Expatriates are people who live in a foreign country, but this article confines itself, in the main, to British expatriate librarians and lecturers in librarianship working in English‐speaking Black Africa. Most of the examples are taken from Nigeria, where I have worked as a librarian and as a lecturer since 1975. This is not to say that Nigeria is typical of a continent which is as diverse as Europe or any other, but simply to acknowledge, at the outset, that I am aware of the limitations of generalising on the basis of four years in one country. Few would dispute, however, that those parts of Africa and the rest of the world (including Ireland, my own home country) which experienced British rule have been left with something in common as regards approaches to librarianship as well as to other matters; or dispute that Britain showed little interest in developing libraries in its African colonies until independence was imminent.