Like anyone in business, Brian and Bridged Lott derive great satisfaction from success, but their pleasure doesn’t lie just in profits, it also comes from the knowledge that every dollar they spend on stock for their shops makes an almost immeasurable difference to the lives of people half a world away.
Together they own and operate A Spot of Africa, selling unique, original African art and crafts from two small shops in the heart of Langley and Victoria. Brian and Bridged personally select every sculpture, mask, painting, wall hanging, and the myriad of other items large and small that they sell. They avoid wholesalers and other middlemen, instead buying the works directly from the African artist, co-op, or village producing it.
“My passion has always been for African art, but also I’m very much for helping the African people. I like to buy from indigenous people, people who are in need,” Brian explains. That concern for the people of the world’s poorest continent stems from direct, personal experience. Born and raised in England, Brian first moved to Canada, where he lived in Vancouver, married and had a son. Then, when the marriage ended in the mid-1970s, he carried on to South Africa where he established a catering business that eventually grew to the second largest in the country, with more than 450 employees. He still counts catering to 13,000 guests at Nelson Mandela’s 1994 presidential inauguration the crowning achievement of his career, not the least because it lead to a close and continuing friendship with the man he considers one of the greatest human beings of the past century and who he puts “in the same category as Ghandi and Martin Luther King”.
By the end of the 1990s, Brian was busy with his catering business, and South African-born Bridged, a microbiologist, had spent 25 years running her own successful commercial microbiology lab. Their life in the upscale Johannesburg suburb of Benoni was comfortable and, after the tumultuous years of transition from the former white apartheid regime to what Mandela has dubbed “the rainbow country”, some sense of stability, at least in a political sense, had returned to the country.
Socially, however, South Africa remained a basket case with a large portion of its black population still caught in the grip of poverty amid a growing sense of disappointment that the political revolution had brought little change to their lives. And then along came the devastating AIDS epidemic that has swept the continent like a savannah grass fire, killing millions and disrupting not only family life, but also sometimes the social structure of whole villages. The result was an explosion in crime of all kinds, particularly violent and what Brian calls “barbaric” crime, throughout the country, especially in Johannesburg.
“Johannesburg is the crime capital of the world and we’re talking barbaric crimes,” he says with evident disgust. Despite their empathy with the black population and close connection to Mandela, by 2001 they no longer felt safe and decided it was time to leave South Africa. With Brian’s previous connections, the Lower Mainland seemed a natural place to make their new home, but the question was what to do? Barely in their mid 50s, neither was interested in retiring and both still wanted to be in business, but not on the scale they had been. They also wanted to do what they could to help the land and people they loved.
Both had been captivated for many years by African art and had travelled throughout sub-Saharan Africa adding to their private collection. They knew many in North America shared their passion and that it was a market tapped by only a handful of retailers. With their knowledge of the genre and personal relationships with many African artists, they saw an opportunity to build a successful small business that would not only give them a good living but also make a positive impact on peoples’ lives out of proportion to its size.
“Africa is so unstable and I think the more the people can be involved with making beautiful art, the more of it we can be buying from them. It keeps them going, keeps them out of trouble, and helps stop the crime. As an African, that’s my aim.”
Brian points out that African art is “very much in vogue” in North America. He believes that’s partly because much of it seems to strike a deep chord within people, its vibrancy and almost naïve beauty appealing not only as stand-alone works but also as elements of home and office décor. But he also thinks an important factor in its popularity is the desire among increasingly affluent African Americans for reminders of their roots in a continent that, despite its seemingly unending problems, still carries an evocative, romantic air about it quite unlike that of any other.
For Brian and Bridged however, just being African wasn’t enough. After all, big retail chains are in business to spot markets and fill them and African art is no exception. But where much of the “art” big retailers sell is mass produced by the hundreds - if not thousands - of copies, the Lotts wanted their shop to be a showcase for the truly superior works African artists produce.
A Spot of Africa was a hit almost from the moment they opened the doors, so much so that Brian says that since that day in May 2002 the Langley store has become a destination in itself, with customers travelling there from all over the Lower Mainland (and from farther afield – set designers and decorators regularly “borrow” pieces to use in films that have caught the eye of Hollywood people here to make movies, many of whom have made it a point to visit when they’re in town). He recognises the general popularity of African art has been a big factor in that success, but believes the choice of what to sell has been even more important.
“It’s the right art. I make a point of going back and getting one-of-a-kind, unique pieces that you cannot get in any of these box stores and such,” he says. The result is an eclectic mix of stock that includes works in just about every medium. There are carvings and tribal masks of wood, sculptures of stone, metal, and wood, colourful ceramics, paintings, sketches, drawings, basketry, and beautiful textile works. They range from an eye-catching wooden giraffe nearly six feet tall to exquisite bracelets, necklaces and earrings, from spectacular oil paintings suffused with almost blinding African light to ceramic serving sets that fairly vibrate with bold hues. All of it has proved popular with locals and tourists alike, but it is the Shona stone sculptures customers find most captivating, so much so that he sells “literally tonnes”, importing three or four shipping containers of it a year.
Brian says some of his customers are very knowledgeable about the art, but most like it simply for its beauty and appreciate the fact that almost all the works he sells come with a picture and a brief biography of the artist who produced it. Another big attraction is price.
“The most important thing about African art compared to, for example, West Coast Indian art, is that it’s way, way more affordable to the average market. People come in and look at this art of mine, for example eagle sculptures, and they’ll say ‘that looks almost Inuit’ and I say ‘it’s not, it’s done by the Shona tribe in Zimbabwe, and look at the price’. They’re astounded because a similar Inuit piece would sell for $4000 and I’m selling it for $495.”
He readily admits the low price is a result of the extremely low labour costs at the source, but Brian says it’s a point of pride that on his regular buying trips he never haggles over price. “I give them good value and they’re happy. I never walk away with them saying ‘oh, you’ve ripped me off”. I never say ‘I’ll buy a thousand pieces if you give me a good deal’. They may say they want $70 US for it. I don’t say ‘come down to $30’, I give them $70. I always pay the asking price,” he says, “because I can see wonderful art and I know I can do well with it here.”
To Brian and Bridged the remarkable art they sell is not only a commodity, it is also a shining expression of humanity and hope from people who, in many cases, have little of either in their lives. Aside from works by people from South Africa and Zimbabwe, they also go to sources in Congo, Angola, Ivory Coast, Kenya, and Tanzania. Each visit reinforces in Brian the sense of how much the African people have suffered the worst of everything from post-colonial global realpolitik to tribal rivalry and the flat out greed and often outright madness of their so-called leaders.
“There are problems everywhere I go” he says, because “unfortunately in Africa, most of the leaders are dictators and they’re causing chaos amongst their own people.” He points to Zimbabwe (which he calls “a finished country”) as an example. When the current leader, Robert Mugabe, came to power in 1980 after nearly four centuries of colonial rule, the country was one of the continent’s wealthiest and a net food exporter. Today it’s “a nightmare”.
“Mugabe is a nut case. He has totally destroyed the country. Even the banks are leaving. The Zimbabwe people are wonderful, wonderful people, but their spirit has died. There are about 15.5 million people in Zimbabwe and over half of that population are well below the breadline - they’re starving to death. Meanwhile, he [Mugabe] is now probably among the top 300 or 400 richest people in the world.”
So far, South Africa has managed to avoid the chaos of so many of its neighbours, but Brian recognises that’s due entirely to Mandela. Now 87 and largely retired, modern South Africa’s first leader remains a powerful and calming influence on the various competing factions, white and black. However, he can’t last forever and “I do worry about South Africa when Mandela dies,” says Brian.
He hopes the economic benefits stemming from the money he and Bridged spend in the country will help reduce tensions and, perhaps, help it steer clear of the problems so many of its neighbours have experienced. That’s why he’s planning to expand his African retail empire in the future – but not too much.
They opened in Langley originally because it’s where they chose to live and because of its growth potential, then opened the Victoria store in 2003 to tap that city’s huge annual tourism market. Now they’re thinking about another store in White Rock and one in Penticton. Brian says they want to keep the operation relatively small with no more than four – or possibly five – stores in carefully chosen locations. The larger chain would allow them to substantially increase the amount they spend with their African sources (to around $1 million a year), but remain small enough for the direct, personal management style they prefer. In the mean time, with galleries in the Lower Mainland and Victoria regularly showing works they import, designers remaining intrigued by the contrasts between the “primitive” art and the sleek, modern living and working spaces they’re creating, and ordinary people captivated by such evocative beauty at a reasonable price, they see nothing but a continuing win-win situation for their business and hundreds of African craftsmen artists and their families.
