Mustafa Olpak is an Afro-Turkish

Afro-Turks

Afro-Turks, African Turks, or Turkish Africans are people of African descent in Turkey. "Afro-Turk" is a neologism; they have been colloquially named as Arap or zenci in Turkish, and are now also referred to as Afrika kökenli Türkler .-History:Beginning several centuries ago, a number of Africans,...

 writer and activist. His book Kenya-Girit-İstanbul: Köle Kıyısından İnsan Biyografileri has been compared to Alex Haley

Alex Haley

Alexander Murray Palmer Haley was an African-American writer. He is best known as the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family and the coauthor of The Autobiography of Malcolm X.-Early life:...

's Roots

Roots: The Saga of an American Family

Roots: The Saga of an American Family is a novel written by Alex Haley and first published in 1976. It tells the story of Kunta Kinte, an 18th-century African, captured as an adolescent and sold into slavery in the United States, and follows his life and the lives of his descendants in the U.S....

.

Biography

Olpak's ancestors, of Kikuyu ethnicity from today's Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

, were enslaved around the year 1890, brought to Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

 and sold in Rethymno

Rethymno

Rethymno is a city of approximately 40,000 people in Greece, the capital of Rethymno peripheral unit in the island of Crete. It was built in antiquity , even though was never a competitive Minoan centre...

. Following the population exchange between Greece and Turkey

Population exchange between Greece and Turkey

The 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey was based upon religious identity, and involved the Greek Orthodox citizens of Turkey and the Muslim citizens of Greece...

, the family settled in Ayvalık. Olpak married a Turkish woman named Sevgi in İzmir

Izmir

Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey...

 after his military service

Conscription in Turkey

In Turkey, compulsory military service applies to all male citizens from twenty to forty one years of age. Those who are engaged in higher education or vocational training programs prior to their military drafting are allowed to delay service until they have completed the programs or reach a...

.

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. The opening ceremony was attended by Ali Moussa Iye, the Chief of UNESCO

UNESCO

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

 Slave Routes Project. A principal aim of the association is to promote studies of oral history

Oral history

Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews...

 of Afro-Turks, a community history of whom was usually ignored by official historiography in Turkey.

The Turkish film Arap Kızı Camdan Bakıyor (Baa Baa Black Girl) discusses how his grandfather was purchased as a household slave by a Turkish family, but later moved to Istanbul

Istanbul

Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...

 after the Turkish Revolution.

Filmography

• Arap Kızı Camdan Bakıyor (Baa Baa Black Girl), Director: , Narrator: Mustafa Olpak, 46', 2007, Turkey

External links

Afro-Turk Website of the Afro-Turks' association in Ayvalık Turks with African ancestors want their existence to be felt, Today's Zaman

Today's Zaman

Today's Zaman is one of two English-language dailies based in Turkey. Established on January 16, 2007, the newspaper's main competitor is the older Hürriyet Daily News....

, 25 June 2008