This paper presents an overview of some of Michael Cole's work, starting with his pioneering research in Liberia with the Kpelle (and later, with Sylvia Scribner, studies of literacy with the Vai, 1981), which was formative of his version of a cultural-historical psychology, his translation and interpretations of the work of L. S. Vygotsky and finally his development of the 5th Dimension after-school programs, which in various ways build on the insights from the previous work. I discuss how contesting notions of cultural and intellectual deprivation or inferiority have been a central preoccupation in Cole's work, spanning practically his entire career, and was already on display as a central concern in his early work in Liberia.