Mustafa Olpak
Mustafa Olpak (October 1953 in Ayvalık[1]) is an Afro-Turkish writer and activist. His book Kenya-Girit-İstanbul: Köle Kıyısından İnsan Biyografileri has been compared to Alex Haley's Roots.[1]
Biography
Olpak's ancestors, of Kikuyu ethnicity from today's Kenya,[2] were enslaved around the year 1890, brought to Crete and sold in Rethymno. Following the population exchange between Greece and Turkey, the family settled in Ayvalık.[3] Olpak married a Turkish woman named Sevgi in İzmir after his military service.[4]
In 2006, Olpak founded the first officially recognised organisation of Afro-Turks, the Africans' Culture and Solidarity Society (Afrikalılar Kültür ve Dayanışma Derneği) in Ayvalık.[5] The opening ceremony was attended by Ali Moussa Iye, the Chief of UNESCO Slave Routes Project.[6][7] A principal aim of the association is to promote studies of oral history of Afro-Turks, a community history of whom was usually ignored by official historiography in Turkey.
The Turkish film Arap Kızı Camdan Bakıyor[8] ("The Arab Girl Looks from the Window," released with the English title of Baa Baa Black Girl)[9] discusses how his grandfather was purchased as a household slave by a Turkish family, but later moved to Istanbul after the Turkish Revolution.[10]
Bibliography
- Tariş Direnişleri ve 12 Eylül (Tariş Resistances and 12 September), with Sevgi Olpak[11]
- Kölelikten Özgürlüğe: Arap Kadın Kemale (From Slavery to Freedom: "Arab" Woman Kemale) 2002
- Kenya-Girit-İstanbul: Köle Kıyısından İnsan Biyografileri (Kenya-Crete-İstanbul: Human Biographies from the Slave Coast), İstanbul, Ozan Yayıncılık, 2005 ISBN 975-7891-80-0
- Kenya-Crète-Istanbul: Biographie d'une famille d'esclaves, Paris, Librairie Özgül, 2006 ISBN 978-2-910901-02-8
Filmography
- Arap Kızı Camdan Bakıyor ("The Arab Girl Looks from the Window," released in English as Baa Baa Black Girl), Director:,[12] Narrator: Mustafa Olpak,[13] 46', 2007, Turkey[14]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Köklerini araştıran adam Mustafa Olpak, Hürriyet, 17 January 2005, retrieved 25 January 2009
- ↑ Afrika'nın kapıları İzmir'e açılıyor, Yeni Asır, 21 November 2008, retrieved 25 January 2009
- ↑ Şu bizim kara Afrikalılar, Taraf, 20 May 2008, retrieved 25 January 2009
- ↑ Mustafa Olpak, Kenya-Girit-İstanbul: Köle Kıyısından İnsan Biyografileri, pp. 137-138, İstanbul, Ozan Yayıncılık, 2005 ISBN 975-7891-80-0
- ↑ Turks with African ancestors want their existence to be felt, Today's Zaman, 11 May 2008, Sunday, retrieved 28 August 2008
- ↑ Mustafa Olpak’ın Kurduğu Dernek, UNESCO’nun Da Dikkatini Çekti: Hayallerinin ötesine geçti
- ↑ Slave route project, no. 4; The Slave Route newsletter; Vol.:4; 2007
- ↑ Kameradan Köleliğin Tarihine Bakış, retrieved 5 February 2009
- ↑ ‘Breaking The Chains’ Prize, Zanzibar International Film Festival, July 5, 2007, retrieved 28 August 2008
- ↑ Zanzibar Film Festival: Dealing with the Gruesome History of Slavery, retrieved 28 August 2008
- ↑ Afrikalılar ve Kölelik, Emeğin Kurtuluşu, 20 July 2007, retrieved 8 March 2009
- ↑ Gül Muyan retrieved 16 March 2011
- ↑ Arap Kızı Camdan Bakıyor, retrieved 16 March 2011
- ↑ 7. Alanya Belgesel Film Günleri Başlıyor, retrieved 5 February 2009
External links
- (Turkish) Afro-Turk Website of the Afro-Turks' association in Ayvalık
- (English) Turks with African ancestors want their existence to be felt, Today's Zaman, 25 June 2008
