So to insist that Cleopatra and her family were only “Greek” is somewhat disingenuous. That’s longer than the United States has existed as a nation. This is sometimes lost in the chatter between those who insist that she was either “Greek” or “Egyptian.” Whatever her heritage, she was a pharaoh of Egypt, which is in Africa, and she descended from a family that ruled from this seat for 293 years. One thing that the Netflix documentary gets right is the title. The Real History and Heritage of Cleopatra Cleopatra was Greek, meaning that she was light-skinned, not Black.” Meanwhile the Egyptian lawyer Mahmoud al-Semary has filed a complaint to the public prosecutor of Egypt, demanding the nation block access to Netflix in that country.Ĭonversely, Pinkett Smith has said in the press, “We don’t often get to see or hear stories about Black queens, and that was really important to 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!” Zahi Hawass, a prominent Egyptologist and former Minister of Antiquities for the Egyptian government, told the al-Masry al-Youm newspaper (via BBC) last month, “This is completely fake. The assertion and casting came under fire from several notable quarters, including those in the actual modern Egypt. Haley of Hamilton College, who said her grandmother once told her, “I don’t care what they tell you in school, Cleopatra was Black.” The trailer even rather proactively includes a line from one of its interviewees, Professor Shelley P. Yet the veracity of the documentary aspect of the film is being aggressively challenged after Netflix’s Cleopatra cast Black British actress Adele James as Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last pharaoh of Egypt and the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty. The documentary is the second of three from the streaming service and executive producer Jada Pinkett Smith, both of whom have committed to spotlighting women rulers in African history by way of historical reenactments (or “docudrama”) which is then juxtaposed against interviews with talking heads and experts. Yet it’s being put to the test this week via the release of Netflix’s African Queens: Cleopatra. The proverb of “all press is good press” feels almost as old as the Nile.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |