Vocabularies of (In)Visibilities: (Re)Making the Afro-Turk Identity

Autor: Ayşegül Kayagil
Jazyk: English<br />Italian
Rok vydání: 2020
Předmět:
Zdroj: Antropologia, Vol 7, Iss 1 N.S., Pp 45-66 (2020)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2281-4043
2420-8469
DOI: 10.14672/ada2020162445-66
Popis: After the abolition of slavery towards the end of the Ottoman Empire, the majority of freed black slaves who remained in Anatolia were taken to state “guesthouses” in a number of cities throughout the Empire, the most important of which was in Izmir. Despite their longstanding presence, the descendants of these black slaves – today, citizens of the Republic of Turkey – have until recently remained invisible both in the official historiography and in academic scholarship of history and social science. It is only since the establishment of the Association of Afro-Turks in 2006 that the black population has gained public and media attention and a public discussion has finally begun on the legacies of slavery in Turkey. Drawing on in-depth interviews with members of the Afro-Turk community (2014-2016), I examine the key role of the foundation of the Afro-Turk Association in reshaping the ways in which they think of themselves, their shared identity and history.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals