Netflix has been accused of ‘blackwashing’ history by casting a black actress as Cleopatra in a new docuseries about the Macedonian-Greek ruler of Egypt. African Queens: Queen Cleopatra stars 37-year-old English actress Adele James. Producer Jada Pinkett Smith said she wanted to tell the story because ‘we don’t often get to see or hear stories about black queens.’
The trailer released last week features claims that Cleopatra was black with ‘curly hair.’ One historian asserts in the preview: ‘I remember my grandmother saying to me: I don’t care what they tell you in school, Cleopatra was black.’ But Egyptians have reacted with horror to the denial of records which show Cleopatra was Macedonian-Greek. An Egyptian lawyer has filed a case with the country’s public prosecutor demanding that Netflix be shut down.
Meanwhile, Cairo’s former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass condemned the documentary as ‘completely fake. Cleopatra was Greek, meaning that she was light-skinned, not black.’ Hawass said the only rulers of Egypt known to have been black were the Kushite kings of the 25th Dynasty (747-656 BC).
On Sunday, lawyer Mahmoud al-Semary filed a complaint with the public prosecutor demanding that he take ‘the necessary legal measures’ to block access to Netflix. He alleged the show featured 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.’
Cleopatra was famously played by white English actress Elizabeth Taylor opposite Richard Burton as Mark Anthony in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s historical epic from 1963. Three years ago plans for a new movie about the queen starring Israeli actress Gal Gadot sparked a backlash from people insisting the role should go to an Egyptian or African actress.
The fury at Netflix’s right-on programming comes after it appeared to have ditched the woke messaging last year. Netflix took a hit in the first half of 2022, losing about 1,170 million subscribers as rivals such as Paramount+ and Disney+ raked them in. The huge decline was seen by some as a direct consequence of the company’s late response to demands from its viewers to tone down their woke agenda.
