Mustafa Olpak (October 1953 in AyvalıkKöklerini araştıran adam Mustafa Olpak, Hürriyet, 17 January 2005, retrieved 25 January 2009 - 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.
Biography Olpak's ancestors, of Kikuyu ethnicity from today's Kenya,Afrika'nın kapıları İzmir'e açılıyor, Yeni Asır, 21 November 2008, retrieved 25 January 2009 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. Olpak married a Turkish woman named Sevgi in İzmir after his military service.Mustafa Olpak, Kenya-Girit-İstanbul: Köle Kıyısından İnsan Biyografileri, pp. 137-138, İstanbul, Ozan Yayıncılık, 2005
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.Turks with African ancestors want their existence to be felt, Today's Zaman, 11 May 2008, Sunday, retrieved 28 August 2008 The opening ceremony was attended by Ali Moussa Iye, the Chief of UNESCO Slave Routes Project.Slave route project, no. 4; The Slave Route newsletter; Vol.:4; 2007 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 ("The Arab Girl Looks from the Window," released with the English title of Baa Baa Black Girl) discusses how his grandfather was purchased as a household slave by a Turkish family, but later moved to Istanbul after the Turkish Revolution.Zanzibar Film Festival: Dealing with the Gruesome History of Slavery, retrieved 28 August 2008
Bibliography Tariş Direnişleri ve 12 Eylül (Tariş Resistances and 12 September), with Sevgi OlpakAfrikalılar ve Kölelik, Emeğin Kurtuluşu, 20 July 2007, retrieved 8 March 2009 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 Kenya-Crète-Istanbul: Biographie d'une famille d'esclaves, Paris, Librairie Özgül, 2006
Filmography Arap Kızı Camdan Bakıyor ("The Arab Girl Looks from the Window," released in English as Baa Baa Black Girl), Director:, Narrator: Mustafa Olpak, 46', 2007, Turkey7. Alanya Belgesel Film Günleri Başlıyor, retrieved 5 February 2009
Notes
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, 25 June 2008