Afi-Tiombe Kambon 

“I wish the entire campus could have
experienced the emotion, spirit, and  pride with
which you performed.”

Afi-Tiombe defines her profession as an actor and oral historian of African American history. Her one-person readings and plays present a program of great impact. “I want the audience to be entertained, enlightened as well as educated by my performance.” Afi-Tiombe has studied African-American history for over twenty years. She has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Black Studies from Hayward University and is pursuing a Masters Degree in Theatre Arts and History.

Ms. Kambon develops her writings to help the Black and other culturally diverse communities raise self-esteem. As an amputee as the result cancer at a very young age, her stories often include characters with a disability and represent the issues of cultural and gender identity. Her goal is to “display what can be lost by treating disabled people as non-persons, and what may be gained by integrating those with a disability into our communities as equals.”

Afi’s  presentations hold audiences spellbound. Both are set in the period of slavery. Featured are “Black Diamond” (17 minutes) the story of a young mother who gives birth to a child who has a disability and coming to grips with the realization that she will have to give up her child as there is no place in the slave community for disabled children. “An Extra Jar of Molasses” (24 minutes) addresses the history of the slave trade reaching back to the mid-1300’s and introduces the treatment of women in the slave community. Both presentations stress the importance of many historical experiences that text books have chosen to overlook. She has also added to her repertoire a story she wrote many years ago called, “The Wishing Flower”, a children’s reading about a white and African-American child caught up in the struggles of a slave and master relationship.