Must it Ever be About Skin, and Skin Color?

As far as we know, Angelo Soliman (born Mahde Makke 1721 – 1796), historically recognized as the “First Moorish Freemason,” was born in the Congo (Cameroon), and at age seven was kidnapped during a tribal war and sold into slavery in Europe as a “child toy” (a fashionable accessory for wealthy aristocrats) to a prominent Sicilian lady. Then at age 16, she sold him to a royal family in Vienna, Austria; some sources say she actually bartered him for a horse. Strange. But hold on a minute, let’s be reasonable… the horse was a beautiful Andalusian mare, and they were popular and valuable. And speaking of animals, digging for details on Angelo Soliman’s life is a deep rabbit hole, a matrix, and we’re not offering any exotic pills here, just our fraternal perspective.

Anyway, in Vienna, he so impressed his masters with his remarkable intelligence, they chose to formally educate the bright youth, getting him the best educational opportunities available. A thirsty student, young Angelo sponged everything in the Royal Library, learned swiftly, and became fluent in six languages in three years, and could write three of them fluently as well. Sounds like a polyglot savant to be sure! Right? Well, he was a non-European genius, sticking out like the sharps-and-flats on a piano in a world where skin color determined one’s fate. And while we celebrate Soliman’s amazing life in Vienna, let’s pitch this key as well, Angelo Soliman wasn’t the only exceptional person of color in an ivory plated society, there were a few other notables, as Vienna does have a mottled history. So, in 18th century Vienna, Soliman wasn’t exceptional because he was black, he was exceptional because he wasn’t white. You see, many people were gifted within this highly civilized society, everybody wasn’t a Mozart, but many shined in many ways; it’s just that Moors weren’t supposed to shine and be gifted in ways to rival them.

By his 30th birthday, after winning his freedom in his mid-twenties foremost because of his political astuteness, he’d become quite the national phenom, being a Master Swordsman, War Hero, Chess Grand Master, Master Navigator, Concert Composer, and official Tutor of Vienna’s Royal Family. He was even the subject of his friend Wolfgang Mozart’s wildly popular opera The Magic Flute. Vienna couldn’t get enough of it, and it eventually swept all of Europe by storm, selling out every performance. And Soliman did contribute ideas for the opera, and council to Mozart respectively. Best friends Angelo and Wolfgang, even toasted the town to celebrate the opera's phenomenal success; after all, they were both celebrities and both were savants. They were celebrated—and they celebrated together. When you’re with your best friend, everything is right and nothing can go wrong, right? Well, the celebrating lasted less than two months, as Mozart suddenly and mysteriously died on December 5th 1791. The Grim Reaper has no friends… and ain’t looking for any! When tabloids reported poison as the cause of death, Angelo, frozen into coming-of-winter deep depression, avoided public exposure as best he could. Keenly aware of other composers drowned deep in envy from his friend’s fame, unearthly musical talent, and his relentless womanizing, Angelo thought one of them could perhaps slip some poison into his coffee as well. Poison was popular, and murder was possible. As people around the music scene swore Mozart was poisoned by a named envious composer, the wise Moor kept his swarthy face in the dark for a while.

Others cried that a member of the True Concord Freemason’s Lodge killed Mozart (battered him on the head) because his wife was in love with the young Composer and having an affair with him. There may have been some truth to the accusation considering Mozart’s reputation, and autopsy doctors did find bruises on his head. But the Freemasons quickly quelled this accusation to assure no one poisoned Freemasonry, and Soliman, knowing both men (and the woman), did his part to dismiss the yarn as absurd. He knew his genius friend could be a fool with women and many men swore to break his bones; but Freemasons do not break oaths!

Angelo Soliman is considered one of the most learned people of his generation as well as one of the most illustrious Vienna citizens of all time. His high moral character, revered education, and genuine gentility distinguished him far beyond his color in 18th century Vienna. He was an unofficial ambassador of civilization. Now, as a free citizen of Vienna, the world’s citadel of culture and enlightenment, and a member of the royal Hapsburg household to boot, Soliman continued to pursue a personal course of erudite and moral excellence. As a sought after celebrity, he was a dashing figure and personality widely admired for his handsomeness, fashionable Moorish attire (which he insisted upon), and social grace. An excellent dancer and romancer at elite social affairs (like George Washington in America), he married (in a secret ceremony) in 1768 and in the same year joined the True Concord Freemason’s lodge, which included his friends Mozart and Haydn. The secret marriage was a “black,” or dark thing because he belonged to the Royal Household, and no matter how intelligent he was (he could have split atoms for all they cared), getting married was miles above his pay grade, and then marrying a white woman to boot, was a grave misconduct for a House Moor. The Royal House, furiously upset with him, “fired” him and put him out. So much for his celebrity. Some would say, “He can’t rise against the color of his skin,” Or, “A Negro can’t get his prayers above his own head.”

Eventually, as the Grand Master of the lodge (some sources dispute this) he rewrote and refined its crude rituals and other literature to include scientific and philosophical elements. Soliman’s pure Freemasonic literary style spread all over Europe and around the world, eventually influencing modern Freemasonry’s literature and rituals, as he believed Freemasons were responsible for Freemasonry, not the other way around. He once called Freemasonry, “A pure drink of water, consumed only by the purest of men.” And the Freemasons were very excited about Soliman’s papers, for this was something new and fresh, and they loved them. One lodge member reportedly said, “It’s like putting on specs for the first time and finally seeing clearly what was always blurry!” Now that’s rich research, but some biased historians argue that Angelo Soliman was no more than a menial servant, a lowly house Moor lucky to serve the Royals, and whose actual place in the Freemason’s lodge reflected his low status in society. Moreover, others write him off as a circus act declaring that any curiosity concerning him was “No more than the amusing interest one would entertain seeing a dog play a flute.” Ouch!

Even I felt that note.

Well, someone thought enough of the “lowly house dog” to write a book about him, his lone biographer Wilhelm Bauer. In his book about Soliman, Der Hochfurstliche Mohr (1888), he noted:

Angelo Soliman, of the imperial race of the Numids, a man of beautiful features, great intellect, similar in shape and face to Jugurtha; dear in Africa, Sicily, France, England, Frankish lands, and Austria, a true member of the households of princes.”

A testimony just doesn’t get any better than that. The author is telling us something others during his day dared not say. Angelo Soliman was a King of a man, not merely a historical pawn! And his “pure water” philosophy influenced not only Freemasonry, but science, and religion as well.

Thus, Soliman is called the Father of Pure Masonic Thought. Something pure, is clean, unfiltered, not mixed with something else… and trusted! So, Moorish Rite Freemasons pursue a pure Freemasonic practice, and hail Angelo Soliman as our patriarchal figure; for he is a profound model of early Moorish/Black achievement. You see, Angelo Soliman’s Freemasonic background perhaps humanized him beyond the special gifts that made him a celebrity, or just a famous curiosity. One of today’s outstanding Freemasonic scholars and thinkers suggested in his brilliant paper, The Role of Men of Colour in the Early Period of Freemasonry, that the Moorish Rite celebrates Angelo Soliman as a Muslim. We actually don’t; but we do celebrate him as a Freemason! In the Moorish Rite, we contend that Angelo Soliman shined within the walls of the Freemason’s lodge not because of the color of his skin or his religion (he was Christian), but because of the content of his character, which becomes the mode of pure Freemasonry untainted by bigotry and racism.

Moreover, we suggest Soliman’s ever present white turban signified his own identification with his culture, not his faith. To this day, in Vienna, he is celebrated in song and dance and national memory. Moreover, memorialized in books, stage plays, and movies, Angelo Soliman continues to shake off the fleas of racism and bigotry (and even skin color) to emerge as a phenomenal human being and perhaps one of the greatest Freemasons of all time; not because he was black or because he wasn’t white, but because he was a Freemason. And today, in America, at least three Moorish Rite lodges have been named in Soliman’s honor, and now a chocolate bar (no pun) also shares the honor.

Now that’s sweet!

Aalim El Dey