‘It’s Been A Long Time’: Black-Female Owned Rofhiwa Bookcafé Opening In Durham
Durham, NC – Black excellence is once again being upheld by a new local bookstore opening soon. Rofhiwa Bookcafé is a Black-owned independent bookstore and coffee shop opening on April 24, 2021. Located in East Durham on the corner of Driver Street and Angier Avenue, Rofhiwa Bookcafé will offer a wide selection of books by Black authors and a selection of coffee brews by Black-owned coffee companies. The owners, Beverley Boitumelo Makhubele and Naledi Yaziyo aim to showcase the dexterity of Black authors across genres and writing traditions that span geographical locations. Naledi, a book collector, is the head of buying and selecting which books to sell in-store and online. I talked with Naledi about the store and what the community should be looking forward to.
Britany B. (BB): Why is this bookstore important to our community and why is Durham your chosen location?
Naledi Yaziyo (NY): Durham has a long and rich legacy of Black political and cultural life, and that includes a rich Black literary legacy. Folks like W.E.B. du Bois were writing about this place in the 1900s. And Durham has been and continues to be home for many talented Black writers. The Know Bookstore is part of that literary legacy, of course. And the reality that a Black brick-and-mortar bookstore centering Black writers and literature hasn’t been around in a long while is really tragic. We think about bookstores as repositories of collective knowledge – much like libraries. Rofhiwa, as a Black bookstore is concerned with keeping the knowledge and histories of Black people. We hope that this will be a place where you might go to find the knowledge that Black people have made collectively over many years and many places in Durham and beyond. And that’s important.
When we talk about Rofhiwa we often use the word ‘proliferate’ – that we are interested in the things that Rofhiwa might make possible, the possibilities that it can open for others just by the fact of its existing where it is. There are so many self-published or independent Black writers in Durham right now, for example. What kinds of possibilities does that open up when those folks have access to shelf space at the store? What possibilities do we create when we put these authors in conversation with another, or Black authors in other parts of the world to talk about their work and lives as artists, parents, entrepreneurs in Durham and elsewhere. So as important as it is for us to keep and concern ourselves with Black knowledge and histories, it has increasingly become important for us to concern ourselves with Black life in our immediate communities and beyond. Because that’s also important.
BB: Will there be any events/ book signings with authors at the bookstore?
NY: Actually, our first event is coming up on March 26. It’s a conversation between two poets – Professor Tsitsi Jaji who is a poet and professor of literature at Duke. The other poet is Dr. Stella Nyanzi is currently living in Kenya. She’s a radical activist who has been jailed twice for agitating against the government of Uganda where she is from. She’s in exile in Kenya right now and that is where she will be joining us from. We don’t think of our events as shows for writers to entertain audiences, we also don’t think of them as lectures. We’d like for people to come to a Rofhiwa event because they are genuinely interested in listening to Black artists talk about whatever it is that they want to talk about – we hope that Rofhiwa can always be a place of freedom for Black writers.
We are also already working on our second event. This one will be a conversation between two Durham authors. They are both independent writers and we’re looking forward to listening to them talk about that too – what it takes to publish on your own and why it matters to them. That’s just one thing we hope they could talk about but really, they could take the conversation wherever they want it to go. That’s what we imagine a conversation at Rofhiwa to be. So, to go back to your question. Yes, we will have events. They are virtual for now – you may register on our website if you would like to attend. It will probably be a little while until we can hold events in person in the store, but this is in our plans as well.
BB: What can you tell us about the Cafe’ and its services that will be offered?
NY: A book café combines a bookstore and a coffee shop. We take our coffee program just as seriously as we take our book selection. Our coffee is sourced from Black roasters throughout the US. Right now, we are working with Black roasters in Texas and North Carolina. We plan to build out our retail space to showcase even more products from the various roasters whose coffee we’ve sampled. We’ve also been working extensively with Chris McAuley of Getchusomegear to build out our program to provide consistent, quality espresso-based drinks – so lattes, mochas, drip, etc. We plan to have a small selection of teas as well. We hope to have a “signature” drink that infuses some flavors from South Africa and is looking forward to that. The café will offer select pastries, and we are currently working to identify and partner with some vendors in Durham on that front.
BB: Why is it important for black people to read books by Black authors?
NY: We think it is important for Black people to read, first and foremost. But it matters that black people read books by Black authors because it is important to know one another as Black people the world over. Fiction is one way to know a people. You can know their language, their myths, the food they eat; you can know the way they imagine the future; you know their past, you know what keeps them up at night and what they find beautiful. We have often been deprived of the opportunity to know one another because of political, historical, and economic circumstances. And reading each other’s literature is one way to know one other; we are firm believers that it is not impossible to get acquainted and get to know the things that are shared among us as well as the things that make us different.
Rofhiwa Bookcafé is located on the southwest corner of Angier and Driver Street in Old East Durham. Opening day is Saturday, April 24, 2021. Please support and go expand your imagination at your local Black-owned bookstore. For more information, visit rofhiwabooks.com/
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