I Came to Get You was inspired by my own relationship to and ethnographic research with Shaykh Hassan’s Tijani murids (disciples) in the United States and Medina Baye. In the process of writing an academic book on this community, I became interested in amplifying their stories by using a creative medium that would bring them to life in ways beyond what was possible through the words on a page. 

I never had the opportunity to meet Shaykh Hassan, but for more than 15 years, I have had the immense honor of listening to and learning from so many Black Americans and West Africans who personally knew him. These women and men shared stories of how they worked closely with their Shaykh, volunteering their time, energy, and money to support his work of guiding, unifying, and empowering Muslims in Africa and the diaspora. So much of Black and Muslim American histories focus on well-known, mostly male figures, yet these elders’ stories bear testament to the reality that seemingly ordinary people – and women in particular – are at the heart of the efforts that have resulted in extraordinary things. They are, as Su’ad Abdul Khabeer describes in her Umi’s Archive project, everyday Black Muslim women and men who are neither academically trained scholars, nor prominent public leaders, but are nonetheless “people who know things we all need to know.” Indeed, among many long-standing members of the Tijani community in the United States, these elders are recognized, beloved, and celebrated as such. 

I Came to Get You was partially funded by a Fellows Grant from The Crossroads Project, a collaborative research initiative directed by Judith Weisenfeld, Anthea Butler, and Lerone Martin and supported by the Henry Luce Foundation and Princeton University. As a Crossroads Community Stories Fellow, I interviewed several of these elders about their lives and experiences as Black Muslims in the Tijani tariqa. My initial intention was to compile their life histories into a digital archive. As these elders sat in front of my camera, they took me on a journey across time and space, from the 1970s all the way to the present day, from urban centers in the United States to a sacred city across the Atlantic Ocean. For hours on end, they narrated their own stories, conveying honesty, humor, and humility as reflected upon hard-learned lessons and imparted wisdom. Speaking to me from the U.S. cities they called home, several elders recalled memories of their travels to their spiritual home of Medina Baye, Senegal. Some reflected candidly on how their time there made them grapple with the cultural similarities and differences between Black American and West African Muslims. Others casually described the unexpected experiences that prompted them to help Shaykh Hassan open an international school and medical clinic in Medina Baye. They spoke frankly about how they tried their best to collaborate in ways that would not reproduce a “savior” narrative that often dominates international humanitarian projects that take place on the African continent.

Read the full story behind I Came to Get You here.