Africa Direct, Inc. is owned by Elizabeth Bennett and Sara Luther.

African art, trade beads and ethnic jewelry are both business and passion for Sara and me. We started buying African art twenty years ago as gifts for our children, four of whom are adopted and are African-American. We had been active in anti-apartheid politics for some time. In 1994, when Mandela was elected, we took the three still-at-home kids out of school and moved to southern Africa for eight months. We bought a used food panel van, converted it into a camper and traveled fifteen thousand miles through South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Swaziland. We weren't consciously beginning a business...but we noticed we were buying more than we could keep, give away, or sell at garage sales. In the beginning, we did shows and held open houses. Now eBay, Etsy and our website, AfricaDirect.com, are the primary ways we sell.

We go on six-week buying trips to Africa every few years, and bring back containers. We also have African traders in our driveway almost daily. We buy from more than one hundred traders (including two women!) who come from both coasts, fly in from France and send shipments from Africa. We care about supporting living artists, and buy from co-ops in South Africa, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Swaziland and other places.

In addition to running the business and being active grandparents, Sara and I are politically active, support causes we care about, read voraciously and treasure family and friends. Eliza's background is in entrepreneurial business and international franchising. Sara was a professional squash player and continues to play competitive squash at national tournaments. We have been together for twenty-nine years, and in 2004 were finally able to be legally married in Massachusetts.

Dr. Niangi Batulukisi, Jared Stewart, Garrett Higa and Cameron Terry work with us.

Niangi, is our Curator of African Art, with more than 15 years experience in the field as writer, lecturer, scholar and museum curator. She was born in what was then known as the Belgian Congo, and received her Ph.D. in Archaeology and Art History at the Catholic University of Louvain- La-Neuve, Belgium.	Cameron, a photographer and general specialist, is an accomplished film documentarian. He is currently working on a film about a local Colorado farming community. He loves to fish whenever he can.
Jared, our operations manager and a photographer by background and takes stunning pictures of our new inventory. He and his wife relocated to Denver from Oklahoma.	Garrett, our Human Resources Manager, In his free time, Garrett enjoys traveling with his girlfriend, spending time with family, friends, cooking, reading, sports, and is an unapologetic animal dog enthusiast.