Out of Africa, into Waltham

Anthony Sankale is the epitome of hard work.

Born and raised in Kenya, Sankale has lived in the Boston area for seven years and has worked tirelessly to bring himself from having nothing to achieving his goals and opening Waltham?s newest business: Mizizi Design.

On Jan. 18, Sankale celebrated the grand opening of his new store of handcrafted African gifts located at 28 Crescent St. The shop offers a large variety of authentic artifacts from the Maasai tribe of Eastern Africa along with trendy T-shirts and hoodies. While Sankale grew up in the capital city of Nairobi, his father comes from the Maasai Tribe and Sankale?s family sends him the artifacts from Kenya. His relatives have crafted many of the products he sells.

"The Maasai Tribe, they are known to be warriors, it is a tribe of warriors and it is one of the only tribes in Kenya that is still holding onto their culture," Sankale said.

Reigning from the southern part of Kenya and northern part of Tanzania, the Maasai are a semi-nomadic tribe that has been able to sustain its roots in traditional culture despite constant pressure from outside influences. To honor that idea, the name of the shop, Mizizi, literally translates to "roots" and is placed under a logo of the African Tree of Life.

"The Maasai, they celebrate and are very proud of their culture and I have a passion about art, culture and I wanted to share this. I?ve always loved this. Growing up, our house was filled up with different ornaments, with different things, and this was something I wanted to bring into Boston," Sankale said.

The journey Sankale took to the opening his shop was not easy. After receiving his green card through a lottery, Sankale made the decision to leave his home and his family to see what life was like in the United States. His original plan was to come for a couple years and then to return to Kenya and continue to in his family business. However, when he got here he heard a different calling.

"When I moved here I decided I wanted to do something different for myself. I wanted to get my own job and just see a different part of life, something that I had not planned for," Sankale said.

After attending seminars and talking with a variety of people about what he should do, Sankale decided that he wanted to go to further his education and attended a technical school in Charlestown. Upon graduation, Sankale said he was lucky enough to land a job working at the Prudential Center in Boston. While working at the Prudential he found that he was still unsatisfied with what he had achieved.

"I was working a regular shift from seven to three and I realized that I want to build myself more. I want to get a house. I want to get a car. I want to do all these things so I got a second job working at the airport for United Airlines as a machinery technician so I had two full time jobs 40 hours at the Prudential, 42 hours at the airport," Sankale said.

Since deciding to take on the extra workload, Sankale said he has purchased a home in Malden, bought himself a new car and has opened his own store in Waltham that brings him closer to his home and passion.

Regardless of his accomplishments, Sankale still works the nightshift as an engineer at the Center for Life Science in Boston from 10 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. before he comes home, takes a shower, sleeps for a couple of hours and comes to Waltham to open his shop, which is open for business from noon to 6 p.m.

"If you really want something, you will make it happen," Sankale said.

Sankale is currently developing his own website for the store, which is slated to launch within the week. He received some help setting up his shop from his girlfriend Elizabeth Comtois who is a schoolteacher in Malden. Sankale, who says he loves his shop and will do whatever it takes to make it successful, remains determined when reflecting back on how hard he has worked.

"I was being pushed physically and mentally and when you are pushed to those extremes you either just break down or you find a way of handling those situations. So it was a challenge, and I?m not going to say that I enjoyed it but it helped me a lot to push myself to the extremes in order to achieve something I wanted," Sankale said.

Eli Sherman can be reached at 781-398-8004 or esherman@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @Eli_Sherman.
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Source: http://www.wickedlocal.com/waltham/features/x711916526/Out-of-Africa-into-Waltham

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