Philippe Wamba (June 3, 1971 – September 11, 2002) was an African-American editor and writer known for his fusion of African and African-American culture.

Early life

Wamba was born in California to Elaine Brown Wamba and Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, an American mother and a Congolese professor-turned-rebel father. He grew up in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...

, and

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. He studied at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

as an undergraduate, then at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

.''Kinship: A Family's Journey in Africa and America'', Dutton/Penguin, 1999.

Career

Wamba worked on a variety of writing and publishing projects, culminating in his service as Editor-in-chief of the now defunct online magazine ''Africana.com''. In 1999 he published a memoir entitled ''Kinship: A Family's Journey in Africa and America.'' Wamba was profiled in the ''

New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...

'' and the book received some positive reviews.

Death

Wamba died in a car accident in

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while conducting research on African youth movements. The Harvard African Students Alumni Network announced plans to raise funds in his memory to promote traffic safety in Africa."Philippe Wamba, African and African American, Dead at 31".
Maynard Institute website, accessed January 5, 2013.

Henry Louis Gates Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African Am ...

, a mentor who helped promote Wamba's memoir, said at his funeral, "Philippe lived on no man's hyphen."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wamba, Philippe 1971 births 2002 deaths American people of Democratic Republic of the Congo descent Harvard University alumni Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni Road incident deaths in Kenya 20th-century American memoirists 20th-century African-American writers 21st-century African-American people