No Cleopatra wasn’t black – here are the facts

No Cleopatra wasn’t black – here are the facts

The “docudrama” Queen Cleopatra, which purports to be a historically accurate account of the life and reign of the ruler of the Ptolemaic kingdom of Egypt in the first century BC, will be released on Netflix on May 10.

The series, produced by Jada Pinkett Smith, the wife of American actor Will Smith, has already sparked much controversy regarding the decision to give the title role to black British actress Adele James.

Cleopatra was not black. As well-documented history attests, she was the descendant of a Macedonian Greek general contemporary of Alexander the Great. Her native language was Greek and in contemporary busts and portraits she is clearly depicted as white.

The evidence for Cleopatra’s true legacy is overwhelming — and not, as Pinkett Smith said in defense of the series, “highly controversial.”

The actress who plays Cleopatra gave this advice to the series’ many critics: “If you don’t like the casting, don’t watch the show.” This is advice I intend to follow, and I suspect countless Egyptians do.

There are many words that could be used to describe the lie at the heart of this series, and newspaper headlines around the world – from the United States to Egypt and Greece – have published several of them, including “historical revisionism », “cultural appropriation”. » and “wash black”.

The protests are not motivated by racism. As pointed out by Egyptian lawyer Mahmoud Al-Semary, who launched legal action to block access to Netflix in Egypt, this is an outrage caused by a form of identity theft cultural.

None of these statues, including the one we found, which was made of alabaster, give any indication that Cleopatra was black.

Zahi Hawass

Al-Semary accused Netflix of attempting to “promote Afrocentric thinking… which includes slogans and writings aimed at distorting and erasing Egyptian identity.” He makes a strong argument.

I met Pinkett Smith in 2006. At the time, I was head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, and she and I were named by Time magazine as one of “100 Men and Women Whose Power , talent or moral example transform our world.” .”

I went to the ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York, and at dinner I sat at a table with Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. I invited Smith to come to Egypt, and 11 years later, in the company of most of his family, but not his wife, he did so.

It now turns out that was a shame. As one of the film’s talking heads says: “I remember my grandmother telling me, ‘I don’t care what they tell you at school, Cleopatra was black.’

But, as all the evidence shows, this was not the case.

Just look at all the known statues of Cleopatra VII, like the queen’s head that I and my archaeologist colleague Kathleen Martinez found inside the temple of Taposiris Magna, west of Alexandria, during our search from Cleopatra’s tomb.

None of these statues, including the one we found, which was made of alabaster, give any indication that Cleopatra was black.

During our excavations inside the temple, we also found a large number of coins bearing Cleopatra’s face and name. Once again, none of the depictions support the show’s producers’ decision to depict their queen as black.

There is a similar lack of evidence that Cleopatra was black in a depiction on the facade of the Temple of Dendera, which shows her with the goddess Hathor and her child Caesarion, Caesar’s son.

Why is this series appearing now? Perhaps now is the time to take commercial advantage of the current claim by some members of the black American community that their origins date back to ancient Egypt.

I can’t say if it’s true or not. If there was evidence to support this theory, I would completely accept it, but no such evidence exists.

The truth as we know it is found in the many scenes depicted in temples throughout Egyptian history. Here we see the pharaohs striking down the enemies of Egypt and, before them, all the peoples of the surrounding regions, including Nubia, Libya and Mesopotamia.

Fortunately for historians and archaeologists, ancient Egyptian artists were detail-oriented: examine the faces and the racial characteristics of each of the figures are clearly indicated.

This can be seen in one of the large scenes found during our excavation and conservation inside the tomb of Ramesses II in the Valley of the Kings. It depicts the sun god Ra on his boat and, standing in front of him, figures of four clearly identifiable races: Egyptians, Africans, Libyans and Asians.

In February, it was announced that black American comedian Kevin Hart had canceled an upcoming show in Egypt, due to controversy over Afrocentric remarks he had previously made, claiming that the kings of Egypt were black Africans .

I was unhappy with the cancellation because dialogue between all of us is very important. If we could have met, I would have explained to Hart that the people of the Nubian kingdom of Kush did indeed come to Egypt as conquerors who ruled for about a century, from 744 to 656 BC, but they did not. have not been, as was the case. repeatedly and wrongly, the initiators of pharaonic civilization.

A few years ago I went to Philadelphia to give a lecture at the University of Pennsylvania on the origins of the ancient Egyptians, and given the interest in the subject, the lecture was sold out. I said there were three opinions on the subject.

Some scholars claim that the first ancient Egyptians were from Asia and Africa. As evidence, they cite the shape and color of the current inhabitants of the Nile Delta, who are white, while the color of the inhabitants of Upper Egypt is darker. They also suggest that the grammar of hieroglyphic writing is similar to that of Arabic and Hebrew.

There is a similar lack of evidence that Cleopatra was black in a depiction on the facade of the Temple of Dendera, which shows her with the goddess Hathor and her child Caesarion, Caesar’s son.

Zahi Hawass

The second opinion was published by Cheikh Anta Diop of Senegal, who claimed that the ancient Egyptians were of black origin and cited the statues of Tutankhamun and Ramesses carved from dark stone. He also said that the grammar in hieroglyphic writing was similar to that of some African languages, but a UNESCO conference in Paris attended by many Egyptologists rejected this theory because it lacked real evidence.

The third view is based on the excavations at Naqada in Upper Egypt by the British archaeologist Sir Flinders Petrie, considered the father of Egyptology and a pioneer of systematic archaeological investigation. After excavating a predynastic cemetery, Petrie concluded that the remains buried there belonged to the people who had made Egyptian civilization.

If we look at the archaeological evidence from Asia and Africa, it is clear that this pharaonic civilization only took place in Egypt. The ancient peoples of Africa, although also benefiting from the bounty of the Nile and an even better climate, left nothing behind.

Cleopatra was not black, and I would appreciate the opportunity to speak to Pinkett Smith about a woman whose accomplishments and story were dramatic enough to not require politically motivated embellishment in their telling.

When Cleopatra came to the throne in 51 BC after her father’s death, Egypt was severely damaged, heavily in debt, and facing high inflation. The Nile had recently flooded more destructively than usual, political power was in the hands of Rome, and feelings of anger and rebellion among the Alexandrians towards the pharaoh had reached a fever pitch.

Cleopatra rose to the occasion by entering the political arena with a strong character, a lively mind and, it must be said, feminine charms which she did not hesitate to exploit, as evidenced by her relationships and his handling with the Romans Julius Caesar and Mark Antony.

Cleopatra had several private tutors who prepared her to rule Egypt, but she also pursued her own academic interests, such as science and philosophy, and could be considered a pioneer in the field of women’s rights. Unlike her ancestors, Cleopatra learned the native Egyptian language, as well as Greek and other languages.

So Cleopatra was many things and more than deserved to have her story told to modern audiences, but one thing she definitely was not was black.

It’s a shame that Netflix has classified this new series as a docudrama rather than a pure drama, because no one who knows anything about ancient Egypt can take it seriously.

• Dr. Zahi Hawass is Honorary Chairman of the Antiquities Coalition Advisory Board, an Egyptologist and former Minister of Antiquities of Egypt, a position he held twice. He is also director of excavations at Giza, Saqqara, the Bahariya Oasis and the Valley of the Kings. He participated in several important archaeological projects. He led the search for the tomb of Cleopatra and Mark Antony on the premises of a Ptolemaic temple near Alexandria. (Source: Coalition of Antiquities)

  

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