Ọbádélé Bakari Kambon

Ọbádélé Bakari Kambon is a Ghanaian academic and Pan-African activist. He is an associate professor of language, literature and drama at the Institute of African Studies (IAS), University of Ghana with research focus on African languages and African-centered thought. He came to public attention in 2016 for his involvement in the campaign that led to removal of the statue of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi from the University of Ghana campus in 2018 and his advocacy for African diaspora repatriation. Kambon holds the traditional title of Ban mu Kyidɔmhene (ruler of the rearguard) in Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

Early life and education Kambon was born in Brooklyn, NY in the United States. He studied for his first degree at Morehouse College graduating with a BA with honors in African American Studies. He earned two master’s degrees from University of Wisconsin-Madison: one in African Languages and Literature and the other in Linguistics. He earned a doctorate degree in Linguistics from University of Ghana in 2012. In 2016, Kambon and other Ghanaian academics began a campaign for the removal of a statue of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi from the University of Ghana in what came to be known as the #gandhiMustFall movement citing Gandhi’s documented racist remarks in his writings against Black Africans as well as his efforts in segregating the Durban Post and Telegraph Offices, segregating prison lavatories among others. The statue was finally removed in December 2018.

Kambon served as a visiting research fellow at the Lagos African Cluster Center (LACC), University of Lagos in 2021 and was editor-in-chief of the Ghana Journal of Linguistics from 2016 to 2023. In 2026, Kambon launched the Open D.O.O.R. Dialogues, a flagship initiative under the Decade of Our Own Return campaign aimed at connecting diaspora members with employment, entrepreneurship and investment opportunities in Ghana. He is the founder of the D.O.O.R. Initiative, which promotes African diaspora investment, skills transfer, entrepreneurship and permanent settlement in Ghana.

Personal life Kambon holds the traditional title of Ban mu Kyidɔmhene (ruler of the rearguard) in Akuapim-Mampong in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

Selected works

Kambon, O., & Appiagyei-Atua, K. (2018). The Pro-Indo-Aryan Anti-Black M.K. Gandhi And Ghana’s #Gandhimustfall Movement. In O. Rhodes Must Fall Movement (Ed.), Rhodes Must Fall: The Struggle to Decolonise the Racist Heart of Empire. Zed Books.