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] (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 975789180-0
  • Kenya-Crète-Istanbul: Biographie d'une famille d'esclaves, Paris, Librairie Özgül, 2006 ISBN 978-2910901028

Filmography

• Arap Kızı Camdan Bakıyor (Baa Baa Black Girl), Director: ^[12], Narrator: Mustafa Olpak, ^[13] 46', 2007, Turkey^[14]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} 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
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 975789180-0
5. ^ Turks with African ancestors want their existence to be felt, Today's Zaman, 11 May 2008, Sunday, retrieved 28 August 2008
6. ^ Mustafa Olpak’ın Kurduğu Dernek, UNESCO’nun Da Dikkatini Çekti: Hayallerinin ötesine geçti
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
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
13. ^ Arap Kızı Camdan Bakıyor, retrieved 16 March 2011
14. ^ 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

Persondata
Name	Olpak, Mustafa
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1953
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death