His original name, Mmadi Make,[1] is linked to a princely class[citation needed] of the Bornu Empire (centred in Borno State, modern-day Nigeria).

He became the Prince's valet and traveling companion, accompanying him on military campaigns throughout Europe and reportedly saving his life on one occasion, a pivotal event responsible for his social ascension.

[2][3] On February 6, 1768, he married the noblewoman Magdalena Christiani, a young widow and sister of the French general François Christophe de Kellermann, Duke of Valmy, a marshal of Napoleon Bonaparte.

[6] In 1783, he joined the Masonic lodge "True Concord" (Zur Wahren Eintracht), whose membership included many of Vienna's influential artists and scholars of the time, among them the musicians Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn as well the Hungarian poet Ferenc Kazinczy.

[8] During his lifetime Soliman was regarded as a model to the "potential for assimilation" of Africans in Europe, but after his death his image was subject to defamation and vulgarization through scientific racism, and his body was physically rendered into a specimen, as if an animal or for experimentation.

During this time Soliman became a member of the Freemasons and as lodge Grand Master was certainly considered equal to his fellow Masons even though he continued to face a thicket of race and class prejudices.

Instead of receiving a Christian burial, Soliman was – at the request of the director of the Imperial Natural History Collection – skinned, stuffed and made into an exhibit within their cabinet of curiosities.

[11][12] Decked out in ostrich feathers and glass beads, this mummy was on display until 1806 alongside stuffed animals, transformed from a reputable member of intellectual Viennese society into an exotic specimen.