The Diaspora In The East: Afro-Turks
On the topic of the people of African descent, I think a lot of the discourse on the Diaspora is usually focused in regions like The Americas, The Caribbean’s, and mostly western Europe. Although, other parts of the Diaspora outside of these regions might be mentioned but never in-depth to cover their social and economic lives. I want to shed a little bit of light on a group of people, part of the Diaspora, known as Afro-Turks living in modern-day Turkey.
Afro-Turks are descendants of slaves in the Ottoman Empire originally from East Africa. A total of about a quarter-million slaves were brought to the Empire. Today, most of Afro-Turks are farmers living in rural areas of Turkey. The culture and identity of Afro-Turks are very Turkish as they have entirely assimilated. The issues of race seem to not be a huge problem in Turkey for Afro-Turks relative to the rest of the Diaspora. There are initiatives in Turkey to help preserve the culture and identity of Afro-Turks as most of the population is old.
Afro Turks living in Turkey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG7gutH1LaI
A short video clip about Afro-Turks in the Turkish language with English subtitles. The video shows and talks About Afro-Turks. They discuss their origins and history, and their current way of life.
Afro-Turks: The Five W’s
A powerpoint presentation which answers the question of who, what, when, where, why and how about Afro-Turks.
Flickr Image: Afro-Turks population map
A map of Turkey which highlights the region with the most Afro-Turks population in turkey. Most of Afro-Turks lives on the southern coast of Turkey with a large concentration in Izmir.
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