Amadou Hampat� B was a distinguished Malian poet and scholar of African oral tradition and precolonial history.Aina Pavolini Taylor is an independent translator with wide experience of Africa, now living and working in Italy.F. Abiola Irele is a professor in the Department of Black Studies at Ohio State University.
LOUIS BRENNER is Reader in the History of Religion in Africa and Head of the Department of African Languages and Cultures at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is author of West African Sufi: The Religious Heritage and Spiritual Search of Cerno Bokar Saalif Taal.