Despite renewed academic effort and increased public attention being paid African peoples and cultures, there are far fewer off-campus academic programs in Africa than one would expect, especially as we are speaking of a whole continent. Drew in West Africa is one of the few independent (with no institutional affiliations in Africa) academic programs that offer a regular four-week summer program in West Africa. After introducing the program, I would like to offer some observations on one of the most intriguing aspects of our program: the diversity of participants.