Richard Pankhurst, the founder and first Director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies of Addis Ababa University, and for ten years the Librarian of the Royal Asiatic Society in London, has lived in Ethiopia for three decades. He has devoted the greater part of his life to the study of Ethiopian history and culture, and has written extensively on these subjects.

Denis Gerard is a French agronomist and a long-term resident of Ethiopia, who has been working in regional development in the Afar Region. Among his other professional activities he is coordinator of various projects arising out of a twinning arrangement between Le Blanc-Mesnil, near Paris, and Dabra Berhan, north-east of Addis Ababa. Photography is his passion, especially the reproduction of early images.