Article from the newspaper “LE PETIT PARISIEN”, August 1, 1938
When do you think the last black slave in Europe was freed? And where? You will no doubt be amazed to learn that this happened barely twenty years ago, after the war, in the small town of Ulqin, which today belongs to Yugoslavia. If you want, you can see for yourself by spending a few wonderful weeks on the beautiful beach of Ulqin. There you will be able to see the last slave in Europe and talk to him. He still lives with his family in Ulqin.
The slaves of Ulqin represented a special case. Ulqin, or rather Dulcigno, according to an old name, is a very old small town with barely 4,000 inhabitants, located in the extreme south of the Yugoslav Adriatic coast, on a broken cliff. Surrounded by thick walls, it is located behind a bay that goes deep into the rocky shore. A real pirates’ nest, which it actually once was.
Today, Ulqin is doing its best to become an elite/world beach. Moreover, it lacks nothing for this. The sky is always blue, the climate wonderfully mild and the Adriatic calm as a mirror. Immediately behind the cliffs of the bay, there is a wonderful sandy beach. For several years, a whole modern city with hotels and guesthouses has been changing in this place. You can take beautiful walks under the palm trees of the beach promenade or in the olive groves. The old town on the mountain with its narrow alleys, low houses in the Turkish style, its numerous mosques and the oriental bazaar is an inexhaustible source of picturesqueness.
In the past, Ulqin was less hospitable to foreigners. The history of this lost corner is very old and sometimes very adventurous. The ancient Romans had founded a colony here; it was called Olcinium and represented, thanks to its good harbor, an important naval base. For more than two thousand years, Roman triremes and sailing ships found shelter there when the storms shook them too much; they could be supplied with drinking water and food and repair the damage. Later, the Venetians inherited the Roman legacy, and Ulqin was for a long time under the rule of the Republic of St. Mark.
A pirate’s nest
The adventures of Ulqin begin at the beginning of the modern era. During the second half of the 16th century, Sultan Selim II was waging a long and fierce war against Venice. In this war, the Algerian pirate Alija Uluzi (Uluj Ali) performed great services for him. Thanks to his help, the sultan managed to achieve victory over the Venetian fleet. To thank the pirate chief, the sultan appointed him the chief admiral of the Sublime Porte. During this time, Alija had conquered Ulqin with Venice. The sultan gave him the port, which became the headquarters of Uluzi and his pirates.
Thus Ulqin became a pirate’s nest and spread terror in the Adriatic and the eastern Mediterranean. The pirates of Ulqin were boys who feared neither God nor the devil. In all the major ports of the eastern Mediterranean, they had accomplices who informed them about the departure of ships with precious cargoes. The pirates would then wait for the ship somewhere on the way to make do with it, and everything that was not killed during the fight fell into slavery.
The Ulqin pirates also had another very profitable business: they were the most famous slave traders of their time. In the Ulqin slave market there were always black and white slaves of both sexes in impressive numbers. The pirates sold them not only to the Muslim pashas and beys, but also to our Christian nobles of the proud Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik). The latter needed free workers for their quarries behind Ragusa, which are located in present-day Bosnia. The wealthy residents of Ulqin naturally had a large number of slaves in their homes, and in the city chronicles one can read that wealthy pirates often gave dozens of slaves of both sexes as dowries to their daughters.
However, these pirates treated their slaves quite well. They gave them a lot of freedom and allowed them to do business on their own account in order to provide money for their release. Generally, slaves entered service on pirate ships. Part of the loot belonged to their masters, while the rest was for them. Thus, many slaves bought their freedom by helping to enslave other slaves.
A very interesting custom was preserved for centuries in Ulqin. One day of the year was the day of freedom for slaves. On that day, the slaves would go out with their masters to the festival square and, all together, would eat, drink and have fun. This slave festival was an exact copy of the Saturnalia of ancient Rome, where the Romans served their slaves. It must be believed that this was a memory from the times when the city was a Roman colony.
The Fall
The end of the 17th century marked the end of the pirates’ good life. They were forced to retreat further and further east. Ulqin then fell into decline. In its heyday, the city had 15,000 inhabitants. After the pirates left, the population fell to almost a quarter of that figure. Only nine mosques built by wealthy pirates still bear witness to its former splendor.
After the Balkan Wars, the small town was incorporated into Montenegro, then an independent kingdom. At that time, Ulqin had only one black slave. Before he could gain freedom, the Great War (World War I) came and only in 1918, when the town became Yugoslav, did old Mustafa become a free man. Mustafa still lives in Ulqin today with his descendants. It is proven that Mustafa is the last freed black slave on European soil. When he was very young, he was taken by slave traders to his native village in the Congo. A Muslim merchant from Ulqin bought him in Tripolitania and took him with him.
Mustafa is now eighty years old. He is still very strong and earns his living as a transporter in a brick factory. He still remembers his birthplace very well and speaks of it with longing. But he will never leave Ulqin, where his numerous descendants also live. His wife, who has long since passed away and came from a family of former slaves from Ulqin, gave him seven children who are all long married. One of his nephews is a waiter at the “Gradska Kafana”, a meeting place for foreigners in Ragusa (Dubrovnik), next to the Rectors’ Palace, where there is a fabulous view of the sea; another nephew earns his living as an elevator operator in Agram (Zagreb); a third works as a guide in Ulqin. Two of his granddaughters, two young girls with a wonderful complexion, black as coal, aged fifteen and sixteen, with skin as smooth as silk, guard their sheep in the olive groves on the outskirts of Ulqin. But this is only a secondary occupation. They earn much more by having their photographs taken by strangers. As soon as a stranger with a camera is on the horizon, they take a naive pose among their white sheep, and each gives them a gift for having given them such a romantic look.
A giant black man
Another famous character of Ulqin was the former black slave Musta, who lived during the time of King Nikola of Montenegro. Musta was a giant; he measured no less than 2.10 meters. During the 50th anniversary of the reign of King Nikola, Musta was the sensation of Cetinje. Several foreign rulers admired this giant black man who had been a slave and asked to be told about his adventures.
As a very young boy during the Greek wars of liberation, he was hired on a Turkish ship. This ship was captured by the Greek pirate Lombro. The crew was massacred, except for the little Musta, whom Lombro took on his ship. A little later, Lombro fought with another Greek pirate, Liko Cenin. In a duel, Lombro managed to defeat his opponent, but was captured by the Turks. The little Musta managed to escape and arrived in Ulqin.
The superstitious sailors wanted to drown him, thinking they were dealing with a ghost. Even his mother found it difficult to believe that he was alive. Later, the municipality of Ulqin employed him as a gendarme and, thanks to his Herculean strength, he could stand up to any kind of rebellious prisoner.
At the same time, there was another black Goliath in Ulqin, to whom the king had offered a place in his bodyguard. King Nikola was not very generous and the black man earned more by remaining a vagabond. He said something like: “I can’t put on a hat with the king’s coat of arms and then go steal bean husks!”
This is the unusual story of the last black slaves in Europe.
(Copyright: Petit Parisien et Lutetia Press)
