Tribute by: Professor Abdoulaye Saine
Professor Mbye Cham’s passing on August 27, 2025, marked a monumental loss in The Gambia, U.S.A., Africa, and the entire world. Combined, we have lost a genuinely great scholar, brother, teacher, colleague, and friend.
Professor Cham’s passing in the United States, though buried in The Gambia, represented the third death in the U.S. of distinguished Gambian-American scholars and teachers in the last eight years. Professors Sulayman S. Nyang and Lamin O. Sanneh, of Howard and Yale Universities, respectively, with great regret, were the first to go. They were all men of great intellect, intergrity, who were passionate about their great scholarship, admirable human and indomitable spirit, and enduring service(s) to humanity. The Nyang-Sanneh Institute (NSI) was established in The Gambia in 2022, in their honor.
It is these great men that Professor Mbye Cham, a similarly distinguished scholar of African Studies, Film and Literature(s), sadly joined in death.
Professor Mbye Cham’s passing was a great shock, partly because barely two weeks before his death, we had a meeting at my home to discuss arrangements to show his widely anticipated movie on Comrade Sillah (a great Gambian artist who died several years ago). We had previewed Sillah’s film a couple of months earlier at his home in Kotu. By all indications, Mbye looked healthy, smart, and collected in his presentation. Thus, Mbye’s passing still remains a big shock to most who knew and loved him.
He was truly a man of integrity who was widely respected among scholars and Africanists in particular. His highly respected and renowned works on African Film and Literature are testimonies to his greatness as a scholar and filmmaker. Yet, despite his greatness and global renown, Mbye, as he preferred to be called, was a tremendously humble, giving, and honorable person- this against a backdrop of fine elements of his “Ndongo” years in Banjul. These elements, combined with his academic training in Dakar, France, and the U.S.A., elevated him to the enviable rank of Distinguished Professor and positions at Howard as Chair of his department and a solid pillar of the internationally renowned African Studies Association (ASA).
These combined made Mbye “a star among stars.” Yet, he remained humble, focused —qualities that served him well in an academically competitive, challenging, yet privileged position.
Mbye presented his work worldwide, including Burkina Faso, and countless other places. In all these, he was warmly received, respected, and valued. Despite these accolades, Mbye remained humble and friendly to the numerous students and colleagues he encountered during his long and commendably long career. He achieved these great scholarly and professional feats against a backdrop of a loving, nuclear, and grounded extended family.
Beyond his scholarly position, knowledge, and accomplishments, Mbye will be remembered most for his love of Gambia and Senegal and humanity. Among these are the countless friends and colleagues he had so dearly maintained, including Professor Ousmane Sene, who leads a great and long-enduring institute in Dakar. So, in sum, Mbye Cham was a very generous person who gave to various groups and organizations in the U.S.A., Africa, and numerous others in Gambia, including the NSI.
Despite a busy schedule, Mbye was equally attentive, supportive, and financially generous. He gave tirelessly of his enormous knowledge and experiences, finances, and more in his calm demeanor to primarily improve and educate young lives the world over.
Rest in perfect Peace, our dear friend, relative, and colleague. You have completed your work on Earth admirably. May your gentle soul rest in eternal peace.
