Daria Toptygina | December 16, 2025

Soko by Baobab Fare coffee packages. Courtesy photo by Mark Kurlyandchik, Booth One Creative.

Former asylum seekers turned restaurateurs are extending a Burundi-to-Detroit pipeline of food, culture and coffee through Soko by Baobab Fare.

Hamissi Mamba and his wife, Nadia Nijimbere, arrived in Detroit after fleeing Burundi, eventually finding housing and support at Freedom House Detroit, a shelter for asylum seekers. From there they built Baobab Fare, the East African restaurant that opened in 2021 at the corner of Woodward Avenue and West Grand Boulevard and quickly became a New Center anchor and community hub.

Since then, Baobab Fare has drawn national attention as a multiple-time James Beard Award semifinalist, including a 2025 nod in the hospitality category, placing it alongside some of the country’s most lauded dining rooms. The restaurant’s motto remains “Detroit Ni Nyumbani,” which roughly translates to “Detroit is home.”

“Detroit welcomed us as refugees,” Mamba recently told Daily Coffee News. “That is important because it became our home — a place that welcomed us with open arms. And because of that, we have the responsibility to encourage enrichment of the city.”

From Restaurant to Coffee

What started as a way to serve Burundian coffee alongside sambusa, rice and yellow beans has grown into a full retail and wholesale brand under the Soko by Baobab Fare banner. Soko — a word that means “market” in Swahili — launched in 2023 as a sibling business that could live beyond the four walls of the restaurant, with packaged coffee helping to lead the way.

Courtesy photo by Mark Kurlyandchik, Booth One Creative.

“After opening Baobab Fare, we saw the opportunity for Soko as its own brand,” Mamba said. “It didn’t make sense that Baobab Fare would be the one to handle the retail, as the focus and target market are different.”

Today Soko functions as a curated East African market, with a product line that includes bottled passion fruit and hibiscus drinks, the Pili hot sauce based on a family recipe, single-origin chocolate bars and an expanding collection of jewelry, apparel and other goods from East African makers.

Prominent in the line is coffee, which is currently sourced exclusively from Burundian producers. The current lineup consists of three single-origin offerings: a natural-process coffee called Gahombo; a washed-process coffee called Matongo; and a decaf called Muruta, which is sourced through a group of primarily women-owned farms in Kirundo Province.

Coffees for the brand are roasted in Detroit by Clawson-based Sabbath Coffee Roasters and packaged in bright, colorful bags.

Courtesy photo by Mark Kurlyandchik, Booth One Creative.

“Our coffee packaging and branding were inspired by Burundian fashion,” Mamba said. “When you visit the villages, you’ll see people wearing vibrant, colorful clothes, and we wanted our design to reflect that same spirit and energy.”

As Soko advances, Mamba said the restaurateurs are open to working with additional importers, producers or cooperatives — even beyond the borders of their native Burundi.

“We’ve begun conversations with growers in Honduras to cultivate our own hibiscus and passion fruit,” Mamba said, “and we’ll soon start importing coffee directly from Burundi and cacao from Congo as part of Soko’s growth.”

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Daria Toptygina Daria Toptygina is a freelance writer, avid coffee lover and social media manager of Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine.

Tags: Baobab Fare, Burundi, Congo, Detroit, Freedom House Detroit, Hamissi Mamba, James Beard Awards, Kirundo Province, Nadia Nijimbere, New Center, restaurants, Sabbath Coffee Roasters, Soko by Baobab Fare