Gerald Moore was born in London in 1924. After serving in the navy during the war, he read English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Apart from ten years in the School of African and Asian Studies at Sussex, he has taught at universities in various parts of Africa and in Hong King. He has also been a visiting professor at UCLA, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of Ghana, and the University of Ife. His publications include The Chosen Tongue: English Writing in the Tropical World, Wole Soyinka, Twelve African Writers, and The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry. He has also published translations of Mongo Beti, Henri Lopes, Tchicaya U Tam’si, and J.-B. Tati Loutard.

Ulli Beier was born in Germany in 1922. From 1950 to 1971 he taught literature and creative writing at the universities of Ibadan and Papua New Guinea. During the period of 1971 to 1978 he was the director of research institutes in Nigeria and New Guinea. In 1981 he founded and directed IWALEWA Haus, a center for contemporary art, music, and literature from the Third World. He died in 2011.