To enter into the texture of human experience in Africa, we must listen to the voices of those who live there, of those writers and artists who reflect a culture--or the hybrid mix of cultures--in its own terms. Voices from the diaspora also have much to offer as cultural translators of a sort, often placing different cultures and their stories in illuminating counterpoint. (I am reading Buchi Emecheta's Second Class Citizen right now, thinking of all this novel reveals about Nigeria and England in its moment.)