When you make a piece of art, you’re expressing how you feel to anyone who sees or touches it. It is a meaningful act. So you might say that Nharo!, a company that brings the artwork of African tribespeople to the West, is in the business of communication.

With Nharo, there are no middle men. Since the early-2000s, the company has bought directly from African artists, importing unique products not available elsewhere in North America. These include sculptures, carvings, jewelry and tribal masks, along with all-natural, organic products like shea butter and rooibos tea. And the list is always growing.

Nharo’s name honors the Nharo San, Kalahari Bushmen from Botswana. Company founder Paul Wellhauser knows Botswana intimately. In 2002, he left a job with a high-tech company in Ontario, taking an internship at the Botswana Center for Human Rights. While there, he was tasked with proofing a report for the UN International Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, relating to the land rights of San people in Botswana.

“Land rights issues are decided by institutions and in courts,” Paul explains. “But when I travelled to the communities, the people there were not asking for help with their legal battles, nor were they asking for handouts. They were asking for support through the purchase of their arts. This was the consistent message from all artisan groups that I met.”

Paul began buying jewelry from local artisans. After a brief sojourn to Australia and New Zealand, where he sold copper bangles and ostrich eggshell beadwork (a San specialty) on the beaches, Paul returned to Canada. Six weeks after that, he was back in Botswana, determined to build a business. Nharo became a company in 2004.

Nharo’s small items, like jewelery, are shipped via air from Africa to North America, while the large-volume stone and wood sculptures arrive in annual shipments, thousands of items at a time. Payments are made directly to artisans or their co-operatives. These days, Paul says, the company is regularly solicited by artists who find the Nharo website. He visits one new place each year, drinking in the diversity of regional styles that make African art so popular worldwide.

“The primary concern for artisans is education for the family,” Paul explains. “That is a main focus for Africa parents and it is made possible when a fair price is paid for what they make. The idea is not for people to just subsist, but to grow.”

This idea is supported by products like Nharo’s shea butter and tea, both Fair-Trade certified, and by its top-selling Dudu Osun Black Soap, a biodegradable soap manufactured in Lagos, Nigeria, using natural ingredients and neither preservatives nor artificial colors. These are sustainable products that create profit for those who make them, while preserving the environment at the same time.

It is the same with inorganic products such as Nharo’s recycled waterpipe bracelets, produced by the Himba, indigenous nomadic pastoralists from the Kunene region of Namibia. Unwilling to let old PVC piping go to waste, Himba artists collect it, cut traditional designs into it, and create unique fashion statements popular with everyone. Nharo also sells sculptures made by Zimbabwean artists from recycled scrap metal.

Nharo ships across the U.S. and Canada, and beyond, and also maintains a storefront location in Toronto. To learn more, visit www.nharo.com.