by Amuna Wagner

Whenever a character loved by mainstream society is played by a Black actor, the internet goes crazy.

From The Little Mermaid to Tinkerbell and Hermione, it seems fictional characters lose their mainstream appeal once imagined as Black. It’s boring, and it thankfully has not deterred actors from thriving creatively. With the forthcoming second season of the Netflix docu-drama series “African Queens” from executive producer Jada Pinkett Smith, another controversy is flooding the internet, this time in disapproval of Queen Cleopatra’s depiction as a light-skinned black woman.

Cleopatra VII Philopator (69 BC - 30 BC) ruled over Egypt from 51 to 30 BC as the last of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Unlike Tinkerbell or The Little Mermaid, she is an actual historical figure, and the production in question is a documentary, which makes this particular outcry more complex than usual. Within hours after the trailer’s release, a petition was raised on Change.Org accusing Netflix of falsifying history. It was signed by 85,000 people from around the world before getting pulled off the platform. At the intersection of history, colonial legacies, and anti-Blackness, the question of whether or not Cleopatra should be played by a Black woman is a great starting point for long overdue.

The Revisionism of Egyptology

Modern Egyptology, the study of ancient Egypt, was the first colonial discipline conceived by Europeans for Europeans. White academics refused to believe that an African civilisation could have been as great as the Pharaohs, so they reframed Egypt to be in, but not of Africa. Meaning they divorced Egypt from its northeast African context and instead framed it as part of the “Mediterranean” economic, social and political sphere. Egyptology as an academic discipline linked ancient Egypt to Europe and allowed Europeans to partake in a unique history which they claimed was hardly African at all, or at best at a crossroad between the Near East, the eastern Mediterranean and Africa.

Ancient Egypt is of little interest to the majority of contemporary Egyptians. Most archaeologists studying the Pharaonic era are still Western, as are the tourists travelling to see ancient sights. This begs the question of how much people who critique a black Cleopatra are genuinely invested in historical accuracy. Egyptology is still figuring out how to rid itself of its inceptors’ racist biases, and history is constantly being revised in that process. According to common historical records, Cleopatra was of Macedonian Greek heritage. Is it that she was likely not a black woman that bothers people? Or is it that depicting her as African pulls Egypt from Europe into Africa?

When Cleopatra was White

African-Americans love Cleopatra for her legacy as a strong woman on the African continent. About the documentary, Pinkett Smith said that “We don't often get to see or hear stories about Black queens, and that was important for me, as well as for my daughter, and just for my community to be able to know those stories because there are tons of them. Cleopatra is a queen who many know about, but not her truth. She has been displayed as overtly sexual, excessive, and corrupt, yet she was a strategist, an intellect, a commanding force of nature, who fought to protect her kingdom… and her heritage is highly debated.” 

Egyptians, who may not love Cleopatra at all, have allowed Europe to define her narrative in the past. However, they suddenly find it offensive when African-Americans do the same. This is not to say that one cannot problematise ahistorical depictions and that the question of “why Cleopatra and not Nefertiti” is valid. When “Queen Cleopatra” airs on May 10th, we will ask historians about its accuracy. But the way that inaccuracies are called out matters. And so far, much critique focuses on skin colour rather than historical revisionism. Many Egyptian social media users are concerned with “Afrocentrists” stealing their culture through so-called “blackwashing”. This is an ironic testament in light of the prevalence of blackface in Egyptian culture. It is also irrational that one docu-series, or a bunch of African-Americans romanticising ancient Egypt, will steal Egyptian culture.

The Real Issue

“Given that Cleopatra represents herself as an Egyptian, it seems strange to insist on depicting her as wholly European,” says Sally Ann Ashton, an expert interviewed in the series. “Cleopatra ruled in Egypt long before the Arab settlement in North Africa. If the maternal side of her family were indigenous women, they would’ve been African, and this should be reflected in contemporary representations of Cleopatra.” And if they were not, what remains to be said is: so what if Cleopatra was not black? This is not the first, nor the last time that a film is made about her. What is interesting here is that people take issue with how they understand skin colour, its connotations, its beauty, and ultimately, its legitimacy.