Professor Eyamba is one of the founding fathers of NCOLCTL. He worked tirelessly in the establishment of NCOLCTL and it is his visions, passions, energies, and leadership that resulted in the successful establishment of NCOLCTL, and of its current success and growth.
Professor Bokamba in collaboration with Professors Richard Brecht, Erika Gilson, Teresita Ramos, and the late Ronald Walton secured two grants from the Ford Foundation for the establishment as well as the development of language specific groups and organizations. It is from these Ford Foundation grants that organizations like ALTA, SALTA, COTSEAL, etc were founded. Once NCOLCTL was firmly established, Professor Bokamba served in the NCOLCTL board for six successive years: Vice President for two years (1991 to 1993); NCOLCTL President (1993 to 1995); and Immediate Past President (1995 to 1997).
After his six year term, Professor Bokamba continued to be and is still actively involved in NCOLCTL as well as ALTA. He worked for four years as a member of the Group of Advisors for NSEP to represent the teaching and promotion of LCTLs and to provide awareness to the academia of NSEP’s mission and services. At the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Professor Bokamba was the director of the LCTL program from 2010 to 2012, and the director of the Summer Cooperative African Language Institute (SCALI) from 2007 and 2008. In 2011 and 2012, he directed the Summer Institute for the Languages of the Muslim World (SILMW).
The languages that were taught at the SILMW included LCTLs like Arabic, Bamana, Kiswahili, Pashto, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, and Wolof. Professor Bokamba is currently the director of Sub- Saharan African languages program in the Department of Linguistics. Professor Bokamba in collaboration with Professor Antonia Schleicher has led numerous workshops for LCTL instructors at the National African Language Resource Center (NALRC) at University of Wisconsin, Madison, and at Indiana University where NALRC is currently housed.