David MylesIt was March 2020, and the country was in a COVID-19 lockdown. Many employees were furloughed, and Carolynn Bain was one of the millions on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).
The former event manager witnessed the murder of George Floyd a few months later. Carolynn felt compelled to march but began asking herself what she could do beyond marching. No novice to protests, Carolynn went on her first march at just nine years old with the Socialist Workers Party. In retrospect, Carolynn said, “I thought, why am I here? Forty years later and I am still marching.”
With no experience, Carolynn built a website out of what she says was “passion and frustration.” Afrori Books was the name of the online retail bookshop. Initially, the objective was to have 100 books to sell to friends, family, and others. However, in 2020, people from across Europe were spurred to purchase books from Afrori Books, which operated as an online-only outlet between August 2020 and October 2021. Fast forward to today, Afrori Books has over 4,000 books on its website.
It’s a family and community affair
Less than two months after Afrori Books opened its physical store, founder Carolynn suffered a severe bicycle accident, breaking her arm after being thrown over the handlebars. She reached out to the Facebook group Women of Colour Brighton for assistance with daily operations like unpacking inventory. In response, a community of women united to run the bookstore entirely without a rota for six weeks while Carolynn recovered.
Humbly, Carolynn said: “It wasn’t because I am a wonderful person. It was because they value what the bookshop does and what it stands for.” For them, it was, “This needs to stay open. We can’t close it for six weeks.”
Both Carolynn’s daughters work for Afrori Books. Her oldest daughter, Oliviyah, who is now 30, intended to work in the shop for only a year, but that one year has now morphed into three. A talented musician, Oliviyah runs the Afrori choir, which meets every Sunday at the bookstore.
Afrori Books is very receptive to new ideas, and the choir was formed in response to demand from marginalised communities who didn’t feel comfortable in other choirs in Brighton. The Afrori choir now consists of about 30 people, and the group performed at the Brighton Carnival on the 25th of July. “Almost everything we do is because customers ask us,” says the mom of three. Oliviyah also manages music-related affairs, staff, and volunteers.
‘’Someone once asked me, how do you want people to feel when they come into the shop, and I said, I want them to feel like they have come into my house’’
Carolynn’s middle child, Ysabel, who is 28, resides in London and is completing a master’s degree in Marketing and Consumer Behaviour at the University of London’s Goldsmiths. She manages the social media for Afrori Books. ‘’She [Ysabel] took on that role three years ago, and it’s gone from a thousand people to I think it’s 25,000 people, completely organically,’’ says Carolynn gleefully.
2025, BRIGHTON. AFRORI BOOKS.
STOCK IMAGES taken of Afrori Book shop, Brighton. A shop promoting the work of Black and brown authors and run by Carolynn Bain and her daughters, Oliviyah, and Ysabel. A series of images to promote the work of the book shop over the next two years. The set includes, int, ext, staff shots and a small selection os images taken at events held by the books shop. PHOTOGRAPHY BY DIENSEN PAMBEN
Afrori Books continues to exemplify its responsiveness. Another salient example is its anti-racist kids’ club, which Carolynn said is one of the most gratifying projects to emerge from the bookstore. The Afrori anti-racist kids’ club was born from an inquisitive child who was attempting to teach fellow children in her school about being anti-racist. The child bemoaned that no one would listen to her.
Carolynn fully backed the girl, though she admittedly had no idea how to assist the young child. As a mom with an array of talents—one of which meant she had acquired immeasurable skills working with young people from her days as a youth worker— Carolynn compiled enough material to cover six workshop sessions.
The Power of Proximity and Distinctiveness
Afrori Books is located on North Road, just off Queens Road. Carolynn believes that 2.3 million people walk down Queens Road annually. Statistics from Brighton & Hove City Council corroborate this figure, suggesting that at least 6,000 pedestrians pass through Queens Road on a summer weekday, which equates to millions of people each year.
‘’That’s a lot of people walking by and seeing the shop,’’ remarks Carolynn. This is brilliant for visitors to Brighton, as Queens Road acts as a magnet that attracts them toward Afrori Books. Considering that a journey from Croydon in London to Brighton takes less than 50 minutes by train, the bookstore is in an optimal location.
Moving to North Road in April 2023 has significantly enhanced their visibility for visitors arriving at Brighton station and walking down Queens Road. As a result, Carolynn’s bookstore welcomes visitors from across the world. ‘’There is a woman who travels from the States just to come and see us,’’ says Carolynn.
2025, BRIGHTON. AFRORI BOOKS.
STOCK IMAGES taken of Afrori Book shop, Brighton. A shop promoting the work of Black and brown authors and run by Carolynn Bain and her daughters, Oliviyah, and Ysabel. A series of images to promote the work of the book shop over the next two years. The set includes, int, ext, staff shots and a small selection os images taken at events held by the books shop. PHOTOGRAPHY BY DIENSEN PAMBEN
The proximity to Queens Road and Brighton mainline station is not the only advantage. Afrori Books is distinctive as the UK’s only current Black-owned bookstore that sells books exclusively by Black authors. No other bookstore in the UK has this accolade. Afrori Books operates as a safe haven where Carolynn believes the store is a “welcoming space.” She adds, “Someone once asked me, how do you want people to feel when they come into the shop, and I said, I want them to feel like they have come into my house.”
Inside Out: Industry Ignorance and Its Wider Impact
Afrori Books may resemble a place of refuge once you’re inside, but externally the bookstore has weathered tribulations that have at times disrupted the tranquillity of the shop. “The right-wing are not fans of us,” laments Carolynn. “We are targeted too often by right-wing people,” she adds.
Carolynn talks about the antipathy that she faces with what she euphemistically calls “the opinionators,” but is unable to restrain herself. ‘’The racists who walk in the shop on a regular basis to covertly or overtly make comments such as, ‘’What if I were to open an only white bookstore, then what would you say?’’
In June, there was what Carolynn describes as a ‘’right-wing demonstration’’ that was planned no less than 20 yards from her shop. Regular conversations with the police occurred to ascertain what protection would be provided for Afrori Books and on the day of the protests, police are said to have routinely undertaken drop-ins to ensure the safety of staff and the bookshop itself. ‘’ The police parked their vans outside the shop’’ recalls Carolynn.
While some of the ordeals that Afrori Books has to contend with are not uncharacteristic of what other book sellers face, such as the lowest recorded level of children and young people reading books for pleasure in nearly two decades, some factors are more discriminating. ‘’We are so openly Black, and that does make us a target’’ says the Book seller of the year of 2023 and 2025 for The British Book Awards.
Carolynn notices a pattern. When there is a surge in publicity about her bookshop, there is heightened expostulation, which causes anxiety because Carolynn is cognisant of what will follow. ‘’If the BBC want to put anything on their website about me, I have to ask them to turn off the comments,’’ confesses Carolynn, who is quick to mention that this is not exclusive to the BBC but is pervasive.
‘’ If I could get just one book into a kid’s hands, or into the hands of someone who is sitting on the fence and swaying towards the right.’’
In 2025, Carolynn had to rescind a job offer for a candidate for a role at Afrori Books. By their own admission, they admitted that they don’t deal with confrontation well, which is sadly something that staff have to deal with. Arguably, in a bookstore, one should only expect a discourse of ideas that may erupt into a heated, impassioned argument, but not what could be described as unprovoked antagonism, which is impelled by racial hatred. “I feel we have created a sanctuary for Black people and their allies, but there is always someone who hates that and wants to disrupt that,” says Carolynn.
This belligerence has sadly included the publishing industry, where Carolynn says that, in the first three years, Afrori Books found the concept of what the bookstore stood for inconceivable. Carolynn deplores the idea that “books by Black authors are written for Black people,” an attitude that perhaps reflects the colonial continuity and condescending benevolence peddled by large portions of the publishing industry during the infancy of Afrori Books.
Just over two years before Afrori Books was established in 2020, the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) published Reflecting Realities, which was the first UK study investigating the diversity of children’s literature.
The study scrutinised children’s literature that featured people from the global majority heritage. Out of 9,115 children’s books, an astonishing 391 featured global majority characters, accounting for approximately 4%. This figure was compounded by the fact that only 1% of the reviewed children’s books featured a global majority character as the lead character. While there was a slight increase in 2019 and other improvements in subsequent years, the number of global majority heritage-led characters plummeted from 14% to 7% between 2022 and 2023.
In 2024, Inclusive Books for Children published a report, Excluded Voices. The findings revealed that 53% of books with global-majority main characters were written by white authors and illustrated by white illustrators.
Afrori Books serves as a testament that, contrary to dominant narratives that exhort the subordination of Black authors, there is a demand for them.
A Black bookshop solely selling books written by Black authors has a clientele that some may find hard to fathom: “70% of our customers are white,” says Carolynn. This is premeditated. “We want representation to be seen by everybody. Not just Black people. I think we are constantly proving to the publishing industry that books by Black authors are for everybody,” the business owner adds.
2025, BRIGHTON. AFRORI BOOKS.
STOCK IMAGES taken of Afrori Book shop, Brighton. A shop promoting the work of Black and brown authors and run by Carolynn Bain and her daughters, Oliviyah, and Ysabel. A series of images to promote the work of the book shop over the next two years. The set includes, int, ext, staff shots and a small selection os images taken at events held by the books shop. PHOTOGRAPHY BY DIENSEN PAMBEN
Equipping children with anti-racist tools
Afrori Books continues to exemplify its amenability. Another salient example is its anti-racist kids’ club, which Carolynn said is one of the most gratifying projects to emerge from the bookstore. The Afrori anti-racist kids’ club was born from an inquisitive child who was attempting to teach fellow children in her school about being anti-racist. The child bemoaned that no one would listen to her. Carolynn fully backed the girl, though she admittedly had no idea how to assist the young child. As a mom with an array of talents—gaining immeasurable skills working with young people from her days as a youth worker—Carolynn compiled enough material to cover six workshop sessions. “If I could get just one book into a kid’s hands, or into the hands of someone who is sitting on the fence and swaying towards the right,” says the Brighton resident.
Afrori Books continues to exemplify its amenability. Another salient example is its anti-racist kids’ club, which Carolynn said is one of the most gratifying projects to emerge from the bookstore. The Afrori anti-racist kids’ club was born from an inquisitive child who was attempting to teach fellow children in her school about being anti-racist. The child bemoaned that no one would listen to her. Carolyn fully backed the girl, though she admittedly had no idea how to assist the young child. As a mom with an array of talents—one of which meant she had acquired immeasurable skills working with young people from her days as a youth worker— Carolynn compiled enough material to cover six workshop sessions. ‘’If I could get just one book into a kid’s hands, or into the hands of someone who is sitting on the fence and swaying towards the right’’ says the Brighton resident.
Each session had a theme that invited young people to grapple with specific questions. “It is about giving young people the language to make a decision about where they stand with racism. Because a lot of people are like, ‘I am not racist,’ and we know that is not good enough and is often just a mask for covert racism,’’ says Carolynn, who is also the founder of the Brighton Book Festival.
The Afrori anti-racist kids’ club has been operating for four years, and Carolynn has lost count of the myriad schools where she has delivered workshops. The curriculum explores the history of racism and examples of different forms of it, such as overt and covert racism, all provided in a remarkably accessible format for young people.
One of Carolynn’s concerns is that if schools in Britain teach about racism or civil rights, it tends to be American-centric. She argues this makes teachers relinquish any kind of evaluation and discourse about racism, as it can be conveniently depicted as a distant activity that occurs elsewhere. For this reason, Carolynn feels obligated to ensure the content is British-based. Some of the topical discussions include the Bristol Bus Boycott. Carolyn is also keen to crystallise the equilibrium of what is happening now.
Carolynn’s steadfast commitment to anti-racism has not gone unnoticed. She is periodically stopped in places such as restaurants or while merely walking down the street by people, including parents. With a scintillating smile that is only unparalleled by the beaming sunshine that Britain is experiencing, the bookstore owner said: ‘’They will say things like, ‘My kid has transformed dinner time, and our house looks completely different because my child wants to talk about this stuff.’’’
While wisdom is often seen as being bestowed by older generations, children can be seen as organic ontological thinkers. ‘’Parents are saying their children are challenging them about beliefs and attitudes. That is phenomenal for me,’’ says Carolynn. Testimonies of parents being challenged by their children are numerous. Just a few months ago, a parent of a child who attended Afrori’s anti-racist session three years ago confided in Carolynn that their child still has them reconfiguring their perceptions about racism.
“The 1,000-Book Campaign
In April, Afrori Books led a campaign to raise 1,000 book sales in 30 days to remain open. The target was exceeded by a considerable margin, with estimates of over 2,000 books sold. Carolynn says that their recent triumph illustrates that Afrori Books is not just a village bookshop but a far-reaching outlet that needs to be preserved. Opting for participatory involvement rather than crowdfunding has helped raise awareness of the importance of Brighton and Britain’s independent businesses, which are pivotal to the nation’s economy. A legacy has now been established by adopting the trajectory of the 1,000-book campaign, rather than relying on a GoFundMe page.
Afrori Books now has not only a membership scheme but also a patron page. In less than four days, they attracted over 100 members. People were saying, “Give me a membership scheme that I can join. Give me something where I can be part of something ongoing, so I don’t ever forget you again,” says the business owner.
