Ọbádélé Bakari Kambon, PhD

“Okunini” Ọbádélé Kambon is the founder of Abibitumi.com. He completed his PhD in Linguistics at the University of Ghana in 2012, winning the prestigious Vice-Chancellor’s award for the Best PhD Thesis in the Humanities. He also won the 2016 Provost’s Publications Award for best article in the College of Humanities. In 2019 he was the recipient of the [Nana] Marcus Mosiah Garvey Foundation award for excellence in Afrikan Studies and Education.  He is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Language, Literature and Drama Section of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana. Okunini Kambon is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Ghana Journal of Linguistics as well as Secretary of the African Studies Association of Africa. He is also a special advisor to UNESCO (ICM). His research interests include Serial Verb Construction Nominalization, Historical Linguistics, Kemetology, & Afrikan=Black Liberation. His website is https://www.obadelekambon.com.

 

 

 

 

Ọbádélé Bakari Kambon, Ph.D. is the loving husband of Kala Kambon and caring father of Ama, Kwaku and Akosua Kambon.

Dr. Kambon is a multi-award winning scholar, Afrikan language teacher, Editor-in-Chief and Research Fellow at IAS-UG.

He is also known by his stool name, Nana Kwame Pɛbi Date I, Ban mu Kyidɔmhene of Akuapem-Mampɔn, ruler of the rearguard.

Known as “Africano” in Capoeira circles, Dr. Kambon began his training in 1998 and has taught Asako (Afrikan=Black Combat Capoeira) in Accra since 2009.

Education

  • Ph.D. 2012

    Ph.D. in Linguistics

    University of Ghana

  • M.A. 2006

    M.A. in Linguistics

    University of Wisconsin - Madison

  • M.A. 2006

    M.A. in African Languages and Literature

    University of Wisconsin - Madison

  • B.A. 2002

    B.A. in African American Studies

    Morehouse College

Positions

  • Present2017

    Senior Research Fellow

    University of Ghana - Institute of African Studies

  • 20172014

    Research Fellow

    University of Ghana - Institute of African Studies

  • 20112011

    Lecturer

    African University College of Communications

  • 20082007

    Adjunct Professor

    Chicago State University

  • 20062005

    Adjunct Professor

    Northeastern Illinois University

Featured Publications

Dr. Kambon Publications

What Afrikan Names May (or May Not) Tell Us About the State of Pan-Afrikanism

Journal Article
Obadele Kambon, Roland Mireku Yeboah
(2019). What Afrikan Names may (or may not) Tell Us about the State of Pan-Afrikanism. Journal of Black Studies, 50(6), pp. 569–601.
Publication year: 2019

The Pro-Indo-Aryan Anti-Black M.K. Gandhi and Ghana’s #GandhiMustFall Movement

Book Chapter
Kambon, Ọ., & Appiagyei-Atua, K.
(2018). The Pro-Indo-Aryan Anti-Black M.K. Gandhi and Ghana’s #GandhiMustFall Movement. In Oxford Rhodes Must Fall Movement (Ed.), Rhodes Must Fall: The Struggle to Decolonise the Racist Heart of Empire. London: Zed Books.
Publication year: 2018
Theory and description in African Linguistics

Serial Verb Nominalization in Akan: The Question of Intervening Elements

Book ChapterConference Proceedings
Kambon, Ọ., Duah, R., & Appah, C.
(2018). Serial verb nominalization in Akan: The question of intervening elements. In E. Clem, P. Jenks & H. Sande (eds.), Theory and description in African Linguistics: Selected papers from ACAL 47 (361–386). Berlin: Language Science Press.
Publication year: 2018

Ku Nseke and Ku Mpèmba: The Dikènga Theory as Evinced Through Content and Function of Akan Ananse Stories and Yorùbá Ìjàpá Tales

Journal Article
Ọbádélé Kambon
Contemporary Journal of African Studies, 6(2)
Publication year: 2019
Obadele Kambon Journal of Pan-African Studies

Afrikan=Black Combat Forms Hidden in Plain Sight: Engolo/Capoeira, Knocking-and-Kicking and Asafo Flag Dancing

Journal Article
Ọbádélé Bakari Kambon
Africology: Journal of Pan-African Studies, Volume 12, Number 4, October 2018
Publication year: 2018

UNESCO Testimonial

Aghan Odero Agan
Aghan Odero of Nairobi Kenya here!
This is to thank you big time for identifying and urging on my behalf Dr. Obadele Kambon to come over to Nairobi to attend and present at last week’s 1st African Congress in Martial Arts!
That was the right person with both quality experience and deep knowledge on Indigenous African heritage of martial arts. His presentation was up to the point and contributed much in the fundamental discourse process about the need for Africans to revive and promote its own indigenous heritage of physical combat &  wellness forms.
Asante sana (Thanks a lot) for going out of your way to help me out with the identification!
Aghan Odero
Kenya National Commission for UNESCO

On Streamed and Recorded IAS Seminars

Prof. Akosua Adomako Ampofo

And also, again, a big kudos to Oba[dele] and Ekow for getting this show on the techie road! The innovation is much
appreciated, not only by me but by some who have contacted me to commend IAS.
DIRECTOR

Prof. Akosua Adomako Ampofo
Institute of African Studies

On Dr. Kambon’s PhD Thesis

Prof. Samuel Gyasi Obeng

“A major contribution of the dissertation is the detailed discussion and exemplification of issues relating to nominalization of SVCs. This is the first attempt at such a detailed discussion and exemplification and the candidate deserves commendation. His categorizations are original as is his attention to scholarly detail and to showing the relationship between and among the three major Akan dialects. One could conveniently argue that this is one of the strongest points of the dissertation.
Very little has been done on Akan nominalization in general and little to nothing on SVC nominalization in particular, so this study is a trailblazer or a path-finder! Syntacticians and semanticists will cite this work and continue with the discussion and issues it raises for the next couple of decades. I am impressed with the details and both the candidate and his advisors must be commended for the high degree of systematicity employed in the synthesis and analyses done in the study.”

Prof. Samuel Gyasi Obeng
Indiana University

Asante Twi Course Testimonial

Kwame Quainoo

 

Kwame Quainoo
Abibitumi

On Dr. Kambon’s Award-Winning Ph.D. Thesis

Professor E. Kweku Osam

Throughout his doctoral research, Dr. Kambon displayed an amazing grasp of functional theoretical constructs and manifested very impressive analytical skills. In the last two years, three of my doctoral students have completed their studies and, among them, Dr. Kambon towers above all in terms of his dedication, enthusiasm, intellectual capabilities, and his rate of work. Indeed, this is affirmed by his being awarded the University-wide Vice-Chancellor’s award for best PhD thesis in the Humanities for 2012-2013. I have known Dr. Kambon long enough to appreciate his personal discipline and dedication to work.

Prof. E. Kweku Osam
University of Ghana

Foundations of Afrikan=Black Thought

Nana Akosua Hanson

Nana Akosua Hanson
Y FM

Researcher specializing in Total Afrikan=Black Liberation from white world terror domination.

My Awards

  • 2019
    Nana Marcus Mosiah Garvey Foundation Award
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  • 2016
    Provost Publications Award (Early Career)

    This Award is presented to Dr. Ọbádélé Kambon (Research Fellow, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana) as the winner of the 2016 Provost Publications Award (Early Career). The award is based on your Paper titled: “Theory of Endogenous and Exogenous Motivation in L2 Migration” which was published in Per Linguam, 31(2) 2015. Your article has been noted to be a great input in the area of language teaching and learning and this work will be used by many researchers and foreign language teachers.

    Also, your work is deemed as provocative, perceptive and a well researched paper that has unmistakable relevance for the teaching and learning of foreign languages and target languages.

    Your write-up is an original contribution which challenges current theories that account for second language acquisition.
    Dr. Ọbádélé Kambon, for your outstanding contribution to knowledge and scholarship and for breaking new grounds, the College of Humanities is proud to award you the 2016 Provost Publications Award (Early Career).

    Congratulations,
    Professor Samuel Agyei-Mensah
    Provost, College of Humanities, University of Ghana

  • 2012
    Vice-Chancellor's Award for the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation (Humanities)

    The candidate’s review of the pertinent literature is fresh, detailed, and chronologically well done. The candidate took great pains in identifying participants for the research and in gathering the relevant data. This is impressive in syntax-semantic research given the fact that syntacticians often avoid field linguistics!

    The dissertation is very well written and I am willing to pass it without any reservation whatsoever. The content is excellent as is its rendition. Even though some of the examples may no longer be in use in synchronic Akan, the fact that the Candidate acknowledges the source(s) and frames such examples within his methodological and theoretical frameworks make the work a blend of diachrony with synchrony. I am happy with this kind of approach!

    Very little has been done on Akan nominalization in general and little to nothing on SVC nominalization in particular, so this study is a trailblazer or a path-finder! Syntacticians and semanticists will cite this work and continue with the discussion and issues it raises for the next couple of decades. I am impressed with the details and both the candidate and his advisors must be commended for the high degree of systematicity employed in the synthesis and analyses done in the study.

    Samuel Gyasi Obeng, DPhil

    Professor and Director

  • 2002-2005
    Foreign Language and Area Studies Award
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    Funding for Advanced Study of the Akan (Twi), Yorùbá, Wolof and Kikôngo languages.
  • 1997-2002
    Full Academic Scholarship Morehouse College
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    Full Academic Scholarship Morehouse College. Academic Scholarship for matriculation towards a degree in African American Studies
  • 1997
    National Merit Scholarship Award
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    National Merit Scholarship for outstanding college-bound high school graduate in the amount of $2,500.