In 2006, Olpak founded the first officially recognised organisation of Afro-Turks, the Africans' Culture and Solidarity Society (Afrikalılar Kültür ve Dayanışma Derneği) in Ayvalık.[5] The opening ceremony was attended by Ali Moussa Iye, the Chief of
UNESCO Slave Routes Project.[6][7] 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 Kızı Camdan Bakıyor[8] ("The Arab Girl Looks from the Window," released with the English title of Baa Baa Black Girl)[9] discusses how his grandfather was purchased as a household slave by a Turkish family, but later moved to
Istanbul after the
Turkish Revolution.[10]
Bibliography
Tariş Direnişleri ve 12 Eylül (Tariş Resistances and 12 September), with Sevgi Olpak[11]
Kölelikten Özgürlüğe: Arap Kadın Kemale (From Slavery to Freedom: "Arab" Woman Kemale) 2002
Kenya-Girit-İstanbul: Köle Kıyısından İnsan Biyografileri (Kenya-Crete-İstanbul: Human Biographies from the Slave Coast), İstanbul, Ozan Yayıncılık, 2005
ISBN975-7891-80-0
Arap Kızı Camdan Bakıyor ("The Arab Girl Looks from the Window," released in English as Baa Baa Black Girl), Director:,[12] Narrator: Mustafa Olpak,[13] 46', 2007, Turkey[14]