Who, What, and Why: Meet the owners of black owned clothing company Sankofayah

WHO we are?

Hey, this is Marvin and Samantha Minott, co-owners of Sankofayah. Sankofayah, pronounced SAN-KO-FA-YAH symbolizes to Return and Build, going back to your past and taking those principles to build on a better future. We created this company in 2019 after the inspiration of a vision. In short, the vision entailed the unification of a people who had once been scattered. The African proverb says “If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together.” So we decided to create apparel that embodies community development, group economics, and the law of giving and receiving. Through Sankofayah we have been able to bless others through teaching some of these principles and in turn they have been able to bless others. 

Brand leaders of Sankofayah

HOW we got started?

Okay, so we had a vision, now what? We brainstormed multiple ideas for our first tee-shirt but ultimately we chose the iconic FAT RICH gold crown tee-shirt. If you wanna know where you’re going you have to know where you’ve been right? Naturally, we wanted to pay homage to a rich ancient history in a unique way and that is exactly what we did. The crown also is a reminder of knowing yourself and your worth. When the whole community supports the crown, it can never go down! We can do so much more together. 

To date, we have created three clothing brands, FAT RICH, Black Welfare, and Mansa Musa Money. Individually they hold powerful messages but collectively they are call to action apparel which inspires others to go beyond themselves, to become true agents of change in their communities.

WHY we do what we do? We briefly touched on “the vision” in the beginning of this blog. We started this company back in 2019 to encourage those in our community to embrace a rich ancient history while promoting community development and group economics. Overtime, we were able to see this community grow before our eyes. A community with social presence, economical power, and a network available to those who participated which one could leverage. Sankofayah isn't just a black owned street wear clothing apparel company, it's not even about us, the owners! It's about the people attached to our calling whose lives we want to transform, the communities which we will restore through the aggregation of a people once scattered, and the generational wealth that will proceed. Stay tuned...