In 2020, the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor cast international attention on police violence against Black people. Simultaneously, news coverage of discriminatory 911 calls highlighted the type of racial profiling that leads to the criminalization of Black people napping in a college dorm, birdwatching in Central Park, and otherwise simply existing. It may not seem, at first glance, that discrimination against Africana religions is directly related to contemporary anti-Black prejudice and violence. But our project takes a different point of view.

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This project’s main goals are to show how Africana religions, especially African ancestral (sometimes called African traditional) religions and African American Islam, must be at the center of any analysis of anti-Black racism; that anti-Black racism cannot be reduced or eliminated if Africana religious practitioners are ignored; and that Africana religious practitioners themselves offer the necessary approaches to prevent anti-Black racism.

By working with and for our community partners, we hope to gain a better understanding of the types of discrimination that devotees of Africana religions and Black Muslims experience in the 21st century and to develop solutions to help combat that discrimination. To that end, our project participants (who were selected from a robust pool of international applicants) will be hosting conversations and events in fall 2022 to document, analyze, and develop solutions to the discrimination and violence that they and their communities face as practitioners of Africana religions. In 2023, the project leaders and participants will meet for a four-day workshop to discuss their findings and identify how they might work together to reduce violence against Africana religious practitioners and communities. During the workshop, the participants will develop several short-term goals to help combat discrimination against Africana religions. After the workshop, the group will organize into consortiums to implement those goals.

At this stage, the workshop participants include people from Camdomblé, Lukumi, Hoodoo, Vodou, Islam, Palo Monte, Ifá, Orisha, Ogboni, and Egbe. The project, which has been funded by the generous support of the Henry Luce Foundation, will give us the opportunity to work together for solidarity across the lines of religion, language, nation, class, and other forms of difference. The following individuals are the project leaders and participants who wished to be publicly identified.