Shakespeare wrote three characters who were specificallyAfricans (or Moors, as they called them then.) English people ofthat time made no distinction between Africans from North Africaand those from sub-Saharan Africa. They are Aaron in TitusAndronicus, who is a thoroughgoing villain, the Prince of Moroccoin The Merchant of Venice, who is something of a comic figure, andOthello in Othello, who is the main character in the play, a tragichero.