There is all Africa and her prodigies in us; we are that bold and adventurous piece of Nature which he that studies wisely learns in a compendium what others labour at in a divided piece and endless volume  . . . There is no man alone, because every man is a microcosm and carries the whole world about him.”

Thomas Browne [1928]: The Works of Sir Thomas Browne (Editor: G. Keynes), Volume 2. London.

I stumbled across this quotation in the Menzies Library of ANU one weekend afternoon in Autumn 1980, and it led me to embark on an African adventure, spending six years in Zimbabwe and Lesotho.