Prof. Hambaba Jimaima

Picture of Prof. Hambaba Jimaima
Prof. Hambaba Jimaima
Dean
Associate Professor
Researcher
Arts Languages and Literary Studies
Email
h.jimaima@unza.ac.zm
Research Profiles
Orcid
Google Scholar
Researchgate

Hambaba Jimaima is Acting Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, and an Associate Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Arts, Languages and Literary Studies at the University of Zambia. His research interests are located at the intersection of formal linguistics, social semiotics, multilingual memory, and the extended view of multimodality, predicated on language production and consumption in the public spaces within the broader purview and anchorage of the social structuring of language. As part of his overarching social structuring of language research, emboldened by one of the UN imperatives of inclusivity, Hambaba has recently prioritized decoloniality discourse, language planning and policy and language mapping in Zambia by carefully examining the circularity and mobility of language in a multilingual context of the Global South. He has published numerous articles and book chapters in these areas, and has presented over 40 international conference papers on language and linguistics. Supervised over 15 postgraduate students and has examined over 50 Master’s dissertations and PhD theses as a local and external examiner.

  • Jimaima, H & Simungala, G (2025) Translanguaging spaces as marketing strategies in the linguistic landscapes of Zambia. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 43(3), 509-523
  • Jimaima, H., Matukuto, S., & Simungala, G. (2023). The names of the supreme being in Bemba: some critical morphological insights. South African Journal of African Languages, Taylor & Francis 43(3), 306-312.
  • Matukuto, S., Jimaima, H., & Simungala, G. (2023). Sentential and proverbial morphological structures of Christian theonyms in Bemba. Studies in African Languages and Cultures, (57), 125-139.
  • Jimaima, Hambaba and Naomi Njobvu (2023) Diction and symbolism in Sista D’s Vitendeni: A Semiotic Appraisal, Zambian Journal of Contemporary Issues (ZANGO), vol 36, pp 100 – 110.
  • Jimaima Hambaba, Gabriel Simungala and Trevor Mwansa (2023) Material Narration of Nostalgia and Modality in the Lyrics of Saga’s Kumunzi Kubotu, Zambian Journal of Contemporary Issues (ZANGO), vol 36, pp. 55-65
  • Njobvu Naomi, Mambwe Kelvin and Hambaba Jimaima (2023) Interrogating Moses Sakala’s Funeral Song, Chibaba: Some Discourse Insights, Zambian Journal of Contemporary Issues (ZANGO), vol 36, pp. 89 – 100
  • Simungala, Gabriel, Hambaba Jimaima and Trevor Mwansa (2023) Resemiotisation and Intertextuality in Musical Discourses: the Sociocultural Narratives of Dununa Reverse, A Zambian Political Party Campaign Song, Zambian Journal of Contemporary Issues (ZANGO), vol 36, pp.78-89
  • Mwansa, Trevor, Hambaba Jimaima and Gabriel Simungala (2023) Reflecting and modulating traditional masculinity ideological standpoints: a stylistic analysis of Abel Chungu’ song, Mwamuna Samalila, Zambian Journal of Contemporary Issues (ZANGO), vol 36, pp.1-14
  • Simungala, Gabriel, Hambaba Jimaima and Prisca Chikuta (2022) Indigenous Languages on an Online Space: Translanguaging for Visibilisation of Multilingualism and Multisemiotic Modes, Language Matters, pp 1-29 DOI: 10.1080/10228195.2022.2089720
  • Simungala, Gabriel and Hambaba Jimaima (2022) Legitimization and Recontextualization of Languages: The Imbalance of Powers in a Multilingual Landscape, Journal of Linguistic landscapes, pp, 1-28Lumwanga, Chibwe Ronald, John Lubinda and Hambaba Jimaima. (2021). A contrastive study of Bemba and Mambwe at morphological level. International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education, 8(7), 271-285
  • Jimaima, Hambaba and Felix Banda. (2019). Selling a Presidential Candidate: Linguistic Landscapes in Time of Presidential Elections, Social Semiotics, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group
  • Banda, Felix and Hambaba Jimaima.(2017). Linguistic Landscapes and the sociolinguistics of language vitality in multilingual contexts of Zambia, Multilingua, De Gruyter Mouton vol 36/5: 595 – 626.
  • Banda, Felix and Hambaba Jimaima.(2015). Semiotic Ecology of linguistic landscapes in rural Zambia, Journal of Sociolinguistics 19/5: 643-670. Jimaima, Hambaba (2024) The Rural, in The Bloomsbury Handbook of Linguistic Landscapes. London: Bloomsbury.
  • Jimaima, Hambaba and Gabriel Simungala (2024) Translanguaging as a means to optimising multilingual education: A Zambian perspective, Multilingualism in Southern Africa. Taylor & Francis.
  • Jimaima, Hambaba and Felix Banda. (2019). Artefactual Materiality of Erasure and Downscaling: Multimodal Linguistic Landscapes at Victoria Falls, Zambia. London: Bloomsbury.
  • Jimaima, Hambaba and Gabriel Simungala. (2019). Semiotic Creativity and Innovation: Offshoots of Social Media Addiction, in Addiction in South and East Africa. Springer, pp 143-156.
  • Jimaima, Hambaba, Felix Banda, Kelvin Mambwe and Gabriel Simungala. (2019). Interrogating terminological aggregation and inconsistencies in the Zambia’s Language-in-Education Policy, in Felix Banda (ed.) Theoretical and Applied Aspects of African Languages and Culture. CASAS, Cape Town, pp 243-264.
  • Mambwe, Kelvin and Hambaba Jimaima .(2019). Political discourses in multiparty democracy: the case of Dandy Krazy’s Donchi Kubeba song, in Felix Banda (ed.) Theoretical and Applied Aspects of African Languages and Culture. CASAS, Cape Town, pp 41-56.
  • Banda Felix, Hambaba Jimaima, and Lorato Mokwena. (2018). Semiotic Remediation of Chinese Signage in the Linguistic Landscapes of Two Rural Areas of Zambia, in Ari Sherris and Elisabetta Adami (ed.) Making Signs, Translanguaging Ethnographies Exploring Urban, Rural and Educational Spaces. Multilingual matters, pp 74-90.
  • Jimaima, H. (2016). Social Structuring of Language and the Mobility of Semiotic Resources across the Linguistic Landscapes of Zambia: A Multimodal Analysis. Unpublished PhD thesis: University of Western Cape. Cape Town.
  • Jimaima, H. (2008). Determination and Modification in English and Tonga: A contrastive account. Unpublished MA dissertation: The University of Zambia.

Interests

Formal linguistics, social semiotics, multilingual memory, the extended view of multimodality, decoloniality discourse, language planning and policy and language mapping.

  • As Acting Dean (2025): Sourced Funding to host the public Lecture by Commonwealth Secretary General, RT. Baroness Patricia Scotland from Zanaco
  • Departmental Team member & Acting Dean (2024): MoU with the Arts Council for funding to establish and construct the Arts Centre at UNZA
  • Acting Dean (2024): Collaborative initiative with Indian Universities on innovation and skills transfer - visited: 4 Universities
  • Acting Dean (2024-2025): Facilitated numerous Funding initiatives within the School and signing of MoUs
  • Acting Dean (2024): Enhanced collaboration with the Defence forces for the possibility to open a school of Military Science at UNZA
  • UK Research and Innovation (2023): Co-applicant with Professor Robert Blackwood, funding domiciled at University of Liverpool, UK
  • Newton Fund (UK) (multilingual memorialisation: museum), 2023: Co-researcher with Professor Robert Blackwood, funding domiciled at University of Liverpool, UK: project undertaken in Zambia, & Algeria
  • Consultant (2022): Transforming Teacher Education Module Review Workshop, a report presented to transforming Teacher Education at Mika Convention Centre (23rd – 24th May, 2022) with Peter Manchishi
  • UK’s Global Challenges Research Fund (2019-2020): Co-researcher with Professor Robert Blackwood, funding domiciled at University of Liverpool, UK
  • Consultant (2021): UNESCO Zambia Focal Person for the Atlas of world Languages