Egyptians are outraged over the representation of the historical figure Cleopatra as a black African in Netflix’s latest dispute. The Netflix documentary series African Queens: Queen Cleopatra did not go down well with fans, as a lawyer filed a complaint alleging that the movie seeks to “erase the Egyptian identity.” In fact, a leading archaeologist thinks that Cleopatra was “light-skinned” rather than “black.” The lawyer alleged that the series included visual material and content that violated Egypt’s media laws and accused Netflix of trying to “promote the Afrocentric thinking… which includes slogans and writings aimed at distorting and erasing the Egyptian identity”.
The controversy ballooned after the actress playing Cleopatra on the show said, “If you don’t like the casting, don’t watch the show.” The producer of the Netflix production also said that “her heritage is highly debated”.
“Netflix is trying to provoke confusion by spreading false and deceptive facts that the origin of the Egyptian civilization is black”
Meanwhile, Cleopatra was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in 69 BC and became the last queen of Alexander the Great’s Macedonian general Ptolemy’s Greek-speaking kingdom. She governed Egypt after her father, Ptolemy XII, died. After that, the Romans took over Egypt. Cleopatra’s mother’s origins are unknown, and some historians believe she could have been an indigenous Egyptian or from elsewhere in Africa.
The trailer for Cleopatra was released last week and has ever since courted controversy around the queen’s depiction. Zahi Hawass, a prominent Egyptologist, and former antiquities minister told the al-Masry al-Youm newspaper: “This is completely fake. Cleopatra was Greek, meaning that she was light-skinned, not black.” “Netflix is trying to provoke confusion by spreading false and deceptive facts that the origin of the Egyptian civilisation is black,” he added.