World
Egyptian lawyer sues Netflix over depiction of ‘black’ Cleopatra
An Egyptian lawyer is suing Netflix over a new series depicting Queen Cleopatra as a black African, claiming the show violates media law and aims to “erase the Egyptian identity,” the BBC reported.
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
African Queens: Queen Cleopatra, produced by Jada Pinkett-Smith, has sparked wider controversy in the country, with top archaeologists insisting that the 1st century BC ruler was a “light-skinned” Greek woman.
Lawyer Mahmoud al-Semary filed a case with the country’s public prosecutor on Sunday demanding that he block access to Netflix in Egypt.
The series included content that violated Egypt’s media laws, he claimed, accusing Netflix of trying to “promote the Afrocentric thinking… which includes slogans and writings aimed at distorting and erasing the Egyptian identity.”
But the actress portraying Cleopatra, Adele James, snapped back at critics on Twitter by saying “If you don’t like the casting, don’t watch the show.”
Egyptologist Zahi Hawass told the al-Masry al-Youm newspaper: “This is completely fake. Cleopatra was Greek, meaning that she was light-skinned, not black.”
The only known black rulers of Egypt were the Kushite kings who ruled from 747 to 656 BC, Hawass added.
“Netflix is trying to provoke confusion by spreading false and deceptive facts that the origin of the Egyptian civilization is black,” he said, calling on Egyptians to protest against the streaming service.
Cleopatra was the last queen of a Greek-speaking dynasty founded by Alexander the Great’s Macedonian general Ptolemy.
She was born in Alexandria in 69 BC, succeeding her father Ptolemy XII in 51 BC and ruling until her death in 30 BC, when the kingdom fell under Roman rule.
The identity of her mother is not known, and some historians claim that it is possible that she or another ancestor was an indigenous Egyptian, or from elsewhere in Africa.
Jada Pinkett Smith was quoted as saying: “We don't often get to see or hear stories about black queens, and that was really 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!”
But when the trailer was released last week, many Egyptians took to social media to criticize the depiction of the queen.
Read more:
Sarcophagus of pharaoh Ramses II unveiled in Paris after rare journey outside Egypt