While the Greek origin of the father of the Egyptian queen is known, the historian Charles Vanthournout explains to Franceinfo Culture that the ancient sources remain “silent” on the origins of the mother.
The docu-fiction trailer Queen Cleopatra which will air in May on Netflix caused an uproar in Egypt. The cause: Cleopatra, played by British actress Adele James, is a black woman. An Egyptian lawyer, Mahmoud al-Semary, asked for the platform to be banned in his country for historical distortion, indicates The Jerusalem Post. Egyptologist and former Egyptian Minister of Antiquities, Zahi Hawassalso stepped up to the plate on his Facebook page, reports Al Ahramto remind that “Cleopatra was not black”. “As a Greek, she resembled the queens and princesses of Macedonia”, he adds. Israeli actress Gal Gadot, expected, could not interpret the character precisely because of the Macedonian origins of Cleopatra. In a column published in varietythe director of the documentary series Tina Gharavi wonders: “What bothers you so much about a black Cleopatra?
What was Cleopatra’s skin tone? We put the question to Charles Vanthournout, professor of history and doctoral student in American Egyptomania, Egyptomania designating “the fascination that individuals have for ancient Egypt”. Charles Vanthournout is writing his thesis under the supervision of historian Christian-Georges Schwentzel. Interview.
Franceinfo Culture: based on existing scientific evidence, what exactly do we know about Cleopatra’s skin color?
Charles Vanthournout: We know that Cleopatra came from the Ptolemaic dynasty, that is, from a Greco-Macedonian dynasty descended from Alexander the Great. She is therefore of Greek origin, from the Hellenic world, through her father Ptolemy XII who had several concubines. It could just be that his mother was Egyptian or something else. It is the Greek geographer Strabon who tells us that she is a “bastard”, that is to say that she was born of a concubine of Ptolemy. In addition, his paternal grandfather Ptolemy IX had also had extramarital affairs. Which is quite normal among the Ptolemies.
What are the origins of his mother?
We don’t know anything about his mother. The only certainty concerns his paternal line.
She could therefore be Egyptian, Nubian, Kemite: a person with black skin, etc…
It’s a hypothesis. There is a silence of ancient sources.
“Queen Cleopatra” is part of a documentary series produced by Jada Pinkett Smith and whose ambition is to highlight Afro-descendant queens. What was the production based on to portray the Egyptian queen as a black woman?
Cleopatra is an emblematic figure of Antiquity that everyone appropriates. Americans have often appropriated characters from antiquity to defend causes. In the 1970s, blacks used it to defend civil rights in American society. We are still witnessing today social tensions between blacks and whites. Therefore, by presenting Cleopatra in the guise of a black woman, it is a way of reaffirming the importance of this Afro-American culture in the United States. I haven’t seen the documentary [sortie prévue le 10 mai en France] but the producer is in the continuity of the Afrocentric culture that has prevailed since the 19th century in this country: the descendants of slaves who populated America want to affirm African values by advocating a black Egypt. We are, once again, in this reappropriation of a black Egypt.
American Egyptomania, which dates back to the Napoleonic campaigns in 1798, has served at other times. Napoleon went to Egypt with scholars, the source of publications that arrived in the United States. Tourists were also at the origin of this American Egyptomania. And then the Americans tried to prove on a racial basis that Egypt was populated by whites. Imagine in this American slave society of the 19th century, what a black Egypt would have caused? This poses a problem and we try to prove by measuring skulls – which seems surreal today – that there is a superior race – the whites – and an inferior race – the blacks – in order to legitimize slavery.
The current controversy refers to an old scientific debate around the fact that the ancient Egyptians were Nubians, therefore black in skin…
It’s an endless debate. Afrocentrists do say that Egyptians were black. There was a gathering at Unesco in 1974, DNA tests were carried out on thousands of mummies as well as scanners. It has been concluded that the ancient Egyptians were a heterogeneous population. There were also many whites, blacks, mestizos… In other words, they had a skin color quite similar to that of the populations of the Near East. There is a consensus among Egyptologists on this issue.
But, in the end, everyone can choose their camp because there is a silence of the ancient sources. This concept of black/white is never mentioned among the ancient Egyptians. We never mention color simply because we don’t pay attention to it. The concepts of black/white, superior race versus inferior race stem from colonialism, nationalism and imperialism of the 19th century. This is why in the walls of the tombs, you see so many blacks, mestizos, etc. The concept of racism does not exist. It is normal today that we reclaim Egypt. It is part of our imagination, but in a documentary you have to be careful to remain neutral and in the truth of the ancient sources which are silent and do not allow you to have a clear opinion.