Can Afrori Survive?

I was once out for a drink with a bookseller when she said to me. Oh, I'm not like you, my business must be profitable.”

I looked at her very confusedly and asked what she meant. She then went on to explain that unlike her business, Afrori Books was held up by crowdfunding and wasn't a genuine business that relied on profit margins etc. When I pushed and asked why she thought this, she said it was obvious because of what we do. “The books and all the other stuff”

I ended the conversation and went back to my hotel room.

I had often wondered if people thought like this, but she was the first to articulate it. Selling books by Black authors and doing work in the community cannot be a “real” business. Certainly not a profitable one.

Now I find this strange for many reasons, the most obvious one is we're still here. Based on that logic, we would have to be running a continuous crowdfund to have maintained a presence for coming up to 6 years. And we don't. We buy books, we pay staff, we pay our bills, we don't owe anyone. So that in and of itself says this premise is wrong.

But if we dig into the bigger statement here. “Books and all the other stuff.” I assume, because she is not the first to imply that she as a fellow bookseller meant the type of books we sell. Black books. So, selling Black authored books cannot make for a viable business. What's funny is she is probably also the kind of person who would say the colour of an author doesn't matter.

For so long the publishing industry, the government and creative sectors have pushed a narrative that white creativity is for everyone, and Black creativity is for Black people. It is rooted (not very subtlety) in colonialism and of course racism. White is the norm and everything else is not. And so, books by Black authors must be for Black people and because in this country they are a minority group there is no money in publishing their books. Which would mean, that the woman's ignorance on this matter is not surprising or even exceptional. Then the logic adds up, if we are selling to such a small audience how could we survive? Because surely, there aren't enough readers in the Black community to sustain us. (Another racist colonial lie)

The answer to all of this is simple. White people can, and do, read books written by Black authors. Our shop is in a city where 85% of the population are white. In the average week, 70% of our customers are white.

The other part of her comment was community work. “The other stuff.”

 Now there is a part of her statement that is correct. Our profit margins would be higher if we didn't do community work, if we made community groups pay the same rate for shop hire, didn't offer free places at events, run workshops and the other bits.

But it doesn't break us, it builds us. Daily we have contact with people doing amazing projects, who invite us to be involved. We see projects that were embryonic when we offered support five years ago that now have national status. There are things we have been involved in, people we have given time to who never mention us and others who give us far too much credit. For me, they are my delight. I don't dream of being financially richer, I dream of legacy. Of making a difference, of giving hope and changing lives.

So, yes, I am committed to “that other stuff” and I will continue to be so because it brings me unbelievable joy.

I say all this, because I want businesses to understand, we can be ethical, care about people, love our communities and still thrive as a business. I know that is not what we see around us, but that's why it's called change.

Be the change.