This article explores the increasing waves of Africans migrating to the United States and the ways in which complex and multi‐layered notions of identity have surfaced. Issues of identity include self‐identification as well identities imposed on African immigrants. Factors such as location, accent, and socialization are especially important in determining how Africans in America self‐identify and which identities are placed upon them. Special attention is paid to identity formation among second generation African immigrants, specifically those who represent the offspring of the increased immigration flows from Africa beginning in the 1980s.