Yasuke was a slave turned samurai from Africa who lived in Japan in the sixteenth century. Hong Kong (CNN) When feudal Japan's most powerful warlord Nobunaga Oda met Yasuke, a black slave-turned-retainer, in 1581, he believed the man was a god. Oda had never seen an African before.

Some facts on who yasuke was:The origins of Yasuke are shrouded in mystery, but historians believe the African soldier was born in 1555 in what was then Portuguese Mozambique. He was reportedly sold into slavery following the fall of Abysinnian Bengal, an African kingdom ruled by Ethiopians. Yasuke soon found himself in the care of Italian Jesuit missionary Alessandro Valignano, who asked that the Black man accompany him on a mission trip to Japan.