This documentary has been a dream of ours for a long time. As a child growing up in Cleveland, OH in the late 1970s and early 1980s most of my classmates were named Lakeisha, Shante and Sean while my brothers and I were given decidedly African names like Najaa, Adelana, Ayodeji and Olufemi. And while our peers attended Baptist, AME or Pentecostal churches my parents practiced the traditional Yoruba religion, also known as Ifism or Lucumi. To say my family was different is an understatement but we were part of a growing community of African Americans who were reclaiming their African identity by converting to traditional African religions and adopting various African cultures as their own.

My co-producer, Rasheed Jihad, and I began filming American Africans in February 2010 in part to expose mainstream American audiences to this cultural and spiritual phenomenon but to also dispel the negative connotations that surround African traditional religions like, Ifism, Ausar Set and Vodoun (Voodoo). We want to show why some African Americans are forgoing Christianity and Western culture for something rooted in their African ancestry and the struggles and joys they experience to reclaim this part of their heritage.

We have worked very hard purchasing production equipment and traveling to some places like Atlanta, Cleveland and Pittsburgh to film but we still need money for additional travel to Washington DC, New York and Florida. We also need to purchase professional editing software and media storage for the editing process. Lastly, we always need to purchase expendables, like tapes!