{{Short description|Afro-Turkish writer and activist}} '''Mustafa Olpak''' (October 1953 in Ayvalık<ref name="hurriyet.com">[http://hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/goster/haber.aspx?viewid=605171 Köklerini araştıran adam Mustafa Olpak, ''Hürriyet'', 17 January 2005, retrieved 25 January 2009]</ref> - 4 October 2016 in İzmir{{cn|date=October 2016}}) was an Afro-Turkish writer and activist. His book ''Kenya-Girit-İstanbul: Köle Kıyısından İnsan Biyografileri'' has been compared to Alex Haley's ''Roots''.<ref name="hurriyet.com"/>
==Biography== Olpak's ancestors, of Kikuyu ethnicity from today's Kenya,<ref>[http://www.yeniasir.com.tr/haber_detay.php?hid=13561 Afrika'nın kapıları İzmir'e açılıyor, ''Yeni Asır'', 21 November 2008, retrieved 25 January 2009] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090217223142/http://www.yeniasir.com.tr/haber_detay.php?hid=13561 |date=17 February 2009 }}</ref> 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.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120912235946/http://www.taraf.com.tr/haber/8166.htm Şu bizim kara Afrikalılar, ''Taraf'', 20 May 2008, retrieved 25 January 2009]</ref> Olpak married a Turkish woman named Sevgi in İzmir after his military service.<ref>Mustafa Olpak, ''Kenya-Girit-İstanbul: Köle Kıyısından İnsan Biyografileri'', pp. 137-138, İstanbul, Ozan Yayıncılık, 2005 {{ISBN|975-7891-80-0}}</ref>
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.<ref>[http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=141522 Turks with African ancestors want their existence to be felt, ''Today's Zaman'', 11 May 2008, Sunday, retrieved 28 August 2008] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514084747/http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=141522 |date=14 May 2008 }}</ref> The opening ceremony was attended by Ali Moussa Iye, the Chief of UNESCO Slave Routes Project.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.afro-turk.org/index.php/hayallerinin-otesine-gecti |title=Mustafa Olpak'ın Kurduğu Dernek, UNESCO'nun Da Dikkatini Çekti: Hayallerinin ötesine geçti |access-date=2008-08-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090809014103/http://www.afro-turk.org/index.php/hayallerinin-otesine-gecti/ |archive-date=2009-08-09 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>[http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001510/151097e.pdf Slave route project, no. 4; The Slave Route newsletter; Vol.:4; 2007]</ref> 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''<ref>[https://archive.today/20120719082808/http://tr.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-680/_nr-54/i.html Kameradan Köleliğin Tarihine Bakış, retrieved 5 February 2009]</ref> ("The Arab Girl Looks from the Window," released with the English title of ''Baa Baa Black Girl'')<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.chinafilmproject.org/index_files/Page747.html |title='Breaking The Chains' Prize, Zanzibar International Film Festival, July 5, 2007, retrieved 28 August 2008 |access-date=28 August 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216112229/http://www.chinafilmproject.org/index_files/Page747.html |archive-date=16 February 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> discusses how his grandfather was purchased as a household slave by a Turkish family, but later moved to Istanbul after the Turkish Revolution.<ref>[http://www.qantara.de/webcom/show_article.php/_c-310/_nr-445/i.html Zanzibar Film Festival: Dealing with the Gruesome History of Slavery, retrieved 28 August 2008]</ref>
==Bibliography== * ''Tariş Direnişleri ve 12 Eylül'' (Tariş Resistances and 12 September), with Sevgi Olpak<ref>[http://www.emeginkurtulusu.tr.gg/Afrikal&%23305%3Blar-ve-k.oe.leliklerimiz.htm Afrikalılar ve Kölelik, ''Emeğin Kurtuluşu'', 20 July 2007, retrieved 8 March 2009]</ref> * ''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}} ** [https://books.google.com/books?id=yniSNFUKT54C&dq=olpak+biographie&pg=PP1 ''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:,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.kameraarkasi.org/yonetmenler/gulmuyan.html |title=Gül Muyan retrieved 16 March 2011 |access-date=15 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726212638/http://www.kameraarkasi.org/yonetmenler/gulmuyan.html |archive-date=26 July 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Narrator: Mustafa Olpak,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.kameraarkasi.org/yonetmenler/belgeseller/2006/arapkizicamdanbakiyor.html |title=Arap Kızı Camdan Bakıyor, retrieved 16 March 2011 |access-date=15 March 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110318203342/http://www.kameraarkasi.org/yonetmenler/belgeseller/2006/arapkizicamdanbakiyor.html |archive-date=18 March 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 46', 2007, Turkey<ref>[http://www.lokomotifkamera.com/noname12.html 7. Alanya Belgesel Film Günleri Başlıyor, retrieved 5 February 2009]</ref>
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://web.archive.org/web/20151118150602/http://afro-turk.org/ ''Afro-Turk''] Website of the Afro-Turks' association in Ayvalık {{in lang|tr}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080514084747/http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=141522 Turks with African ancestors want their existence to be felt], ''Today's Zaman'', 25 June 2008 {{in lang|en}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Olpak, Mustafa}} Category:1953 births Category:2016 deaths Category:Turkish people of Kikuyu descent Category:Turkish activists Category:Turkish people of Kenyan descent Category:Turkish writers Category:People from Ayvalık