HUJUI KITU is a Swahili phrase meaning ‘you know nothing’ and is a good rubric to adopt in life, because if you know nothing you may begin to learn something whereas if you think you know everything you will never learn anything.  I was educated at Malvern, Brasenose College Oxford and Heatherley’s School of Art before becoming a curator of the African collections of the British Museum in 1987. My doctorate in Professional studies by Public Works is from Middlesex University. The Sainsbury African Galleries opened to the public at the BM in 2001, and as curator I have concentrated in particular on building up the Museum’s collection of textiles and contemporary African art. I have worked with artists in many African countries and around the world, while at the same time developing my own practice in London, first at the Small Mansion Arts Centre, Gunnersbury, then at Palace Wharf, Fulham and now at West London Art Factory, Acton, where I currently have my studio. I have helped to organise TRIANGLE artists’ workshops in Mozambique, Ghana and Nigeria, and recently co-curated the exhibition SOUTH AFRICA The Art of a Nation at the BM which included the work of more than twenty South African contemporary artists.