 3 (1985): 243-265
