The Afro-Turks and Black Consciousness in the Middle East

The Afro-Turks represent a cross-cultural encounter and an emergent history, linking the Near East, eastern Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Ottoman empire. As the descendants of enslaved peoples from eastern Africa, Afro-Turks and their ancestors date back to a period of enslavement between 1860 and 1923. Mustafa Olpak, the late leader of the Afro-Turk community in Izmir Turkey, wrote a memoir of his family and of his life as an Afro-Turk, offering an extraordinary perspective on citizenship, identity, and nationality. In this lecture, Nikki Brown will talk about Olpak's memoir and the key events in Olpak’s life that formed his identity. Brown will also discuss the project of translating Olpak’s memoir for an American audience.