Adele James, a black actress portraying Cleopatra, the last active queen of ancient Egypt whose father was Ptolemaic, in the Queen Cleopatra episode of Netflix’s new docu-series, African Queens, sparked a worldwide debate. The issue naturally hit Egyptian society closer to home than others, which led to James’ portrayal of Cleopatra to be formally addressed
Following the release of the controversial Netflix documentary series, Queen Cleopatra, Egyptian experts and youth were outraged, claiming that the show “falsifies Egyptian history” and “promotes Afrocentrism”. In the documentary, Cleopatra, one of Egypt’s most famous historical figures, is portrayed by Adele James, who is biracial. In the trailer, one of the talking heads says,
A recent Netflix documentary called Queen Cleopatra has drawn criticism for "blackwashing" one of Egypt’s most famous historical figures, Cleopatra. The trailer for the documentary makes a clear reference to Cleopatra’s skin colour, where one commentator explicitly says, “I don’t care what they tell you in school. Cleopatra was black.” Cleopatra VII Philopathor was the
In March 2022 a team of American archaeologists was excavating a temple of the Egyptian goddess Isis at the ancient site of Berenike, on the shores of the