Not a true representation of Cleopatra
Cleopatra Was Not Black. Just as many people cling to the idea of Hollywood “White Washing” many icons of color in Hollywood movies, the same can be said about Jada Pinkett-Smith in terms of her newest Netflix film entitled “Cleopatra”. Within this article we are going to touch on three reasons as to why Jada Pinket-Smith attempts at “Black Washing” Cleopatra is nothing more than an attempt to boost the low self-esteem of Black Americans in the United States. We will also address the logistical mindset of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in relation to Black Americans, and lastly, we will touch on how much harm the depliction of historical inaccuracies do to not only Black Americans who are already fragile and socially weak but the harm these inaccuracies do to the world.
Now we all can agree that the enslavement of any person or an ethnic group of people is wrong. However, when it comes to the enslavement of Africans because Black Americans did not exist yet, it was the Arabs who were the first to enslave Africans in mass. Yes, there has always been the enslavement of people as even Africans enslaved other Africans, but the Arabs were some of the most notable when it came to commercializing slave trading. After the Arabs created the commercialization of enslaving Africans for capital gain, then the business practice of enslavement of Africans became mainstream in other parts of the world.
A true representation of what Cleopatra looked like according to Egyptian Scholars.
This ultimately led to the Spaniards and Portuguese enslaving Africans over time - and this is where the beginnings of enslaved Africans being transported to the Caribbean, then to Brazil then lastly to southern parts of America. This progression is very important to take note of and understand because the Africans who were the foundation of Black Americans more than likely with a 95% degree of accuracy could not have come from Egypt. Why? Because it wasn’t logistically sound from a business standpoint and make no mistake about it what we now call Black Americans were big business.
The truth is well over 95% of Black Americans of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade came from west Africa were the water and ports were more logistically sound then going to Egypt, then capturing them, them marching them over 3,000 with some sort of security force miles across Africa and then put them on a ship. Think about the logistical nightmare it would have been. This is not to mention the fact that Spain and Portugal are geographically closer to west Africa than to Egypt. In fact, all one must do is follow the West Coast of Africa and it will lead you to first Portugal then Spain respectively. So, the claim of Cleopatra having any remote connection to Black Americans is null and void.
The Egyptian queen, shown here in a 19th-century engraving, sneaked back from exile and surprised Julius Caesar. Granger Collection, New York
Speaking of Cleopatra, it’s likely that she may have been a woman of color but she was most likely not an African as we would like to think of it/them per se. Alexandria Egypt, where Cleopatra was born at the time, was closer to Palestine - in fact they were next door neighbors until the Israeli State was annexed into it around 1940 which is nothing more than last month in the eyes of world history. Cleopatra was the last ruler of the Macedonian Dynasty in 30BC until she committed suicide during a time of war with the Romans.
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade did not occur until roughly 1500AD that’s well over a thousand years after the fact which means that there yet again was no way American Black People had any connection of any linage to Cleopatra. Currently we don’t know exactly where Cleopatra’s father was born but we do know he wasn’t born in Egypt and most scholars suggest he may have been born in Cypress which would make him of Greek descent. If that is true, which it probably is, then that would make Cleopatra descendant of the Greeks but only being born in Alexandria Egypt and thus simply may have been a woman of color but most certainly nothing close to being a Black American.
Cleopatra, the Greek queen of Ancient Egypt was depicted by Heinrich Faust in 1876. Credit: Public Domain
It is a well-known fact that American Black People have a weak sense of self-esteem and so often American Black People will rely on any kind of African achievement to make them feel good about themselves. Although American Black People know they are descendants of African people, they honestly do not know exactly where in Africa their ancestry comes from. But to be more specific – today’s Black Americans are more likely to come from the breeding farms of South Carolina and other various breeding farms scattered around the rest of the South. Why? because after the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was abolished, the slave owners of the American South developed breeding farms so they could keep a steady supply of slaves. In all, American Black People really don’t have a history at all because outside of being genetically linked to Africa, they are really leftover livestock of the breeding farms of the American South.
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