In fact, archaeological digs in Kilwa have revealed that houses often featured a kind of built-in bookshelf. Learning of books through architecture nicely captures the magic of studying history. Archaeology, writing, and oral tradition all intermingle to give us glimpses of the past. And each of those lenses may show us the past as if through some funhouse mirror, but if we're conscious about it, we can at least recognize the distortions. Studying Africa reminds us that we need to look at lots of sources, and lots of kinds of sources, if we want to get a fuller picture of the past. If we relied only on written sources, it would be far too easy to fall into the old trap of seeing Africa as backwards and uncivilized. Through approaching it with multiple lenses, we discover a complicated, diverse place that was sometimes rich and sometimes not.