Egypt is not happy with Netflix’s upcoming docudrama, ‘Queen Cleopatra’, produced by Jada Pinkett Smith. The controversy centres on the casting of a black actress as the Hellenic Egyptian queen. According to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Cleopatra was “light-skinned and had Hellenic features.”
The Ministry released a statement on April 27 denouncing the “falsification of Egyptian history” and calling for greater accuracy in historical depictions. It seems this drama is causing some real drama indeed.
In the statement, Dr Mustafa Waziri, the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Archaeology, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said:
“The Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Archaeology confirms that Queen Cleopatra was light-skinned and had Hellenic features (Greek). Queen Cleopatra’s works and statues are the best evidence of her true features and Macedonian origins.”
Dr Waziri called the “appearance of the heroine” as a dark-skinned African woman “a falsification of Egyptian history and a blatant historical misconception.”
He went on to say that, given the “film is classified as a documentary and not a drama,” he ‘ordered’ the owners of its industry to investigate with “accuracy and refer to historical and scientific facts in order to ensure that the history and civilisations of peoples are not falsified.”
In the statement, he took a swipe at Netflix and the producers of the Netflix program for not consulting archaeologists and anthropologists.
“…archaeologists and anthropologists should have been referred to when making such kind of documentary and historical films that will remain a witness on civilisations and history of nations, noting that there are many [of] Queen Cleopatra’s artifacts and depiction on coins that confirm [her] true shape and features, in which they all show Queen Cleopatra’s Hellenic (Greek) features, in terms of light complexion, drawn nose, and fluffy lips.”
In the Ministry’s statement, “Dr Waziri said that the state of rejection that the film witnessed before its screening comes from the heart of defending the history of Queen Cleopatra VII, which is an important and authentic part of ancient Egyptian history, and away from any ethnic racism, certainly on the full respect for African civilisations and our brothers in the African continent that unites us all.”
Dr Nasser Mekkawy, the Head of the Egyptian Department of Archaeology, Cairo University, added that Queen Cleopatra’s appearance in this film “competes with the simplest historical facts and the writings of historians such as Plutarchus and Diocasius, who recorded the events of Roman history in Egypt in the reign of Queen Cleopatra, who affirmed that she was light-skinned and that she is of pure Macedonian origins.”
Dr Mekkawy points out that Queen Cleopatra VII “descended from an ancient Macedonian dynasty that ruled Egypt for nearly 300 years, founded by King Batleimos I [Ptolemy I] thr Macedonian leader of the army of Alexander the Great, to which the state of Egypt came after the death of Alexander and founded the Bethlehemian family. Bethlehemous I married Queen “Bernicky I” of Macedonian descent, and King Bethlehemus II.
He pointed to the tradition of royal incest as the sons and grandchildren continued “to mate” with their sisters “in accordance with the customs of this era” and added that Queen Cleopatra VII and her brother Batlehemus 14 maintained their Greek background throughout this period.
In direct rebuke he said that Ancient Egyptians were not related to South-Saharan Africans. Dr Mekkawy pointed to biological anthropological and DNA studies conducted on ancient Egyptian mummies and bones [that confirmed that Egyptians do not bear the features of South-Saharan Africans].
“The biological anthropology studies and DNA studies conducted on ancient Egyptian mummies and bones confirmed that Egyptians do not bear the features of sub-Saharan Africans. Whether in the form of the skull, genital anthropology, or DNA, biological acid-based studies conducted on mummies and bones confirmed that the ancient Egyptians do not carry the features of sub-Saharan Africans in the form of the skull, the width of the foreskin, the nose, and the expansion of the upper jaw.”
Dr Mekkawy, referring to the cultural diversity in Egypt, stated that “The fact that we see great diversity between the features of Egyptians is due to the progress of this land being built, the stability of its inhabitants, and their acceptance of every stranger within their space.”
He added that all the sculptures and statues of ancient Egyptians on temples and tombs depicted Egyptians with features similar to those of modern Egyptians in terms of eye colour, hair, skin, the softness and density of hair of men and women, even the skin colour, and the presence of coloured eyes, which are depicted in some ancient country statues.
The head archaeologist said that when “some of the embossing techniques” changed, and they began to paint the mummy’s skin to look like in her first life, “they painted the man’s skin in a brown colour and the woman’s skin in light yellow.”
Dr Katrina Martinez, head of the Dominican mission at the Temple of Tapozeris Magna West in Alexandria, added that while there may be conflicting views about Cleopatra’s race, “it is certain that she was born in Egypt in 69 AD of Macedonian origin.”
Dr. Martinez said that in the statues and coins left behind, “the queen asserts without a doubt her Hellenistic features.”
She pointed to a marble bust in the Berlin Museum from the first century BC, where Cleopatra is seen wearing a royal crown, and her eyes are Lusitanian – Indo-European Iberian – “with a drawn nose and delicate lips, plus another half statue preserved in the Vatican shown with Indo-European features, and a range of coins depicted by which confirms her Hellenistic genealogy.
