“Making It Work” is a series is about small-business owners striving to endure hard times.
When Hamissi Mamba arrived in Detroit from the landlocked African nation of Burundi in 2015, it was snowing. His wife, Nadia Nijimbere, was waiting for him at the airport with their 2-year-old twin daughters. He had never met his children before.
Two years earlier, his wife, a human-rights activist, had fled to the United States seeking political asylum. Unable to get a visa at the time, Mr. Mamba had to stay behind. Neither of them knew Ms. Nijimbere was pregnant.
The family was now reunited, but the journey was just beginning. The couple had to learn the culture and the food, and raise two children. Mr. Mamba, who speaks French, Swahili and Kirundi, taught himself English by watching the TV cartoon “Peppa Pig.”
He also had a big dream: to bring the food of their home country to Detroit. He competed in a local entrepreneurship program in 2017, and the couple won the $50,000 prize to help them get their restaurant started. They finally opened the doors to their airy restaurant, Baobab Fare, in early 2021 — in the throes of the pandemic.
The accolades have rolled in. In February, the couple were named for the second time as semifinalists for best chef in the James Beard awards, and in March, Mr. Mamba won an episode of “Chopped,” a cooking competition on the Food Network, and with it, $10,000. Now they are donating that prize money to Freedom House Detroit, the nonprofit that helped Ms. Nijimbere, and other asylum seekers like her, escape persecution.