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Afro-Turks: Oral Histories of Afro-Turks from 2018 to the Present

Afro-Turks: Oral Histories of Afro-Turks from 2018 to the Present

Files

  • Download Ahmet-Interview-TranscriptTurkish (101 KB)

  • Download AyseTeyzeUrumlu-Interview-TranscriptionEnglish (132 KB)

  • Download EsatSezen-Interview-TranscriptionTurkish (101 KB)

  • Download FerahOzturk-Interview-TranscriptionTurkish (173 KB)

  • Download MesureDogan-Interview-TranscriptionEnglish-Abbreviated (52 KB)

  • Download SakirDoguluer-Interview-TranscriptionEnglish (147 KB)

Document Type

Digital Project

Description

The Afro-Turks represent a cross-cultural encounter and an emergent history. The modern-day descendants of enslaved peoples in the 19th century, the Afro-Turks hail from the global expanse of the Ottoman Empire in Africa – Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Tanzania.  When slavery was outlawed with the establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the enslaved and their descendants relocated to southwestern Turkey to small villages outside of Izmir and Muğla.  They worked as farmers and small shopkeepers.

Contemporary Afro-Turks base their national heritage and identity in the founding of modern Turkey, but only in the last 20 years have scholars chronicled the Afro-Turks: their heritage and ancestry, their ongoing fight for recognition, and their social and economic future.

Many of these interviews from the Afro-Turks: Oral Histories project were conducted in Spring 2019. The interviewers were graduate students at Ege University. The project manager is Dr. Nikki Brown.

Publication Date

2023

Disciplines

African History | Arts and Humanities | Digital Humanities | History | Islamic World and Near East History | Oral History

Rights

All videos are the property of Dr. Nikki Brown, the Afro-Turk Association, and AfroTurks.createuky.net. They may be used or reproduced for educational or academic research and scholarship purposes. For other commercial purposes, access and use require the expressed written consent of Dr. Nikki Brown and the Afro-Turk Association. Before using the interviews for research, educational, or commercial purposes, please email Dr. Nikki Brown for more information.

Funding Information

Interviews were made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey.

Date of Capture

5-2026

Collector

University of Kentucky Libraries

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/dp.2026.001

Archival?

Archival

Afro-Turks: Oral Histories of Afro-Turks from 2018 to the Present

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