...
EgyptSearch Forums Post New Topic  Post A Reply
my profile | directory login | register | search | faq | forum home

  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» EgyptSearch Forums » Deshret » The Afro-Turks – The Africans of Turkey

 - UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!    
Author Topic: The Afro-Turks – The Africans of Turkey
the lioness,
Member
Member # 17353

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for the lioness,     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Afro Turks

Afro-Turks, descendents of African citizens of the Ottoman Empire, have come together under the African Solidarity and Cooperation Association (ASCA) to revitalize one of their oldest traditions: Dana Bayram, the Calf Festival in Azmir.

Turks with African ancestors want their existence to be felt

While preparing a barbecue in the crowded picnic area of Azmir’s Erefpa district, they sing old Turkish pop songs and eat Turkey’s indispensable picnic food: stuffed grape leaves cooked with olive oil.

As in any typical Turkish family, the men are preparing the mangala barbecue while talking about soccer matches or recent political developments. The heroic acts of their grandparents in the War of Independence also feature prominently in discussions. The old women chat with one another and wear headscarves, as do most older women in Turkey.

Origin of these people

Who are these people? Mehmet, Ali, Rabia, Arzu, Emine, Hatice and Huseyin, to name a few. Everything is typically Turkish except for one detail: They are black. Afro-Turks, as they prefer to be called, are the descendents of African citizens of the Ottoman Empire. They have come together under the African Solidarity and Cooperation Association (ASCA) to revitalize one of their oldest traditions — a holiday celebrated by their grandparents: Dana Bayrama, or the Calf Festival.

According to Deniz Yakseker, a professor in Koa University’s department of sociology gave a speech on the culture of Afro-Turks during a conference held at Ege University. Dana Bayrama was celebrated from 1880 until the end of the 1920s. Leaders of the Afro-Turk community, known as godya, used to collect money in order to buy a cow. On the first Saturday of each May, they sacrificed this cow. Failing to make this sacrifice would cause draughts, according to popular folklore, Yakseker explains.

She adds that in those years, Dana Bayram was celebrated in Azmir for three weeks. Things have changed over time and this year’s celebrations only lasted two days. On the first day, Yakseker presented at the conference on the history of Afro-Turks and a photo exhibit prepared by Azlem Samer showed snapshots from daily life as experienced by the community. The second day saw a large picnic at which Boayazi Gasteri Merkezi and Ege University’s Music Band performed. Melis Sakmen, a famous jazz singer whose grandmother is from Ghana, joined the band and gave a small concert.

During this year’s Dana Bayrama, the focus was on having fun and a cow was not sacrificed. Some of our friends said that it would be fine to sacrifice a sheep, but maybe next year, says ASCA Chairman Mustafa Olpak. He points out that Dana Bayrama used to be an opportunity for their ancestors to have a family reunion. The festival served as a venue at which members of a family dispersed by slavery would come together.

10,000 black and white slaves

Galay Kayacan, who works for the History Foundation, an institute that researches and publishes articles on Turkish history, says that some of the Afro-Turks are descendents of slaves who used to work on farms or in houses. Slaves working in agriculture were concentrated in areas where cotton production was high. It is for this reason that most Afro-Turks today live on the Aegean coast and some in the Mediterranean region.

Some 10,000 slaves, black and white, were brought into the Ottoman Empire every year. During the constitutional monarchy period (1876-1878), slavery was abolished and former slaves settled in areas where they used to work. Some of them were even given land by the government, Kayacan says.

Kayacan is the coordinator of the History Foundation’s Voices Coming from a Silent Past project, supported by the European Union Commission Delegation in Turkey. She underlines that their oral history project aims to form an archive that will aid in researching the cultural, economic and social status of Afro-Turks today and to place them in the mosaic of history. To this end, the foundation is recording the personal histories of the Afro-Turk community.

Unfortunately, most of the elders of the Afro-Turk community who could remember the stories of immigration and the cultural aspects of the community have passed away. Written documentation is also scarce, so we are trying to preserve this undocumented past before it is too late, Kayacan says.

According to personal accounts collected so far, the ancestors of Afro-Turks came from various countries, including present-day Niger, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Kenya and Sudan. In fact, the Embassy of Sudan sent a representative to participate in this year’s Dana Bayrama.

Kayacan also notes that some of the descendents of former slaves remain poor. Educational opportunities for them have been scarce and they are generally not property owners. The number of Afro-Turks graduating from universities is below the national average and most women tend to be agricultural workers if they live in villages or housewives if they live in the urban areas. The women that have found opportunities to become educated work as mid-wives or nurses.

Free African/Greek Turks

Not all or the Afro-Turk’s ancestors were slaves. Some came from the island of Crete following the Lausanne Treaty, signed in 1924. This treaty called for a population exchange between the Greek Orthodox citizens of the young Turkish Republic and the Muslim citizens of Greece. Most of the black on Crete were Muslims, so they were subjected to this population exchange. Like many others who were moved through this population exchange, they settled on the Aegean coast, mainly around Azmir. Eighty-year-old Emine Kona’s mother and Olpak’s family were among these immigrants.

Kona’s mother spoke only Greek, which explains why Konaer is bilingual. She and her husband have four children, including Mehmet Konaer (48), a physical education teacher. When I was young, our neighbors would sometimes speak in Greek on our street in Ayval and I used to shout at them: Citizen, speak Turkish, he says. At the time, the Turkish government had launched a program calling on all citizens to speak only Turkish.

Mehmet Konaer enjoys dancing the traditional folklore dances of the Aegean area and he performed a dance for the crowd at this year’s Dana Bayrama. As with every teacher, his students coin nicknames for him. They first used to call me Clay [after the famous African-American boxer Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali]. But nicknames come and go. As other blacks become famous, the nickname my students choose for me changes, he says.

Konar is married and has two children. As is the case with multiracial children, they take on the features of both parents. This is the case with many Afro-Turks as the small community has many interracial marriages. Some Afro-Turks are blond and some have green eyes, like Konar’s cousin, Haseyin Hanaer.

Being different has, however, also led to discrimination. The society at large holds many misconceptions about Afro-Turks. Our interviews show that Afro-Turks living in villages do not feel discriminated against. They are not labelled as the other or excluded. In a village, everyone has known one another since birth. Cities, on the other hand, are a different matter altogether, though Anatolia is still a land that is able to absorb a variety of cultures, Kayacan says.

Aya Sazer, a young Afro-Turk, says that Turkish society does not have a racist approach, but that sometimes the Afro-Turk community does experience exaggerated interest and social discrimination from society.

I am asked many odd questions; for example, some ask if I get whiter by taking baths. Sometimes people stare at me and end up tripping or bumping into a pole. I have learned to not get angry at people, but when I was at the university, my roommate left our dorm room because she said she was afraid to live with someone that is black, Sazer says.

Sometimes people have a hard time believing that Afro-Turks are Turks. On one occasion, Sazer was shopping in Denizli and the shopkeeper, mistaking her for a tourist speaking in perfect Turkish, tried to complement her by saying she speaks Turkish better than him, a native Turk.

Not being considered a Turk can at times be problematic. Most Afro-Turks live in the Aegean region, famous for human smuggling. This has cast suspicion on the Afro-Turk community.

Superstitious Beliefs

Locals in the Aegean region also have some superstitious beliefs about black people. Some believe that if they see a black person and pinch the person next to them, their wishes will come true. Sazer recalled one case in which two ladies pinched each other upon seeing her. She was understandably upset. I told the ladies that if they really wanted their wishes to come true, I also had to pinch both of them! They accepted and I pinched them very hard, she says, laughing.

Another superstition some hold is that the kiss of a black person can bring luck. When I was small, I was asked to kiss many girls because there was this superstition that if a girl does not get kissed by a small African child, she would not find a husband, Olpak says.

Apart from being the focus of some superstitions, most Afro-Turks say they have never been humiliated or discriminated against by the society. However, overcoming prejudice while looking for someone to marry is not as easy as one would hope. Kayacan notes that sometimes the family does not approve of their son or daughter marrying an Afro-Turk.

Black Arabs of Turkey

Afro-Turks are often called Arabsť in Turkey. They also refer to themselves as Arabs, at times. This has led to a situation in which Araba means black. Ege University Professor Ahmet explains. For the Turks, Africa was only the northern part of the continent: from Egypt to Morocco. This part was of course under Arab influence. Turks were never really interested in the south of the continent. This is why this community has come to be called Arab, he says.

Yasr suggests that Turkey can build bridges between itself and Africa with the help of Afro-Turks. But even establishing an association was difficult, Olpak says.

Our people did not even know of the word association. They were suspicious at first, but in Turkey, all ethnic groups have solidarity associations except for us. We had some difficulties at first because we lived in a closed society, he says. This is not to say that Olpak is pessimistic. The Dana Bayrama is evidence that the Afro-Turk community is being revived.

………….

Posts: 42925 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
the lioness,
Member
Member # 17353

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for the lioness,     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
when the Moors were expelled from Spain in 1492 the majority of them fled to Turkey and were welcomed as brothers in Islam
Posts: 42925 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Neferet
Member
Member # 17109

Member Rated:
5
Icon 1 posted      Profile for Neferet     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Link to entire article:


http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/the-afro-turks-the-africans-of-turkey/

Posts: 369 | From: US | Registered: Nov 2009  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Mike111
Banned
Member # 9361

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for Mike111   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
^I have contacted Rasta livewire, hopefully they will quickly make the correction.

This is very unfortunate, I know they mean well.

Posts: 22721 | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
-Just Call Me Jari-
Member
Member # 14451

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for -Just Call Me Jari-     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
What is the Mistake??
Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
IronLion
Member
Member # 16412

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for IronLion     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Rasta Livewire:

Black Arabs of Turkey: Afro-Turks – By Oguejiofo Annu

Afro-Turks, African Turks, or Turkish Africans are people of Black African descent in Turkey. “Afro-Turk” is a newly invented word as in Turkey those Black African descendants have been traditionally named as “the Arabs”. The Turkish word for this is Arapi (Arab). Today in Turkey they are additionally referred to as Afrika kökenli Türkler, a name which could hide their historical status.

It is very interesting that in Turkey, black Africans are called Arapis. It is all the more interesting when one realizes that many of the pale so-called Arabs of today, who occupy the Arabian Gulf actually have recent Turkish origins and this is often borne out by the tribal surname of many contemporary Saudis and Jordanians, the name “al-Turki”.

The link between Turkis and Arabia should be clear to anyone who has done the least research. The Turks were a Tartar tribe of Central Asia that were civilized and cultured by the noble Black-a-Muurs of southern Europe, Africa and Arabia. Prior to their contact with the Muurs, the Tartars were a nomadic, warring horde of people wandering about for millenia in the wastes of the European Steepes.
The Muurs had been their guiding lights for many hundred centuries, and their masters. Since the times of the Kemitian Egyptians and the North-East African Phoenicians, who discovered them, the Muurs had tried to culture and raise the Turkis. The Romans had used them as mecenaries and slaves between 4 B.C. and the fall of Constantinople.

Those Turkis served as slaves for the Blacks Africans. Some of them were many students in great centres of learning so that they could gain culture and science and raise their people. In this role many of them attained elightenment after many years of interaction with the black Arabs.
Furthermore, Turkis, Albanians and Georgians, sold their women all over North Africa and Arabia as concubines and sex toys to the black Arapis. In Cairo, Jerusalem and Jordan, there were huge slave markets that specialized in the trade of delicate looking pale Eastern European exotics, with which those Arabs love to play.

Turkis were employed as house servants, and even a greater number were employed as slave troops in the armies of many Islamic Caliphs in the centuries following the death of Mohammed and the growth of Islam into a religio-political empire, like the Armies of the Kharijites, the Muwaayids, the Abbassids, and the Fatimids.

In Egypt those Turkis were known as Yaansaris, or Mamelukes, and in Byzantine Romani, they were called the barbarians and the slavs.....

http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/the-black-arabs-of-turkey-afro-turks-by-oguejiofor-annu/

--------------------
Lionz

Posts: 7419 | From: North America | Registered: Mar 2009  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Mike111
Banned
Member # 9361

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for Mike111   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
The story is Turkish propaganda - a COMPLETE fabrication. Just like Lioness comment about the Moors.

Look at the pictures of the ancient people in Turkey here.

Apadana, E Stairway, Detail of a Cappadocian Tribute Bearer.

Apadana, E Stairway, Detail of a Cilician Tribute Bearer.

Persepolis - Apadana, E Stairway, Tribute Procession, Armenian Delegation.


http://oi.uchicago.edu/museum/collections/pa/persepolis/apadana.html

Posts: 22721 | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
-Just Call Me Jari-
Member
Member # 14451

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for -Just Call Me Jari-     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Ironlion you own Rastawaire correct??....
Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Mike111
Banned
Member # 9361

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for Mike111   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Lion - The story is published in a Turkish paper called TODAY'S ZAMAN.

http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action?load=detay&link=141522

This is heartbreaking; These poor people have lost their history, and are now prey for any nonsense the Turks want to tell them.

Here is a particularly poignant comment to that bogus article.

e. harris , 25 June 2010 , 05:37
hi, i am a turkish girl with african ancestors , born and raised in germany. i love this article. i always try to explain people i meet that turkey really has afro turks but even turks like to ...lets say they like to be color blind and dont want to admit that there are african turks. it was not easy growing up in a conservative turkish family that never talked about their ancestors. i always knew my grandmother didnt look "typical " turkish , since "regular " turks have that middle eastern or european or asian look. i hope a lot of people read this article to enrich their knowledge about the turkish culture.

Posts: 22721 | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
IronLion
Member
Member # 16412

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for IronLion     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
^^That is right. Rasta Livewire reprinted an interesting article from a Turkish paper. Period.

Here below you will find a Rasta Livewire Staff written Article on Turks:

Rasta Livewire:

Black Arabs of Turkey: Afro-Turks – By Oguejiofo Annu

Afro-Turks, African Turks, or Turkish Africans are people of Black African descent in Turkey. “Afro-Turk” is a newly invented word as in Turkey those Black African descendants have been traditionally named as “the Arabs”. The Turkish word for this is Arapi (Arab). Today in Turkey they are additionally referred to as Afrika kökenli Türkler, a name which could hide their historical status.

It is very interesting that in Turkey, black Africans are called Arapis. It is all the more interesting when one realizes that many of the pale so-called Arabs of today, who occupy the Arabian Gulf actually have recent Turkish origins and this is often borne out by the tribal surname of many contemporary Saudis and Jordanians, the name “al-Turki”.

The link between Turkis and Arabia should be clear to anyone who has done the least research. The Turks were a Tartar tribe of Central Asia that were civilized and cultured by the noble Black-a-Muurs of southern Europe, Africa and Arabia. Prior to their contact with the Muurs, the Tartars were a nomadic, warring horde of people wandering about for millenia in the wastes of the European Steepes.

The Muurs had been their guiding lights for many hundred centuries, and their masters. Since the times of the Kemitian Egyptians and the North-East African Phoenicians, who discovered them, the Muurs had tried to culture and raise the Turkis. The Romans had used them as mecenaries and slaves between 4 B.C. and the fall of Constantinople.

Those Turkis served as slaves for the Blacks Africans. Some of them were many students in great centres of learning so that they could gain culture and science and raise their people. In this role many of them attained elightenment after many years of interaction with the black Arabs.
Furthermore, Turkis, Albanians and Georgians, sold their women all over North Africa and Arabia as concubines and sex toys to the black Arapis. In Cairo, Jerusalem and Jordan, there were huge slave markets that specialized in the trade of delicate looking pale Eastern European exotics, with which those Arabs love to play.

Turkis were employed as house servants, and even a greater number were employed as slave troops in the armies of many Islamic Caliphs in the centuries following the death of Mohammed and the growth of Islam into a religio-political empire, like the Armies of the Kharijites, the Muwaayids, the Abbassids, and the Fatimids.

In Egypt those Turkis were known as Yaansaris, or Mamelukes, and in Byzantine Romani, they were called the barbarians and the slavs.....

http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/sesostris-the-great-the-egyptian-hercules/the-black-arabs-of-turkey-afro-turks-by-oguejiofor-annu/

Posts: 7419 | From: North America | Registered: Mar 2009  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
IronLion
Member
Member # 16412

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for IronLion     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Just call me Jari:
Ironlion you own Rastawaire correct??....

No my friend Jari, I do not own Rasta Livewire. I volunteer there from time to time. It is actually affiliated to State University of New York through some cross linkages.

It is my favourite site though. Spunky and Ruuuudddddeeee like me! [Big Grin]

Posts: 7419 | From: North America | Registered: Mar 2009  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Mike111
Banned
Member # 9361

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for Mike111   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
^Interesting how consistent the Turks are;

In Iraq they have taught the local Blacks that they are there because they came as Slaves.

In Iran they have taught the local Blacks that they are there because they came as Slaves.

All of these poor people are ignorant of their countries true history, and are thus easy victims of Turkish revisionism.

Posts: 22721 | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
the lioness,
Member
Member # 17353

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for the lioness,     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Afrika kökenli Türkler

(Turks with African roots)

 -


Black Bashi-Bazouk
by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904)

______________________________________________



 -

Turks with African ancestors want their existence to be felt

 -



Afro-Turks, descendents of African citizens of the Ottoman Empire, have come together under the African Solidarity and Cooperation Association (ASCA) to revitalize one of their oldest traditions: Dana Bayramı, the Calf Festival in İzmir.


While preparing a barbecue in the crowded picnic area of İzmir’s Eşrefpaşa district, they sing old Turkish pop songs and eat Turkey’s indispensable picnic food: stuffed grape leaves cooked with olive oil.


As in any typical Turkish family, the men are preparing the “mangal” barbecue while talking about soccer matches or recent political developments. The heroic acts of their grandparents in the War of Independence also feature prominently in discussions. The old women chat with one another and wear headscarves, as do most older women in Turkey.

Who are these people? Mehmet, Ali, Ayşe, Rabia, Arzu, Emine, Hatice and Hüseyin, to name a few. Everything is typically Turkish except for one detail: They are black. Afro-Turks, as they prefer to be called, are the descendents of African citizens of the Ottoman Empire. They have come together under the African Solidarity and Cooperation Association (ASCA) to revitalize one of their oldest traditions -- a holiday celebrated by their grandparents: Dana Bayramı, or the Calf Festival.

According to Deniz Yükseker, a professor in Koç University’s department of sociology, gave a speech on the culture of Afro-Turks during a conference held at Ege University. Dana Bayramı was celebrated from 1880 until the end of the 1920s. “Leaders of the Afro-Turk community, known as ‘godya,’ used to collect money in order to buy a cow. On the first Saturday of each May, they sacrificed this cow. Failing to make this sacrifice would cause draughts, according to popular folklore,” Yükseker explains.

She adds that in those years, Dana Bayramı was celebrated in İzmir for three weeks. Things have changed over time and this year’s celebrations only lasted two days. On the first day, Yükseker presented at the conference on the history of Afro-Turks and a photo exhibit prepared by Özlem Sümer showed snapshots from daily life as experienced by the community. The second day saw a large picnic at which Boğaziçi Gösteri Merkezi and Ege University’s Music Band performed. Melis Sökmen, a famous jazz singer whose grandmother is from Ghana, joined the band and gave a small concert.

During this year’s Dana Bayramı, the focus was on having fun and a cow was not sacrificed. “Some of our friends said that it would be fine to sacrifice a sheep, but maybe next year,” says ASCA Chairman Mustafa Olpak. He points out that Dana Bayramı used to be an opportunity for their ancestors to have a family reunion. The festival served as a venue at which members of a family dispersed by slavery would come together.

Gülay Kayacan, who works for the History Foundation, an institute that researches and publishes articles on Turkish history, says that some of the Afro-Turks are descendents of slaves who used to work on farms or in houses. Slaves working in agriculture were concentrated in areas where cotton production was high. It is for this reason that most Afro-Turks today live on the Aegean coast and some in the Mediterranean region.

“Some 10,000 slaves, black and white, were brought into the Ottoman Empire every year. During the constitutional monarchy period (1876-1878), slavery was abolished and former slaves settled in areas where they used to work. Some of them were even given land by the government,” Kayacan says.

Kayacan is the coordinator of the History Foundation’s “Voices Coming from a Silent Past” project, supported by the European Union Commission Delegation in Turkey. She underlines that their oral history project aims to form an archive that will aid in researching the cultural, economic and social status of Afro-Turks today and to place them in the mosaic of history. To this end, the foundation is recording the personal histories of the Afro-Turk community.

“Unfortunately, most of the elders of the Afro-Turk community who could remember the stories of immigration and the cultural aspects of the community have passed away. Written documentation is also scarce, so we are trying to preserve this undocumented past before it is too late,” Kayacan says. According to personal accounts collected so far, the ancestors of Afro-Turks came from various countries, including present-day Niger, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Kenya and Sudan. In fact, the Embassy of Sudan sent a representative to participate in this year’s Dana Bayramı.

Kayacan also notes that some of the descendents of former slaves remain poor. Educational opportunities for them have been scarce and they are generally not property owners. The number of Afro-Turks graduating from universities is below the national average and most women tend to be agricultural workers if they live in villages or housewives if they live in the urban areas. The women that have found opportunities to become educated work as mid-wives or nurses.

Not all or the Afro-Turks’ ancestors were slaves. Some came from the island of Crete following the Lausanne Treaty, signed in 1924. This treaty called for a population exchange between the Greek Orthodox citizens of the young Turkish Republic and the Muslim citizens of Greece. Most of the black on Crete were Muslims, so they were subjected to this population exchange. Like many others who were moved through this population exchange, they settled on the Aegean coast, mainly around İzmir. Eighty-year-old Emine Konaçer’s mother and Olpak’s family were among these immigrants.

Konaçer’s mother spoke only Greek, which explains why Konaçer is bilingual. She and her husband have four children, including Mehmet Konaçer (48), a physical education teacher.

“When I was young, our neighbors would sometimes speak in Greek on our street in Ayvalık and I used to shout at them: ‘Citizen, speak Turkish!’” he says. At the time, the Turkish government had launched a program calling on all citizens to speak only Turkish.

Mehmet Konaçer enjoys dancing the traditional folklore dances of the Aegean area and he performed a dance for the crowd at this year’s Dana Bayramı.

As with every teacher, his students coin nicknames for him. “They first used to call me Clay [after the famous African-American boxer Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali]. But nicknames come and go. As other blacks become famous, the nickname my students choose for me changes,” he says.

Konaçer is married and has two children. As is the case with multiracial children, they take on the features of both parents. This is the case with many Afro-Turks as the small community has many interracial marriages. Some Afro-Turks are blond and some have green eyes, like Konaçer’s cousin, Hüseyin Hançer.

Being “different” has, however, also led to discrimination. The society at large holds many misconceptions about Afro-Turks.

“Our interviews show that Afro-Turks living in villages do not feel discriminated against. They are not labeled as the ‘other’ or excluded. In a village, everyone has known one another since birth. Cities, on the other hand, are a different matter altogether, though Anatolia is still a land that is able to absorb a variety of cultures,” Kayacan says.

Ayşe Sözer, a young Afro-Turk, says that Turkish society does not have a racist approach, but that sometimes the Afro-Turk community does experience “exaggerated interest” and social discrimination from society.

“I am asked many odd questions; for example, some ask if I get whiter by taking baths. Sometimes people stare at me and end up tripping or bumping into a pole. I have learned to not get angry at people, but when I was at the university, my roommate left our dorm room because she said she was afraid to live with someone that is black,” Sözer says.

Sometimes people have a hard time believing that Afro-Turks are Turks. On one occasion, Sözer was shopping in Denizli and the shopkeeper, mistaking her for a tourist speaking in perfect Turkish, tried to complement her by saying she speaks Turkish better than him, a native Turk.

Not being considered a “Turk” can at times be problematic. Most Afro-Turks live in the Aegean region, famous for human smuggling. This has cast suspicion on the Afro-Turk community.

Locals in the Aegean region also have some superstitious beliefs about “black people.” Some believe that if they see a black person and pinch the person next to them, their wishes will come true. Sözer recalled one case in which two ladies pinched each other upon seeing her. She was understandably upset. “I told the ladies that if they really wanted their wishes to come true, I also had to pinch both of them! They accepted and I pinched them very hard,” she says, laughing.

Another superstition some hold is that the kiss of a black person can bring luck. “When I was small, I was asked to kiss many girls because there was this superstition that if a girl does not get kissed by a small African child, she would not find a husband,” Olpak says.

Apart from being the focus of some superstitions, most Afro-Turks say they have never been humiliated or discriminated against by the society. However, overcoming prejudice while looking for someone to marry is not as easy as one would hope. Kayacan notes that sometimes the family does not approve of their son or daughter marrying an Afro-Turk.

Afro-Turks are often called “Arabs” in Turkey. They also refer to themselves as Arabs, at times. This has led to a situation in which “Arab” means “black.” Ege University Professor Ahmet Yürür explains. “For the Turks, Africa was only the northern part of the continent: from Egypt to Morocco. This part was of course under Arab influence. Turks were never really interested in the south of the continent. This is why this community has come to be called ‘Arab,’” he says.

Yürür suggests that Turkey can build bridges between itself and Africa with the help of Afro-Turks. But even establishing an association was difficult, Olpak says.

“Our people did not even know of the word ‘association.’ They were suspicious at first, but in Turkey, all ethnic groups have solidarity associations except for us. We had some difficulties at first because we lived in a closed society,” he says. This is not to say that Olpak is pessimistic. The Dana Bayramı is evidence that the Afro-Turk community is being revived.

Olpak has authored two books: “Slave Woman Kemale,” which tells the story of his own family, a slave family from Kenya that lived on Crete and had to migrate to Turkey, and “The Shores of Slaves,” in which Olpak presents a collection of stories by other Afro-Turks.

“I am a third-generation Afro-Turk. My grandparents were slaves. The first generation lived through the sad events, the second generation tried to forget and deny these events, but the third generation wants to know what happened and how,” Olpak says, adding: “We are black and we are from here. We are a part of this rich Anatolian culture and we are ready to make an effort to be noticed by the society. I believe that in this way we will be able to contribute to the tolerant culture of this beautiful land.” Olpak has a wish for his community: to celebrate Dana Bayramı on the national level one day as a festival of tolerance.

Posts: 42925 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Mike111
Banned
Member # 9361

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for Mike111   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Lioness - You have stopped taking your Meds again. Please restart your medication regiment, when you are like this, it is intolerable.
Posts: 22721 | Registered: Oct 2005  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
AswaniAswad
Member
Member # 16742

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for AswaniAswad     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Funny thing about this is that Ethiopians have always shunned Turks. Arabs and Turks have always been drooling over taking ethiopia.

If u see ethiopian art during the ottomans they painted enemies of god with one eye, and they almost all resembled Ottoman soldiers.

These African Turks are the product of Islamic Ottoman Empire of which Ethiopians,Somalis never succumb too. Sudan,Niger,Chad,and all these other north african countries have all been subdued by the Turkish-Arabian nightmare.

Posts: 410 | From: Al-Ard | Registered: Jun 2009  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Brada-Anansi
Member
Member # 16371

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for Brada-Anansi   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Africans or Black peoples have been living in the area for a very very longtime see Natufians and we have on record direct contacts through the ages at later dates.

Some modern historians regard Herodotus as unreliable, and even Herodotus cautioned the reader that his story is hearsay. But Herodotus' account is not the only claim of an African presence in Eastern Europe. In the late 4th century, Church Fathers St Jerome and Sophronius, wrote of Colchis as the "second Ethiopia" because of its black population.10

Saint Jerome, writing during the fourth century, called Colchis the "Second Ethiopia." Two hundred years later, Sophronius, patriarch of Jerusalem, described an "Ethiopian" presence in the same region. Even today, in the same district about which Herodotus wrote, exists a minute, black-skinned and woolly-haired community, although the argument is waged that the Africans currently occupying the region are there solely as the result of enslavement. Obviously, like many aspects of the Global African Community, there is much more research that needs to be done.
http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/georgia.html

The Nart Epic of Abkhazia (on Georgia's northwestern coast) is folklore believed to be thousands of years old. It tells of 100 black-skinned horsemen who visited the Caucasus and liked it so much some of them stayed.11 Dmitri Gulia (1874-1960), a Abkhazian linguist, ethnographer and historian, amassed a large collection of words and names that were similar in the Egyptian, Ethiopian and Abkhazian languages. The names included family names, names of pre-Christian deities, names of rivers and mountains. He also noted customs and folk beliefs Abkhazia seemed to share with Egypt and Ethiopia.

 -
 -
Right up till the time of the Middle ages there have been reports of Blacks in that area of the Black-Sea
 -
Kirke, Daughter of the Sun

Kirke (Circe) is the daughter of Helios (the Sun) and the Okeanid, Perseis, which would make her the grand-daughter of Okeanos (Ocean). Kirke was also the sister of king Aietes (Aeetes) of Kolchis (Colchis).

On her island ... in her palace ... Kirke waits for lost sailors to come wandering to her door as supplicants. Normally, a traveler is treated as a special guest but with Kirke, travelers are drugged and turned into animals to serve her as she sees fit.

I have a tape of Paul Robinson talking about his trip through the then newly formed U.S.S.R and he said he was struck by the number of African decedent people he had seen in the area of Abakhazia.

Read more: http://egyptsearchreloaded.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=bag&action=display&thread=342#ixzz1GoHwvuOb

Click the link Mau where are you in this thread?? whose is your daddy in the first place.
 -
Care for some Black Russian??

Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
AswaniAswad
Member
Member # 16742

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for AswaniAswad     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Funny thing about this is that Ethiopians have always shunned Turks. Arabs and Turks have always been drooling over taking ethiopia.

If u see ethiopian art during the ottomans they painted enemies of god with one eye, and they almost all resembled Ottoman soldiers.

These African Turks are the product of Islamic Ottoman Empire of which Ethiopians,Somalis never succumb too. Sudan,Niger,Chad,and all these other north african countries have all been subdued by the Turkish-Arabian nightmare.

Posts: 410 | From: Al-Ard | Registered: Jun 2009  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
Brada-Anansi
Member
Member # 16371

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for Brada-Anansi   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Niger and Chad never succumbed to Turkish-Arabian nightmare if you mean they adopted Islam then that's something else, not to say self described Arabs do not live in those areas. Sudan,Egypt and a lot of the coastal areas and Mauritania is a different story.
Posts: 6546 | From: japan | Registered: Feb 2009  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
IronLion
Member
Member # 16412

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for IronLion     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
^You are right on the ball Brada, right on!

--------------------
Lionz

Posts: 7419 | From: North America | Registered: Mar 2009  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
kenndo
Member
Member # 4846

Rate Member
Icon 1 posted      Profile for kenndo     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Sudan never was fully conqured by arabs either,and funj and nubians took back much of it from the arabs before the turks came in.

It was the turks that really conqured large parts of sudan,but not all of it.the africans of course rebelled,and regain much of sudan by the late 1800's.

OF COURSE the arabs that came into sudan was able to arabized some parts of sudan,and because of thier raids,some africans in the north wanted to protect themeselves so they borrow/adopted arab culture.Now they should just give it up.

The brits was one that took over really much of sudan and gave it to the black arabs in 1956.

Posts: 2688 | Registered: Jul 2004  |  IP: Logged | Report this post to a Moderator
   

Quick Reply
Message:

HTML is not enabled.
UBB Code™ is enabled.

Instant Graemlins
   


Post New Topic  Post A Reply Close Topic   Feature Topic   Move Topic   Delete Topic next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:


Contact Us | EgyptSearch!

(c) 2015 EgyptSearch.com

Powered by UBB.classic™ 6.7.3