Mustafa Olpak (October 1953 in Ayvalñk - 4 October 2016 in ðzmir) was an Afro-Turkish writer and activist. His book Kenya-Girit-ðstanbul: Köle Kñyñsñndan ðnsan Biyografileri has been compared to Alex Haley's '.
Olpak's ancestors, of Kikuyu ethnicity from today's Kenya, 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 Ayvalñk. Olpak married a Turkish woman named Sevgi in ðzmir after his military service.
In 2006, Olpak founded the first officially recognised organisation of Afro-Turks, the Africans' Culture and Solidarity Society (Afrikalñlar Kültür ve Dayanñà Âma DerneÃÂi) in Ayvalñk. The opening ceremony was attended by Ali Moussa Iye, the Chief of UNESCO Slave Routes Project. 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 Kñzñ Camdan Bakñyor ("The Arab Girl Looks from the Window," released with the English title of Baa Baa Black Girl) discusses how his grandfather was purchased as a household slave by a Turkish family, but later moved to Istanbul after the Turkish Revolution.