OFH Throwback- Episode #172- Who Was the African Samurai? (Part II)

Our Fake History

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Education, Talk Radio, Society & Culture, History

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2024

⏱️ 97 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this throwback episode Sebastian takes you back to the conclusion of the African Samurai series. In the 1580’s Japan was a on the precipice of a massive transformation. For over a century the country had been embroiled in war, but by 1581 the end seemed to be in sight. The powerful Lord Oda Nobunaga was on the path to unifying the fractured nation. It was at this time that a remarkable man from East Africa, known as Yasuke, came into his service. Nobunaga would take a shine to this foreigner and would eventually honour him with a ceremonial sword and a monthly stipend. For many historians this makes Yasuke the first ever foreigner born Samurai. Legend has it that he played a pivotal role in Oda Nobunaga’s final living moments. Should we trust these stories of Samurai derring-do? Tune-in and find out how a loosely tied top knot, a public scrubbing, and the slippery definition of “samurai” all play a role in the story.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this very special throwback episode of Our Fake History.
0:13.7	This week I'm throwing you back to part two
0:16.6	of our season 8 series,
0:18.2	who was the African samurai.
0:21.2	I re-released part one of that series last week, so if you've not heard that, then please feel free to go back and give that a listen now.
0:30.0	In the re-release of Part 1, I explained that the choice to return to the story of
0:36.1	Yaske, the African samurai, had to do with the recent controversy surrounding
0:41.3	the inclusion of Yaske as a playable character in the most
0:45.0	recent installment of the Assassin's Creed video game series. I spoke about that
0:51.6	controversy at some length in the last introduction so I won't repeat myself here
0:56.2	I just want to say that I think that controversy is mostly ridiculous
1:01.5	Frankly I don't buy the claims of some of the disgruntled
1:05.3	gamers that they are genuinely upset by historical inaccuracies in the game.
1:10.6	The Assassin's Creed games have never really been about historical accuracy.
1:17.2	So their outrage this time around seems to be fueled by something else.
1:24.8	For me, the biggest issue has to do with the author Thomas Lockley, whose book African Samurai
1:32.0	is the only substantive English language examination of
1:35.8	Yaskay's life that we have.
1:39.0	As I've said many times and you will hear me say again during this throwback episode, that book has always
1:46.8	been a complicated source. Large parts of African samurai should be understood as historical fiction,
1:55.0	spun out of guesses about Yaske based on some admittedly thin primary sources.
2:02.0	Now, to be clear, I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong
	...

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