Camp Gagnon - The Black Samurai Who Fought For Ancient Japan

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Today we dive into the life of Yasuke, how a slave became a samurai, and other interesting topics... WELCOME TO History CAMP!🏕️Shoutout to our sponsors: Chubbies and Mars MenGet 20% OFF With Code... ‘CAMP’ When You Visit http://chubbiesshorts.com/CAMPVisit https://mengotomars.com and get 50% Off FOR LIFE, Free Shipping, and 3 Free Gifts With Code 'CAMP' at Checkout.👕🧢 SHOP OUR MERCH HERE: https://camp-rd.com/🎟️ 🎫 Comedy Tour Tickets Here: https://markgagnonlive.com 🎩👽 Daily Dose Of History Here: https://www.dailytodayinhistory.comTimestamps:0:00 Christos YAPPIN + Christos Is Getting Too Rich1:26 Lore Behind Yasuke3:05 Yasuke Travels to Japan5:15 Oda Nobunaga’s Reign8:14 Yasuke Meets Nobunaga13:47 Nobunaga Is Turned On16:43 Yasuke Escapes & Becomes Legend21:00 The Mystery of Yasuke24:42 The Scholary#camping #history #podcast #historyfacts #mystery #ancienthistory #ancient #war #culture #battle #Japan #japanese

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Starting point is 00:00:00 The same man who was dragged across oceans as a servant eventually became a warrior in one of the most elite military cultures in human history. The same man who couldn't speak the language was dining privately with the most powerful warlord in Japan. The same outsider who was stripped and scrubbed in front of a court because they didn't believe that his skin color was real, was given a sword, a house, a stipend, and ultimately the title of the samurai. And his name was Yaske. And in 1581, he became the first known African samurai in the history of Japan. Now, we don't know his birth name, we don't know exactly where he came from, and we definitely don't know how his story ends.
Starting point is 00:00:40 Because after one of the most dramatic betrayals in Japanese history, Yaske vanishes from the historical record entirely. Just gone. No death date, no burial site, no final chapter. What we do know is that for roughly 15 months, a black man from East Africa stood at the side of Oda Nabunaga. the demon king, the great unifier of Japan, and fought as his warrior, not as a curiosity, but as a samurai. And the story of how we got there and what happened when it all fell apart is one of the most interesting, most wild stories in all of world history.
Starting point is 00:01:17 So sit back, relax, and welcome to history camp. What's up, people, and welcome back to history camp. My name is Mark Agnon, and thank you for joining me in my tent where every single week we explore the most interesting. fascinating, controversial stories from around the world from all time forever. Yes, that is what we do here. All right,
Starting point is 00:01:40 we try to figure out everything that's ever happened. And oh boy, there's been a lot of stuff, so we have a lot of catching up to do. But first, I want to say thank you to you for watching this channel, clicking this video, making my dreams come true
Starting point is 00:01:52 because every time you click, you comment, you subscribe, you do any type of interaction with any of these channels, you keep the lights on, you keep the fire burning here at the campsite, and ultimately, you turn Christos
Starting point is 00:02:03 into an even, richer billionaire. Isn't that right, Chrystos? Thank you, Campos. All right, Christos. Look, we don't have time, okay? We don't want to hear from the 1% right now, all right? We want to get on with it. It's Black History Month, and we're talking about the African samurai. The first foreigner, the first outsider to truly become a samurai in Japan. Now, let me just say up top, whether or not he was formally inducted into the full samurai honors, we can't say for certain, but I can tell you that he was given the stipend and treated as a samurai. Functionally, he was a samurai. And you know,
Starting point is 00:02:34 what, in the hearts of me and the people that believe, he was a samurai, damn it, all right? So we're going to go through all the details and we'll explain where he came from how he got there and why he just kind of wiped away from the history at the very end, and ultimately why this distinction exists between samurai and samurai class and why historians debate it, all right? So let's just begin. In order to understand Diyoske and his story, you first have to understand the world that he existed in and ultimately the world that he left. So the year is roughly 1555, and somewhere in East Africa, most likely in Mozambique, which at the time was under colonization by the Portuguese, though some historians have proposed Ethiopia or even South Sudan, a boy is born.
Starting point is 00:03:16 And we don't know his name, and we don't know his parents, and we don't know his tribe, or really anything about him. And a 1627 account by the French Jesuit Francois Solier describes him as a kaffrey, basically a term that the Portuguese used for people of southeastern African descent. and specifically identifies him as a servant from Mozambique. Some historians have noted that Soliei called him a Moorcafrey, which could be interpreted as like a Moorish infidel, leading to some speculation by historians that Yaske may have actually been Muslim. Obviously, this is what people would mean by Moorish or the Moors.
Starting point is 00:03:55 This is a Muslim influence into Europe. And so calling him a Moorcafrey, a Moorish kafre. That's just another point. for the Muslims, dude, especially during Ramadan and Black History Month. Oh, Muslims are eating this one up, dude. Two birds, one stone. Right? Now, again, the research is uncertain.
Starting point is 00:04:15 We can't say for sure. Now, researcher Thomas Lockley, he wrote the first full-length book on Yaske in 2019, has proposed that he may have originated from the Dinka people, which is now South Sudan based on descriptions of, you know, how he looked and ultimately his exceptional height. Now, what we do know is that at some point in his youth, this man entered the service of the Jesuits, a Catholic missionary order that was aggressively expanding across Africa and India all the way into East Asia during the 16th century. Now, whether he was purchased as some type of indentured servant or a slave or captured or came voluntarily is sort of lost to the historical record.
Starting point is 00:04:55 But by the late 1570s, he was serving as an attendant to Alessandro Valignano, the Italian Jesuit priest, who had been appointed visitor of all Jesuit missions in the Indies. Now, Valignano was no minor figure. He was essentially like the CEO of the Jesuits and their operations across like half the world. And basically was overseeing missions from Mozambique to Goa in India, to Macau, to Japan. He was all over, okay? So when Valignano set up for Japan in 1579, this African man came with him as his servant. They spent the first two years in Japan, mostly in Cayushu.
Starting point is 00:05:34 This is the southernmost of Japan's main islands where the Jesuits had established their strongest missionary presence. But in early 1581, Valignano decided he needed to visit the capital. He needed to meet the most powerful men in Japan. He needed an audience with none other than Oda Nobunaga. Now, to understand what is about to happen, you need to understand who Nobunaga was. So Japan in the 1500s was chaos, basically. The country had been locked in this period called the Sengoku, which was literally like the warring states. That's what it translates to.
Starting point is 00:06:08 And basically for over a century, dozens of like regional warlords and like smaller kind of clans were basically battling. These warlords called the Daimyo were constantly fighting each other for territory. And the central government had basically. collapsed and the emperor was just kind of like a figurehead and the shogun was powerless. Japan was just a bunch of different rival kingdoms all kind of joccing for position, sort of constantly in warfare. And into this chaos stepped to this man, Oda Nobunaga. And he was unlike anything Japan had ever seen up until that point.
Starting point is 00:06:41 Born in 1534 in the Awari province, Nobunaga was the kind of leader who basically made people really uncomfortable. So as a young man, his behavior was kind of a rhapsod. attic, so much so that his own people called him the fool of Awari. He reportedly showed up to his father's funeral, throwing ceremonial incense at the altar, and his own retainers, like the people around him, thought that he was crazy. But here's the thing. Nobunaga wasn't crazy, or at least not totally crazy. He was just operating on a different level than anyone else around him. So while all the other daimyo kind of held on to this tradition and sort of the way things had always been, Nobunaga was innovating relentlessly. He was a lot of. He was a little bit of. He was, was one of the first Japanese commanders to effectively use firearms, like actually, like, using guns, Portuguese matchlock rifles. And he didn't just use them. He revolutionized how they were used. So at the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, he arranged his gunners in these basically like rotating positions that allowed continuous fire. And the result shattered the legendary
Starting point is 00:07:45 cavalry of the Takeda clan and basically anyone else they went up against. It was just a massacre. and it really changed Japanese warfare forever. So, by 1581, Nobunaga controlled most of central Japan. He had dissolved the old Ashikaga shogunate in 1573, and he had crushed the militant Buddhist monks of the Iko-Iki after a decade-long war. So you can imagine this guy's coming through in a very traditional culture, and everything is done one specific way. And he completely just flips it all on its head
Starting point is 00:08:16 and just changes the entire order of warfare in command and politics. He had built the Azuchi castle, a seven-story fortress in basically like on the shores of Lake Bewa that was basically the most magnificent structure of Japan had ever seen. His enemies called him the demon king of the sixth heaven, an all-time name. I mean, that's like a gorgeous name. A title borrowed from Buddhist mythology, basically referring to the supernatural being who delights in the suffering of other people. And Nobunaga didn't reject the nickname. He was like, that sounds pretty good. Now, here's what made Nobunaga truly different from every other warlord or commander in Japan.
Starting point is 00:08:59 He was obsessively curious with the outside world. This is very strange for many Japanese commanders up until this point. As a culture is extremely insular. People are constantly sort of looking at each other. And Nobunaga, specifically at this time, is looking outside. He loved foreign things. European weapons, Western technology, exotic goods and food, and anything he could get his hands on.
Starting point is 00:09:21 And while most Japanese leaders viewed foreigners with suspicion, Nobunaga actively courted the Jesuits, not because he cared about Christianity, but because they brought him things that no one else could. And on March 27, 1581, the Jesuits brought him something or someone that he had never seen before. What's up, people?
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Starting point is 00:11:37 Go check them out. Now, let's get back to the show. Now, when Valignano arrived at Nobu Nagas court, he brought Yuske, and his entire entourage. And the reaction, from the moment that Yuske set foot in Kyoto, it was kind of like pandemonium. Like, he sort of shut it down. Because you got to understand, the Japanese had never seen a black person before. I mean, like today, I've seen some videos on Twitter. Like, I think they've seen a couple. But specifically then, they hadn't seen anyone. Now, according to the Jesuit missionary, Luis Froisch, who documented the entire visit, a melee
Starting point is 00:12:09 broke out amongst the townspeople who were fighting to just catch a glimpse of, yeah, Now remember, Yaske is not like a samurai or like an amazing war. He's just a servant of this Jesuit guy. And the crowd was so violent that it broke down the door of the Jesuit residents and several people were injured in the chaos. I mean, think about that. People are literally getting hurt trying to just look at this dude. And of course, Nobunaga was fascinated. And the Shinsho Koki. This is the official chronicle of Nobunaga's life written by someone very close to him. describes Yuske in very vivid terms. It says this. A blackamore came from the Christian country.
Starting point is 00:12:50 He appeared to be 26 or 27 years old. Black over his whole body, just like an ox, this man looked robust and had a good demeanor. What is more, his formidable strength surpass that of 10 men. But Nobunaga didn't just want to look at Yuske. He didn't believe that his skin color was actually real. He thought that maybe he was like, like a prank or like maybe like a dye or like an ink or some type of paint was being used.
Starting point is 00:13:18 So he ordered Yaske to strip from the waist up right in front of the entire court and he had servants literally scrub his skin. But the more they scrubbed, nothing happened. Like in a way, the blacker he became, they just showed how pure his skin was. And then something shifted in Nabunaga. What started as this curiosity turned into like a true fascination. And it was not in the way that you would be fascinated by like, an exotic animal. The way that a man who spent his entire life surrounded by one specific type of person and how they looked and how they thought, everything was the exact same, all of a sudden
Starting point is 00:13:54 was being confronted with proof that the world is bigger and stranger and more interesting than he could have ever imagined. And then Nobunaga basically asked this Jesuit priest to let Yaske stay, and Velignao agreed. Now, what happened next is where Yaske's story goes from interesting to crazy. Nobunaga didn't just keep Yaske around as like a novelty or as a servant. He gave him a proper Japanese name and that name Yaske, which
Starting point is 00:14:23 Nobunaga chose personally. And he gave him a house and gave him a stipend and he gave him servants. And most importantly he gave him a sword. And this is a katana with a decorative scabbard called a Sayamaki. Now according to historians, this combination,
Starting point is 00:14:39 the name, the stipend, the sword, the residence was the equivalent of granted the rank of samurai. Yaske became the first recorded foreigner to receive that honor in Japanese history. Now, whether Yaske was formally inducted as a hereditary samurai is debated, but by the standards of Nobunaga's court, he functioned as one. Now, this wasn't just ceremonial. Father Lureko Mexia wrote in a letter dated on October 8, 1581, The Black Man understood a little Japanese, and Nobunaga never tired of talking with him. And because he was strong, and had a few skills. Nobunaga took great pleasure in protecting him and had him roam around the
Starting point is 00:15:18 city of Kyoto with an attendant. Some people in the town said that Nobunaga might make him a tono, basically a lord. I mean, let that sink in, right? People in Kyoto were speculating that this African man might actually become like high royalty within this Japanese court. He might truly become a Japanese lord. Now, Yaske served as Nobunaga's weapon bearer and his personal bodyguard. He was occasionally allowed to share meals with the warlord. This was a privilege extended to basically no one ever. Now, according to the Matsudaira Latata diary, he accompanied Nobunaga on military inspection tours
Starting point is 00:15:54 and was described as standing about six shaku and two bū tall. Now, this roughly translates, this is an old measure of height, but this roughly translates to about six, or maybe even, you know, like six feet, two inches. This is a big guy. I mean, he's big for even modern standards, but specifically in Japan, the 1500s, this guy was towering over everyone else who was probably around like 5-2, 53. Now, it's important to be honest about what we don't know, because a lot of the historical
Starting point is 00:16:23 references and the sources on Yaske are fragmentary. It's letters from Jesuits and obviously, you know, Japanese chronicles that mentioned him briefly and a few diary entries. We don't have detailed accounts of his daily life or his inner thoughts or, you know, what he was doing every single day for. years. But what we do know for multiple independent sources is that Yaske wasn't just a decoration. He carried weapons. He accompanied Nobunaga into military situations and he was trusted enough to stand at the most powerful men in Japan's side. I mean, if you're going to bring someone around just
Starting point is 00:16:57 to have them around, you're not going to bring them into the most dire and intense and high-stakes situations imaginable. If you're going into war, you're going in with the people you trust the most. And the Japanese are no exception of this. They of all people are probably going to go in with the most competent, skilled people that they can. Now, in the spring of 1582, Nobunaga was on the verge of completing what no one in over a century had been able to do, and that is Unify Japan. He had crushed the Takata clan earlier that year. The Mori clan in the west was starting to fall. The Osuki clan in the north was weakened by internal fighting, and the victory was so close. Now, Nobunaga dispersed his generals across Japan to
Starting point is 00:17:35 finish this job. Toyotomi Hideyushi was sent west to fight the Mori. Shibata Katsui was sent north. Akechi Mitsuhidi, one of Nobunaga's most trusted generals, was ordered to reinforce Hadeyoshi's campaign. Now, on the night of June 20, 1582, Nobunaga was stating at Honoji. This is a Buddhist temple in Kyoto, the he frequently used as a resting place in the capital.
Starting point is 00:18:00 He only had a small group of people with him, about 30 of his closest followers, including Yaske. Most of his army was deployed elsewhere around Japan, basically trying to unify the country. There was no reason to expect any type of trouble, right? He's deep within his own territory, with his people surrounding him, and he's chilling out. But he was wrong. Akechi Mitsuhide didn't march west as he was ordered.
Starting point is 00:18:22 He turned his army of 13,000 soldiers towards Kyoto instead. Now, the reason for this betrayal has been debated by historians for literally, ever since it happened, for four centuries, people have been trying to figure this out. Some point to a personal grudge. Accounts suggest that Nobunaga publicly. humiliated Mitsuhide on multiple occasions. Others cite political ambition. Mitsuhi may have believed that he could seize control in this moment of chaos. Some modern historians suggested he was simply just following the brutal logic of the Sengoku period, where betrayals were not aberrations, but just kind of what you were supposed to do in this specific
Starting point is 00:19:00 political landscape. The truth is, we don't definitively know why Mitsuhide did it. But in the pre-dun hours on June 21st, 1582, Mitsuhide's forces surrounded Honoji, and he attacked, and Nobunaga was trapped, outnumbered roughly 430 men to one. The demon king, who had conquered most of Japan, literally he was called the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven, like truly one of the most badass dudes in all of Japan was caught with his guard down inside a small wooden temple. And all the men that were around him. Roughly, you know, maybe a couple hundred were able to come join. They had to fight. And Nobunaga was one of them. According to accounts, he initially used a bow until the strength snapped, and then he switched to a spear until he was wounded. But there was no escape. Rather than be
Starting point is 00:19:49 captured and humiliated, Nobunaga retreated into the inner chambers of the temple. And as the building burned around him, he committed Sapuku, a ritual sqad by disembowelment. The man who had nearly unified Japan so closely was dead. He was 47 years old at the time. The Honoggi accident became one of the most pivotal moments in Japanese history and Yaske was right in the middle of all of it. And this is where things are interesting because this is where Yaske's story really reaches its climax and it's fully a mystery. When Honoji was attacked, Yaske fought and the sources confirmed this. He was among the roughly 30 defenders who tried to hold off Mitsuhide's 13,000 man army. But when Nobunaga died, Yaskay didn't stay to die with his lord, as some interpretations
Starting point is 00:20:40 of Samurai tradition would have demanded. Instead, he did something that suggests that he was a practical warrior, not one tied down by tradition. He escaped the burning temple and made his way to the nearby Nijjo Palace, where Nobunaga's eldest son and the heir, Oda Nabutada, was garrisoned by a small force. Now, Yaske joined Nabutata's defense, and he fought alongside the air against Matsuhide's overwhelming forces. But in the end, it was hopeless. Nobutata, like his father, was trapped, and he was outnumbered, and he too committed Sapuko. Yaskay was captured by Mutsu Hide's soldiers, and this is where things get fascinating.
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Starting point is 00:23:37 And after you purchase, they will ask you how you heard about them. Please say you heard about it from the good old folks here at camp. It really helps the show, and it keeps the fire burning. Let's get back to it. Matsuhide was presented with Yaske, the African samurai, who served his enemy. And he had to decide what to do with them. And according to the Jesuit accounts, Matsuhide declared that because Yasuke was not Japanese, that he shouldn't be killed.
Starting point is 00:24:02 Now, historians have just debated this point in history because Matsuhite did this and no one really knows why. Some read it as mercy, this recognition that Yaske was caught up in someone else's war, that this wasn't really his kind of dynastic grudge. He was a foreigner who didn't fully understand the feudal obligations at play. Others see it as contempt, this dismissal of Yashka. as someone that you don't even have to worry about. He's someone that's below the Japanese. He's a foreigner, someone that didn't even warrant a warrior's death because he's not a real samurai. Now, Thomas Lockley and others suggest that it may have been a political calculation. Matsuhide trying to curry favor with the Jesuits and the growing Christian community in Japan by basically sparing their associate. it. The honest answer is, we don't know. There's no historical documents that definitively explain Matsuhide's reasoning. Whatever the motive, the result was the same. Matsuhide's soldiers escorted
Starting point is 00:24:58 Yaske to a Jesuit church in Kyoto. Luis Froich wrote five months later, basically thanking God that Yaske's life had been spared. And then, nothing. Matsuhide's own reign didn't last that long. Just 13 days after killing Nobunaga, Mazuhide was defeated at the battle of Yamazazawa. by Toyotomi Haidiyoshi, who had rushed back from the Western Front, and Matsuhide was killed fleeing the battlefield, either by bandits or by his own hand. The man who betrayed the demon king ruled Japan for less than two weeks. And that just goes to show how much infighting and clan warfare was happening within this period between these different daimo, these different warlords going at each other.
Starting point is 00:25:42 Now, after the Honoji incident, Yaske disappears completely from the historical record. It's bizarre and unlike really anything that I've kind of seen in history like this. There's no letters, no diary entries, no chronicles, just nothing. We don't know if he stayed with the Jesuits in Japan for a while. We don't know if he was sent back to India or to Mozambique or to Portugal. We don't know if he was serving under another lord in Japan. Maybe he died suddenly. Maybe he died in a battle.
Starting point is 00:26:11 Maybe he died of old age. We just don't know. For a man whose arrival in Japan was so dramatic that people literally were fighting each other, just trying to see his face. His exit from history is just pure silence. And that silence has haunted historians for centuries. There are theories, of course. Some suggest that Yasuke returned to Jesuit service and left Japan before the increasing crackdowns on Christianity,
Starting point is 00:26:36 that Hideyoshi and later the Tokugawa shogun's eventually imposed. Others speculate that he might have settled in a nearby port city, living quietly amongst the small community of foreigners who basically lived and traded in Japan. But the honest answer is just we don't know, and we probably never will. What we're left with is roughly 15 months of documented history from March 1581 to June 1582, during which a black man from East Africa showed up to Japan as a servant
Starting point is 00:27:05 and eventually became a samurai and served the most powerful warlord in his era and fought in one of the most famous military engagements in Japanese history. And then nothing. Yaske's story might have faded into complete obscurity, and we maybe would have never heard of him, except for the remarkable fact that the sources that mention him survived.
Starting point is 00:27:27 The Jesuit letters were preserved in European archives. The Shinchokoki remained a key document in Japanese history. And for centuries, Yaske was kind of a footnote, this sort of interesting little ripple that's mentioned in passing by historians of the Singoku period. But in recent decades, Yaske has become something a lot bigger than that footnote. Thomas Lockley published the African Samurai in 2019, the first full-length English-language book devoted to his story. And then Netflix produced a Yaske anime series in 2021. The video game Assassin's Creed Shadows announced in 2024 featured Yaske as one of the playable protagonists,
Starting point is 00:28:05 sparking international debate about historical representation and who gets to claim ownership of this past. A man who left almost no trace in the historical record has become one of the most famous figures in the global conversation about race and culture and belonging and identity, not because we know a lot about them, but kind of because we just don't know that much. I mean, the gaps in his story have become kind of a canvas, and everyone is kind of painting something different onto it. We live in a world that loves to draw lines and categories and compartmentalize people. I mean, we have lines between nations and between races and who belongs and who doesn't and in-group and out-group.
Starting point is 00:28:43 And that's just how humans are. We're very tribal, right? We build entire systems around the assumption that identity is this fixed thing and that, you know, you are who you are based off where you're born and what you look like and who your parents are. And you have to stay in that lane that, you know, is assigned to you basically through history. And that's why I think the story of Yaske is so interesting because it really breaks a lot of these lines that we draw. Right? I mean, based off what we know, a black guy from Mozambique becomes a samurai in Japan, back in the 1500s. Not some distant, you know, mythological past, but in a documented historically verifiable period. The same century that Shakespeare and Michelangelo were making art, this guy, Yaske changed what the Japanese samurai was. He didn't sneak in. He was invited. He was elevated. He was trusted with weapons and meals and the proximity to power that most Japanese-born warriors were never going to get. Yaskay didn't just survive in this world that should have been extremely difficult for him. He fought and even served and battled. He earned a title that Japanese warriors spend their
Starting point is 00:29:45 entire lives trying to get. And he did all of this in a language that wasn't even his own. He was literally learning Japanese while he's doing all this stuff in this culture that he was unfamiliar with that he was learning in real time surrounded by people who had never even seen anyone to look like him ever before. I mean, the mystery of what happened after is so frustrated and because it's probably so interesting. But also in a way, it's kind of fitting. Because Yaske's story was never really his to tell. It was written by these Jesuits and Japanese chroniclers
Starting point is 00:30:13 that saw him through their own lenses with their own biases. And what he thought, what he felt, what he truly wanted in life never really survived. But what survived was the fact that he existed and that he fought and that for 15 months in one of the most brutal, most violent periods in feudal Japan, the lines didn't hold up. And to me, I don't know, that's pretty interesting.
Starting point is 00:30:36 And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of the black samurai, Yaske. Oh, what an interesting story. I need to watch this anime. I can't believe I haven't seen it. I've always heard, like, the ripples of like, oh, yeah, there's this black samurai, he's an interesting guy. But I didn't know that he came as a servant through the Jesuits and then was brought in by this like sort of a centric kind of crazy emperor that was like, yeah, I'll pull you in.
Starting point is 00:31:00 Or a warlord, rather. and it was basically like, no, you're in. And then the fact that he got kind of caught up in this betrayal and tried to go defend the sun, I mean, the whole thing is crazy. And that's just what we know. What we don't know is probably even more interesting. The subtleties and like the little nuances. I mean, what a fascinating story.
Starting point is 00:31:17 I mean, I can think of a lot of my black friends that love anime. This is probably their dream. I have a lot of weebu black dudes that I know that are like, I'm supposed to be a samurai. Yeah, it's their hero. I mean, that's just awesome, dude, especially from Mozambique. I bet you everyone from East Africa is trying to claim him. All the Ethiopians are like, no, I think he was ours, dude.
Starting point is 00:31:41 Look at the pictures. He's Ethiopian. I don't know. I mean, the fact that everyone said he was from Mozambique and the fact that he's kind of Muslim is sort of sick. It's also objectively hilarious that like this might have been the first black guy all these Asian people ever saw. Ever. Yeah. Crazy, right?
Starting point is 00:31:58 Yeah. I mean, yeah, I remember, I went to, I'm trying to think, I went to Russia with Alex Media. And people were going out to him going, Barack Obama. It's like, dude, it's kind of racist, but it's almost like not because like they're so naive. It's like kind of cute. Like they just, there's not too many black people. So like Barack Obama. But yeah, dude, what an interesting history.
Starting point is 00:32:22 It's like, it really kind of changes like, I wonder if they even had the same concept of race as we do now. Like, I wonder if they just saw them. They were like, you're a foreigner. But it seems like they weren't as crazy about, like, the Jesuits showing up being, like, we got scrub their skin. I guess their skin is more similar to other people's skin. Like, Japanese people and Italians have more similar skin than Japanese people on a black guy. Yeah. It's just so interesting.
Starting point is 00:32:41 I would have loved to have just been a fly on the wall. I wonder how he did his hair. Because Japanese Samarise, they have, like, one ponytail. Right. Do you think there's a braid? I think, am I going to get canceled if I say Afro? Is that crazy? I don't think you're going to get canceled.
Starting point is 00:32:59 And if you do get canceled, we will just say we fired you and then we changed your name and we hired your brother. Panos. And you just happen to sound very similar. That's what, that's just beautiful about not having your face here. You know what I mean? You can just be anyone, you know? Oh, we do have a camera right here. Nope.
Starting point is 00:33:13 No. It's actually broken. Oh, okay. I'm so sorry. I forgot to tell you that. And see, you didn't get me off track here, okay? We're going back to Yaske's sick-ass dreadlock, the one dread that was hanging down. What a sick guy.
Starting point is 00:33:24 This guy got me fired up right now. Anything's possible, guys. anything is possible. Oh, you got dropped to a situation where you're the only one you're an outsider, you're a servant, you're low on the totem pole. Well, hey, guess what?
Starting point is 00:33:35 With enough hard work, dedication and focus and a little bit of luck, you too can become a samurai in 1500 of Japan. How awesome is that? I want to see a full-length movie. Give me full-length movie. Give me Michael B. Jordan.
Starting point is 00:33:50 Give me, I want the whole thing. I don't want the anime, with all due respect, to my webes. I want an actual, I want an actual live action. And don't even give me romance All these movies I always try to put in this love scene Yaska wasn't about that love shit
Starting point is 00:34:03 Dude he was trying to just fight guys and eat fish Like actual sushi fish Like he was not he wasn't about that kind of that love That whack love stuff I mean maybe it was though I think he was laying down There was a live action movie called Black Samurai Based on Yoske's life acquired by Warner Bros
Starting point is 00:34:20 recently so maybe we'll see it Really? Yeah I'm an oracle Anyway what do you guys think Please, I would love to know what your thoughts are about Yaske, the Black Samurai, one of the OGs. Also, Happy Black History Month, right? Yeah, sure.
Starting point is 00:34:35 It needs to. This one, this one we need to. Come on, bro. I won't sleep. And during Ramadan, Black History Month and Ramadan. I mean, come on, bro. This is, let's fire. Let me know what you think.
Starting point is 00:34:43 It's like a new Chinese New Year or something, too. What? We're kind of getting all the... We're getting everything. Yeah. Oh, let's go, dude. I read all of them. YouTube, Spotify. I would love to know your thoughts.
Starting point is 00:34:56 Additionally, if you want to see me on the road, Mark Gagnon live, come check out a show, hang out, shake my hands, say what's up, one hour stand in a comedy, you're going to love it. Also, if you want the threads, if you want the clothes, great news, camp R&D, you can buy everything right there. And if you like, you know, religious content, religious deep dives, religious deep dives, religious deep dives, religious deep dives, religious deep dives, religion, Judaism, all the isms, except racism. You can check that out of religion camp. If you like crazy deep dives on like some conspiracy vibes, some occult stuff, some mystical, you know, I just go crazy over there. It's over at Camp Gagnon. I also do a lot of interviews with way smarter people than me that can actually break stuff down in a coherent way. But if you just rock with the history vibe,
Starting point is 00:35:36 you're welcome here anytime, all right? You're always welcome in my tent. Thank you guys so much for being a part of it. I appreciate it deeply. And I'll see you in the future to talk about the past. Peace.

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