Columbus Kamba Simango (1890-1966), often known as Kamba Simango, was an ethnographer, missionary, musician, performer and activist of Vandau ethnicity.

Biography

Simango was born in 1890 in Machanga District, Mozambique of Vandau ethnicity. He went to a Mission school. Easman

In 1914, he went to the United States to study at the

Hampton Institute Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association af ...

, under the auspices of the American Board of Missions. After this he went to the

Teachers College at Columbia University Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), is the graduate school of education, health, and psychology of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, it has served as one of the official faculties an ...

, until 1923. During this time, in April 1922, he participated as a dancer in the play ''

Taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannic ...

'', presented at the Sam H. Harris Theater in Harlem. The lead in ''Taboo'' was

Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, stage and film actor, professional football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for his ...

(1898–1976), who became a friend of Simango. While in New York he met the anthropologist

Franz Boas Franz Uri Boas (July 9, 1858 – December 21, 1942) was a German-American anthropologist and a pioneer of modern anthropology who has been called the "Father of American Anthropology". His work is associated with the movements known as historical ...

who encouraged him to become a native ethnographer. They corresponded for years. While in New York at the time of the Harlem Renaissance, he also became friends with Pan-Africanist

W. E. B. Du Bois William Edward Burghardt Du Bois ( ; February 23, 1868 – August 27, 1963) was an American-Ghanaian sociologist, socialist, historian, and Pan-Africanist civil rights activist. Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Du Bois grew up in ...

. As a Vandau intellectual, he collaborated with many anthropologists and Africanists, such as Melville Herskovits, Henri-Philippe Junod and Dora Earthy. He was married first to

Kathleen Mary Easmon Simango Kathleen Mary Easmon Simango (9 August 1891 – 20 July 1924) was a Sierra Leonean missionary and artist who was the first West African to earn a diploma from the Royal College of Arts, Royal College of Art. She was the niece of Adelaide Casely- ...

on 1 June 1922. They had met in New York. After she died unexpectedly from appendicitis in 1924, he married Christine Cousey (in September 1925), with whom he had three children. They were in Mozambique from 1926 to 1937 and then Ghana where Simango died in a hit and run accident in 1966.

Notable achievements

In November 1923, Simango participated in the Third

Pan-African Congress The Pan-African Congress was a series of eight meetings, held in 1919 in Paris (1st Pan-African Congress), 1921 in London, Brussels and Paris (2nd Pan-African Congress), 1923 in London (3rd Pan-African Congress), 1927 in New York City (4th Pan-Afr ...

, organized in London. In 1934–1935 he helped found the Mozambican organization ''Grémio Negrófilo de Manica e Sofala''. The Grémio lasted until 1954 (under the name of ''Núcleo Negrófilo.'') It was outlawed for connections to an anticolonial uprising in the Machanga and Mambone regions.

Publications

*Curtis, Natalie, Kamba Simango, and Madikane Cele, 1920. Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent, recorded from the singing and the sayings of C. Kamba Simango and Madikane Cele, New York, Boston, G. Schirmer. *« Tales and Proverbs of the Vandau of Portuguese South Africa », Franz Boas & Kamba Simango, 1922

Bibliography

* Macagno, Lorenzo. 2022 "From Mozambique to New York : The Cosmopolitan Pathways of Kamba Simango, African Disciple of Franz Boas * Morier-Genoud, Eric. 2011. "Columbus Kamba Simango." in : H. L. Gates Jr. and Emmanuel Akyeampong (eds.) ''Dictionary of African Biography'', Oxford : Oxford University Press.

Biography

Notable achievements

Publications

Bibliography

References

Further reading