Black History

Yasuke, the Black Samurai

Not much has been recorded of Yasuke’s life. There are no verifiable records after 1582, and his birth country is unknown. What researchers do know is that Yasuke was a Black samurai who “served under Oda Nobunaga, one of the most important feudal lords in Japanese history and a unifier of the country,” wrote TIME journalist Kat Moon.

Published

2 years ago

November 20, 2022

Oakland Post

Jacket cover of “African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan.”

By Tamara Shiloh

The year was 1579 when Yasuke, an African man standing more than 6 feet tall and possessing the strength of 10 men arrived in Japan. With him was Alessandro Valignano, an Italian Jesuit. The pair came by way of India, according to Thomas Lockley, a coauthor of “African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan.” Yasuke was most likely in service to Valignano as a bodyguard.

“As a priest, he wasn’t allowed to have any soldiers or guards,” Lockley said about Valignano during an interview with TIME. “Euphemistically, they had valets—manservants if you’d like—who were also versed in weapons.”

Lockley speculates that “given the circumstances of how the African man arrived at his employment with Valignano, it’s possible that Yasuke was enslaved as a child and taken from Africa to India,” and earned his freedom prior to meeting Valignano. Yasuke wasn’t “a slave in any sense of the word, I think he was a free actor,” Lockley said.

Much of what has been recorded about Yasuke was done so in notes found in Nobunaga’s records, the writings suggesting that Yasuke was viewed as a close friend. In fact, Nobunaga later took Yasuke under his wing.

Lockley added that Yasuke seemed to be “a confidant,” and that “Nobunaga is recorded as talking often with him. He was also a “weapon bearer” and likely served as a bodyguard.

During that time, few Japanese people had encountered an African man. Many who saw Yasuke considered him the embodiment of the black-skinned Buddha. Nobunaga was no exception, making Yasuke a samurai in his court.

In 2021, Netflix released its original animated series, “Yasuke.” Set in 16th century Japan, the storyline trails a lonely boatman known as the Black Samurai on his journey to protect a young girl with magical powers. Actor LaKeith Stanfield is the voice of the boatman, a role originally designated for the the late Chadwick Boseman.

It is likely that in later years foreigners from places including Africa, China, and Korea served in warrior positions in Japan. Yasuke though, “is supposedly the first recorded,” according to Lockley. “There are several records of Black Africans serving more minor lords, and we don’t know so much about them because the lords they were serving were more minor.”

Yasuke served Nobunaga faithfully until his death in 1582 in what the Japanese refer to as the Honnō-ji Incident.

Read more about the famous African samurai while learning African and Japanese history in “African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan,” by Geoffrey Girard and Thomas Lockley.

Source: https://time.com/6039381/yasuke-black-samurai-true-story/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuke

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/05/02/the-real-yasuke-is-far-more-interesting-than-his-netflix-show/

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Oakland Post: Week of November 27 – December 3, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of November 27 – December 3, 2024, 2024

Published

3 days ago

November 30, 2024

Oakland Post

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Black History

Emeline King: A Trailblazer in the Automotive Industry

Emeline King is recognized as the first African American female transportation designer at the Ford Motor Company. Let’s take a look at her life and career at the Ford Motor Company.

Published

1 week ago

November 26, 2024

Oakland Post

Transportation designer Emeline King. Photo courtesy of Emeline King.

By Tamara Shiloh

Emeline King is recognized as the first African American female transportation designer at the Ford Motor Company.

Let’s take a look at her life and career at the Ford Motor Company.

King’s fascination with cars began during her childhood. Growing up, she was captivated by the sleek designs and mechanical complexities of automobiles. She loved playing with toy cars and considered it an insult if anyone gave her a doll.

King pursued her interest in cars by studying at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. There, she improved her skills in transportation design, gaining the technical expertise and artistic vision she needed to break into the male-dominated industry.

However, her true inspiration came from her father, Earnest O. King, Sr., who worked for Ford as a Fabrication Specialist. She remembered the father-daughter trips to the auto shows, and the Saturday mornings with the famous Black sculptor, Oscar Graves, who her father assisted in some of his commissioned art works.

She said Graves would mentor her in clay relief sculptures. She was always fascinated by the smell of clay that was a constant in his studio.

However, it was her ﬁrst visit to her father’s job that became the catalyst for King to want a career in transportation design. At the company’s annual employee Christmas parties, she got the chance to meet his co-workers and learned about the roles they played in the auto industry. It was a chance to see some great cars, too.

Her career at Ford began in the 1980s, when women — particularly women of color –were scarcely represented in the automotive industry. King’s role at Ford was groundbreaking, as she became the first African American woman to work as a transportation designer at the company.

At Ford Design, she worked on the Ford Mustang SN-95’s interior. She also made several design contributions on other vehicles, too, including the interior components of the 1989 Thunderbird, the 1989 Corporate Steering Wheel, the 1989 Thunderbird Wheel/Wheel cover design program, the 1990 Thunderbird Super Coupe, the 1993 Mach III, the 1994 Mustang, to name a few.

King also served three foreign assignments: Turin Italy; Koln, Germany; and Brentwood, Essex, England — designing Ford cars for Europe.

Leaving Ford after about 25 years of service and along with her many speaking engagements, she wrote an autobiography about being Ford’s first female African American transportation designer titled, “What Do You Mean A Black Girl Can’t Design Cars? She Did It!”

She’s quoted as saying, “I’m now so proud to have written a book that I hope will inspire young girls and boys to never give up. To influence them so that they can stay focused and alert, and so they never look back. There are mentors who are placed in our lives to serve as our ‘Bridges to Destinations’ and allow us to cross over them to reach our dreams. Hoping they gain inspiration from my book, my motto for them is simple: ‘OPPORTUNITY IS NOW, SO GRAB IT! IF I DID IT, SO CAN YOU!”