Griffin Shea in his shop, Bridge Books © Marc Shoul

When Griffin Shea first visited downtown Johannesburg as a young journalist, he hardly imagined it as a base for a new business. Back in 2001, less than a decade after the collapse of apartheid, Africa’s commercial hub was a zone of desolation. “People were leaving and the sidewalks were empty,” says Shea, a 41-year-old American from New Iberia, Louisiana.