The accounts presented here cover a surprising range of issues, from practical questions of daily life (where to live, what to cook) to methodological concerns about what is true, and true for whom? The individual stories are both entertaining, and instructive. One researcher had a newly laid roof stolen in the middle of the night, while another was shadowed by the security police. One woman was initiated into a secret society, while yet another faced a trial after having been accused of witchcraft.

In her introduction, Carolyn Adenaike summarizes the particular challenges faced by recent history researchers in Africa. The epilogue by Jan Vansina - in many ways the pioneer of oral history methods - places the evolution of research practices in the broad context of European commercial expansion.