“In ancient vignettes Africa was often depicted as a young girl, beautiful despite the crude simplicity of her forms, and always, always surrounded by wild animals. Monkeys sway above her head, elephants wave their trunks behind her, a lion licks her feet, and a panther basks on a sun-warmed cliff nearby. The artists could not cope with the growth of colonization, nor with the construction of railways, nor with irrigation or drainage earthworks. And they were right: here in Europe, it seems to us that the struggle between man and nature is over, or in any case, the advantage is obviously already on our side. For those who have visited Africa, things seem different..."