This was, however, the story of a black African slave, Kunta Kinte, who was captured in 1767 and taken across the oceans to America. Alex Haley had traced his family line back to Kunta Kinte, and other ancestors who had a memorable place in the book and TV series were his grandfather, Chicken George, and his great-grandmother, Kizzy.Kunta Kinte had been raised as a Muslim in the Gambia. He lived free. Following his capture and transportation to America he was renamed Toby, purchased by a plantation owner and then subsequently sold to the plantation owner's brother, a doctor. Each successive generation of Kunta Kinte's family lives a life further and further removed from that free life in Africa.
But the yearning inside the soul of successful young black American Haley was a desire to understand his roots. To understand what made him different from his fellow Americans who were not black. To understand how he came to be the person he was. To understand the genetic influences he experienced.
This quest resulted in a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and a television series that won nine Emmy awards. One of the things that made "Roots" so compelling was that many viewers shared his heritage of descent from African slaves. In the UK, many of my classmates had families who had come to the UK from the Caribbean and they told me their parents and grandparents identified with the story being told.
Others of my classmates were of Chinese, Pakistani, Indian or Turkish extraction. They too were inspired to ask questions of their parents about how the family came to be in London.
It is a dilemma I see many expat families share. They are proud of their roots and wish for their children to maintain a sense of this so that they do not lose ties with grandparents and other family members "back home," but at the same time they see their children's desire to blend in and embrace the best of the host culture.
One of the best ways is to celebrate as a family the holidays of the home culture and thereby keep the traditions alive. Some English friends of mine who have lived in Turkey so long that all their four children were born here had a visitor from England who was amazed to learn the children had never celebrated Guy Fawkes Night -- the fireworks celebration on Nov. 5 when we celebrate the foiling of the plot of Guy Fawkes and his companions to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. Around England, bonfires are lit and there are major firework displays. The whole family, plus guest, celebrated Guy Fawkes Night that year on a plot of waste ground in town. The local police stopped by, concerned about a possible breach of the peace caused by the lighting of a bonfire, but they soon relaxed and enjoyed the potatoes roasted in the fire when they learned it was just an English custom.
If you raise your children abroad, then you face many issues often dealt with by Today's Zaman columnists Charlotte McPherson and Kathy Hamilton. Their full inboxes show how important this issue is to Today's Zaman readers. In order to ensure their children become fluent in their own mother tongue and learn the history and geography of their "home country," parents have to double their efforts.
Often, expat families find their own support groups. Some Korean parents in İstanbul run a Saturday morning group where they teach their children Korean language and history.
There are many Turkish volunteer organizations around the world doing the same important work. For example, the Turkish American Cultural Alliance in Chicago is very active, with events ranging from folk dancing to Turkish classes. A number of high streets in London have a "halkevi" where Turks can share their culture with others.
Before coming to Turkey, I did an evening class in Turkish at my local night school. The majority of my fellow students were second-generation Turks: young people like me who were born and brought up in England, speaking English as their mother tongue. But unlike me, in order to be able to speak with their grandparents or aunts and uncles they had to learn what was for them a foreign language.
I was also surprised that with just three weeks of experience backpacking around Turkey under my belt, I seemed to know more about the country of their heritage than they did. There clearly is a need for great books about Turkey for children, to inspire young Turkish children living abroad to understand and appreciate their heritage.
Judy Light Ayyıldız, a distinguished creative writing expert and herself a mother and grandmother of Turkish-heritage children growing up in the US, comes to the rescue with "Some of My Ancestors are Ottomans and Turks."
In this delightful tale, Jim reaches his eighth birthday and his grandfather, who emigrated from Turkey to America many years ago, starts to recount the story of the family history and Turkish heritage. We eavesdrop on a tender grandfather-grandson conversation as "Büyükbaba" tells an exciting tale full of empires and cities, nomads crossing the steppes of Central Asia, soldiers and sultans and a new republic.
Based on personal family history, the story resonates with the heartbeat of love for a country across the ocean and love between grandfather and grandson. "The boy looked into his grandfather's eyes and smiled his quiet, closed-mouth smile. Whenever he saw his grandson smile this way, Büyükbaba would be reminded of his own Turkish mother. She had had those same eyes and smile. Büyükbaba scooted closer to Jim and pulled pillows up behind the two of them so that they could sit back."
Judy met and fell in love with a Turkish medic, Vedii. A general surgeon, he ran a private practice in surgery and endoscopy in Virginia for 35 years. He used his skilled hands in his working life wielding a scalpel to bring healing to many and in retirement painting with watercolors to bring the story of his Turkish heritage to life. Bright, bold pictures adorn every double-page spread of "Some of My Ancestors are Ottomans and Turks."
A "Daughters of Atatürk" award recipient, Judy lectures on Turkish women and their culture, has written poetry and short stories abut Turkey in international anthologies, and is the author of a novel based on the life of her mother-in-law. Together with Vedii, she has raised her three children to fully cherish their Turkish-American nature; Vedii Kent, Kevin Kemal and Karen Perihan are actively involved in the arts world and the American-Turkish community.
Judy is a sharp commentator and a vivacious speaker. This tale reflects both of these aspects of her character and it has been applauded by Turkish experts in Turkey and the States. One said: "I don't know what color Judy's eyes are, but they see to see into the soul like an x-ray can see broken bones. For a long time I have been searching for a book like this about Turkish history and culture. It's everything I have imagined a book like this should be."
"Some of My Ancestors are Ottomans and Turks" by Judy Light Ayyıldız, Published by Yeni Yaşam, ISBN: 975-8318-98-5, $10 in paperback
