Mustafa Olpak

Mustafa Olpak (October 1953 in Ayvalık[1] - 4 October 2016 in İzmir) was 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

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. Köklerini araştıran adam Mustafa Olpak, Hürriyet, 17 January 2005, retrieved 25 January 2009
  2. Afrika'nın kapıları İzmir'e açılıyor, Yeni Asır, 21 November 2008, retrieved 25 January 2009 Archived 17 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Şu bizim kara Afrikalılar, Taraf, 20 May 2008, retrieved 25 January 2009
  4. Mustafa Olpak, Kenya-Girit-İstanbul: Köle Kıyısından İnsan Biyografileri, pp. 137-138, İstanbul, Ozan Yayıncılık, 2005 ISBN 975-7891-80-0
  5. Turks with African ancestors want their existence to be felt, Today's Zaman, 11 May 2008, Sunday, retrieved 28 August 2008 Archived 14 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  6. "Mustafa Olpak'ın Kurduğu Dernek, UNESCO'nun Da Dikkatini Çekti: Hayallerinin ötesine geçti". Archived from the original on 2009-08-09. Retrieved 2008-08-28.
  7. Slave route project, no. 4; The Slave Route newsletter; Vol.:4; 2007
  8. Kameradan Köleliğin Tarihine Bakış, retrieved 5 February 2009
  9. "'Breaking The Chains' Prize, Zanzibar International Film Festival, July 5, 2007, retrieved 28 August 2008". Archived from the original on 16 February 2012. Retrieved 28 August 2008.
  10. Zanzibar Film Festival: Dealing with the Gruesome History of Slavery, retrieved 28 August 2008
  11. Afrikalılar ve Kölelik, Emeğin Kurtuluşu, 20 July 2007, retrieved 8 March 2009
  12. "Gül Muyan retrieved 16 March 2011". Archived from the original on 26 July 2011. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
  13. "Arap Kızı Camdan Bakıyor, retrieved 16 March 2011". Archived from the original on 18 March 2011. Retrieved 15 March 2011.
  14. 7. Alanya Belgesel Film Günleri Başlıyor, retrieved 5 February 2009
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