For Cheikh Anta Diop (as well as his friend Obenga who shares the same faults), he is not considered a leader by many peopld except by political and media actors, that is to say almost all "intellectuals of Afrocentrism. He is not taken seriously in the scientific world (Afrocentrism has almost disappeared from universities) where his work has long been refuted (in his defense, some disciplinary fields such as paleo-genetics didn't yet exist in his time) and are based on different shortcuts, on completely arbitrary or even fictitious connections between different languages, on the amalgamation of the concepts of "culture", "civilization" and "species", "construction" and "classification" or still on a very racist conception inherited from the colonialism of "blacks" whose cultural and biological differences are completely forgotten in his books to make them a perfectly homogeneous people and independent of others. His work often had a more political than scientific aim, such as the Wollofization of Senegal. Diop was primarily a chemist, did (only) a Bac +3 in linguistics so he is nothing like an Egyptologist, nothing like a researcher. He only interpreted data found in the literature since he was not in Egypt either before the Cairo conference. The said symposium is also far from being a reference in Egyptology (it is a symposium, not a congress) contrary to what many Afrocentrists present without apparently knowing what a symposium is. Diop certainly had his role to play against the Eurocentrism of his time (which no longer really exists in research today or in an extremely minority way and in other forms) which served to support the discourse of civilizing mission and which made Africa a territory without history before colonization but Diop has unfortunately above all served to give birth to the African equivalent of Eurocentrism: Afrocentrism. It is kind of a pity to have wanted to fight against ethnocentrism by creating a new ethnocentrism. Especially since Afrocentrism does not even have the effect of making African history shine (which is nevertheless rich as Diop defended it) but on the contrary it makes it invisible for the benefit of fantasies about countries whose population does not was not really black or imagining futuristic civilizations like those who invoke the aliens and Atlantis to talk about the pyramids of Egypt. Scientific studies (linguistics, history, art history, archaeology, anthropology, paleo-genetics, etc.) of the last 40 years clearly show that the population has been predominantly Afro-Asian (Arab/Berber) and a black minority (further in the south) since prehistoric times. So long before the first dynasties. Only the 25th dynasty was black and came from Kush while only the last dynasty was white and came from Macedonia. For some scientific literature on the subject of the skin color(s) of the ancient Egyptians: - Kathryn A. Bard, « Ancient Egyptians and the issue of race, dans M.R. Lefkowitz, G. MacLean-Rogers (éd.), Black Athena Revisited, Londres, 1996, 103-111. - Frank J. Yurco, Were the Ancient Egyptians black or white?, Biblical Archaeology Review 15 (5), 1989, 24-29, 58. - V. Schuenemann, A. Peltzer, B. Welte et al., Ancient Egyptian mummy genomes suggest an increase of Sub-Saharan African ancestry in post-Roman periods, Nature Communications 8 (15694), 2017. - Brenna M. Henn, Laure R. Botigué, S. Gravel, Wei Wang, Abra Brisbin, Jake K. Byrnes, Karima Fadhlaoui-Zid, Pierre A. Zalloua, Andres Moreno-Estrada, Jaume Bertranpetit, Carlos D. Bustamante, David Comas, Genomic Ancestry of North Africans Supports Back-to-Africa Migrations, PLoS Genetics 8 (1), 2012. - Béatrix Midant-Reynes, Yann Tristant (éd.), Egypt at its origins 2: Proceedings of the International Conference “Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt”, Toulouse, France, 5th-8th September 2005, OLA 172, Louvain, 2008. _Kemp, B. J., Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilisation, Routledge, 07 May 2007. _Keita, S.O.Y., "Genetics, Egypt, and History: Interpreting Geographical Patterns of Y Chromosome Variation", American Journal of Physical Anthropology (1990). _Keita, S.O.Y., "Early Nile Valley Farmers, From El-Badari, Aboriginals or 'European' Agro-Nostratic Immigrants? Craniometric Affinities Considered With Other Data", Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 191-208 (2005). _Keita, S.O.Y., "Studies and Comments on Ancient Egyptian Biological Relationships", History in Africa, 20: 129-154 (1993): The Origins of Afroasiatic, Ehret, Keita and Newman, Science (2004). _Shriner, D. & Keita, S.O.Y. Migration route out of Africa unresolved by 225 Egyptian and Ethiopian whole genome sequences, 2016.
I don’t ever remember having been taught that the Egyptians were white. In school, 35 years ago, we were taught about ancient Egypt and we were never left in any doubt that the Egyptians were black. The friezes in the pyramids clearly show this. That being said, Egypt underwent many changes over the centuries with various groups from different parts of Africa who weren’t necessarily all of sub Saharan origin (one example being the Persians). Ancient Egyptian friezes show white, black and brown skins. They differentiated between the darker skins of Numidians and the comparatively lighter tones of Egyptians, compared to the whiter tones of the Semitic people. But I don’t think anyone with any decent sense and knowledge would deny that the original Egyptians were black. I’ve certainly never heard anyone deny it. The key flaw in this video is that it doesn’t actually address the title. I’m sorry, but proving that the original Egyptians were black does NOT prove that Cleopatra was black. These are two different issues. Whilst the make of this video talks about the importance of research, none whatsoever has been given to Cleopatra herself. Cleopatra was a direct descendant of Ptolemy I, who ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great seized it from Persian control. Alexander and Ptolemy were both Macedonian Greek. The Ptolemaic dynasty ruled Egypt for a very long time. The championed Greek art and culture. The archaeological evidence is there. They also sent fortunes in resources and profits back to Macedonia. The Ptolemaic rulers were also fiercely keen on racial purity, marrying within Macedonian blood - in fact, so keen were they that they usually only married Ptolemaic blood. A very incestuous family - even Cleopatra was married to her own brother at one point. And being so keen on proving their pure-blooded status, the family history was mostly very well recorded. We can trace her Ptolemaic lineage fairly well. The only real question marks are over the identity of her mother (probably Cleopatra V) and her grandmother. We can’t completely rule out some degree of black heritage, but the vast majority, if not all, is certainly Hellenistic. To draw a more recent comparison, the British Raj ruled India for over 80 years, with British Parliamentary rule and Queen Victoria as the titular Empress of India. The people of India had brown skin. But Queen Victoria did not have brown skin. Neither did the governing bodies sent to rule India on behalf of the British Empire. The maker of this video has ignored an easily accessible piece of information about Cleopatra and hidden the fact by a wall of research and information about the Egyptians in general. I can’t decide whether this is poor research or deliberate misinformation.
In this video I only showed the work of Mr. Diop. If you don’t agree with him, it’s ok ✅ I agree with his vision and research like many other scientist at that point of time.
@@infographicsafrica It’s not that I disagree with him per se. I just disagree with the fact that you’ve used his findings to argue that Cleopatra was black. The points you shared in this video don’t have anything to do with Cleopatra’s skin colour. It’s about Egyptians in general, and I’m not disputing that they’re black. At the end of the video you’ve just taken this as evidence of Cleopatra as being black, which is a different argument because it’s a matter of historical record the entire dynasty she came from was Hellenistic and was not native to Egypt.
Everything in this video is pretty solid except the conclusion about Cleopatra herself. Her family were a dynasty are Greco-Macedonian invaders, while some intermixing could have happened she was likely her self at most only half Egyptian.
Netflix documentary is an unrealistic depiction of Cleopatra because she was Greek of the Ptolemy family who ruled Egypt for over three hundred years. Egypt was also ruled by other countries for over three thousand years...the last was Great Britain. Any other ideas are of the Afrocentrics views of appropriating others' cultures and history.
Egypt is in Africa, so doesn’t it make a little sense to have an afrocentric approach while talking about it? It’s not like I am talking about new zeland being a black culture. If the human species started at the base of the nile river around Ethiopia/Kenya Doesn’t it make sense they would simply grow their culture around the nile river moving more and more north? If so, what is the color of people from that original region… honestly it’s a little simple to just ignore these facts and focus on calling people Afrocentric.
@@infographicsafrica when talking about cleopatra speciffically its pretty callous to sideline her ancestry over the region she found herself in. especially once you find out how the ptolomeys got there to begin with it makes less sense. cleopatra is one more case of the ''stranger king'', this case queen, that is so prevelent in human history.
no ONE is saying that she wasen't Greek,WHAT WE ARE SAYING BASED OF THE EVIDENCE IS THAT SHE WAS OF MIXED RACE,NOT WHITE.EGYPT WEAS NEVER RULED BY OTHER COUNTREIS FOR 3',000 YRS. romans and Greeks started in 300 bc Egyptian Empire was over 5000 yrs old,and it maintained it's black majority until 7th century AD
fACTS!!! Most ANCIENT Greeks were not white she had Persian( black ancestry) who was her grandmother? THE BBC CONFIRMS HER SISTER HAD A BLACK MOTHER ,AND ALSO SAYS CLEOPATRS MOTHER WAS BLACK. ANCIENT GREEKS WERE LESS THAN 20% OF THE POPULATION, THE BUSTS OF HER ARE BOGUS IN EUROPE THEN COMPARE SCULPTURES OF HER IN AFRICA. iT IS CLEAR AS DAY WHERE THE TRUTH IS.
I like this video matter fact I love this video. I like learning about my black history. I’m like other people. I actually look at my history more than they do.
Unfortunately there is no way Egypt can be taken to Europe. That's very sad. They have studied all the way they can move that part of earth to Europe but till now no success. Sorry! Egypt is Africa but not only that the origin of humanity is in Africa. The first homosapiens is black. There's no doubt is a black civilization but let me say If there's any doubt about the race and color and civilization of Egypt I will still think is black for a simple reason Egypt is in Africa. Period.
The common claim is Cleopatra was purely white and Greek. The Ptolemies were Macedonians and they took power in Egypt ( Kemet ) after Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals, took power. The Ptolemies did everything to win over the allegiance of native Egyptians. They adopted Egyptian deities and rituals. They also took Egyptian women as concubines. It is thus ridiculous to assume the Ptolemies retained their racial ' purity ' after so much race mixing. Historian Joel Augustus Rogers noted that Queen Cleopatra ( Cleopatra being a common Ptolemaic name ) came of an ' illegitimate ' bloodline. Her father was so dark and African in his features that he was known as the " New Osiris ". Even William Shakespeare in his play ' Anthony and Cleopatra ' described Cleopatra as one ' darkened as one in the sun '. Cleopatra being involved with Roman leaders does not negate her Africanness. There was no concept of ' white supremacy ' and ' racial purity ' in those days. It has also been determined by DNA testing that Cleopatra's sister Arsinoe was African.
There is no evidence of African bloodline in Cleopatra's family tree. What are you talking about. Have some respect for Hellenic culture and Egyptian. Don't be a racist have some respect and dignity for yourself. You insult Africa.
Every writer from ancient times refer to Egyptian as dark skinned with curly hair. From Greek to Roman. I really consider this as major evidence. I do not judge cleopatra by her race… I am african and recognize the link between all people from my culture.
@@infographicsafrica irrelevant. First of all Africa is the most diverse continent in the world. Hellens says they were also Nubian Egyptians a well. We know that already. Secondly again your statement is irrelevant . Because their is No evidence of African bloodline in the Hellenic tree. Simple. Stop saying irrelevant things. Stop making up something out of nothing stop spreading propaganda misleading people in believing a lie. We don't go with speculations and imaginarios. Stop making up something out of nothing.
@@EudaimonV Alexandrians where a mixed group of people documented in Strabo's history on that time period; as he was contemporary (they were mixed with Native Stock of Afrikans, along with the foreign soldiers who also dwell there), there is no way you can stay 300 years among millions of Afrikans and keep so-called pure bloodline, Greeks were not North Western Europe's idea of white in the first place (in which they themselves discriminated against them).
Cleopatra wasn't black or white, I think she was possibly mixed, and mixed races are known to be beautiful and she was known to be beautiful herself,look at the actress Zendaya For example, if Cleopatras skin color was anything, it would be simular to her skin tone or close to it, but idk just a guess
@infographicsafrica in 2024 maybe, and calling them black is a matter of opinion they're mixed after all, and I said simular, it was more then likely lighter since women back then preferred lighter skin and back back then the term black and white didn't exist, it's was more of a social status thing, Rome had a couple of emperors that also were probably also similar skin color to Drake and Zendaya, it's all speculation, I'm really not sure myself, I'm not a historian, historians will tell you it's possible, but not enough evidence to say otherwise 😅
I couldn’t agree more. These new terms (Black/White) can hardly be used to look at history. I hardly have an opinion on it, just wanted to make a video on Cheick Anta Diop. I love that man and his contribution to our continent
Interesting video and a lot of good points were made about Ancient Egypt being a lot more African than Arabic than is commonly taught or believed. However, those points don't prove that Cleopatra was black. The argument basically amounted to, "A statue of the man who founded Egypt shows clearly black features. We have the other statues and drawings, again clearly showing black features, from earlier in Egyptian history. Therefore Cleopatra was black." There was no mention of her Greek heritage, there was no mention, that in the 300 years of Ptolemaic rule, Cleopatra was the first of the dynasty to learn Egyptian and leaned how to read hieroglyphs. If she was as politically savvy as they say I doubt that had little to nothing to do with her skin color as much as it was a move to say to the people of Egypt "Look I'm one of you" so that they would be more likely to support her. The people behind the show are using the ambiguity of Cleopatra's mother's identity to push the black angle. Yes she could have been black, or Persian, or Arabic, or Philistine, or Hittite , or Babylonian, or Greek, who knows. I would hazard a guess that Cleopatra's mother was probably form the Aristocracy of wherever she came from. There was also inbreeding too, so who knows how many parents were actually brother and sister that she had in her family history. She herself married her brother. If they have the funds and the DNA then for the sake of historical accuracy, more than pushing any political agenda, perhaps Egyptologists should try to get a more accurate picture of the racial makeup of Ancient Egypt. That is if anyone outside of the US even cares Egyptians might not have the same preoccupation with race that most Americans have..
Thank you for watching and sharing your thoughts. Indeed there’s a lot more to it than what I shared. My goal was to bring back the work of Dr.Diop because I feel his research has been marked as “Afrocentric” and thrown away. Again thx for sharing! 🙏🏿
@gallienus172....The key words here are RESEARCH,EVIDENCE ,AND COMMON SENSE.I Have been to Africa and many countries,STUDY this history,there is no doubt in my mind the race of Cleopatra. Yes Cleopatra was Greek,but many of the ANCIENT Greeks WERE BLACK SHE HAD a Persian(black ancester) The identity of her grand mother is unknown her sister's mother was black African(BBC confrimation} A-number of claims of her mother as black with concubines ,the BBC has said her mother was black. Cambridge University has done extensive research with writtings, egyptian drawings of her ,wall sculpures.ancient speeches, things said by Cleopatra herself and more. The busts of her in EUROPE are bogus just like those of MOSES,KING TUT,JESUS,HANNIBAL,NEFIRTITI, and more,whereas sculpures of her in AFRICA are more of black features. Even if Cleopatra descended from white Greeks THERE IS NO OTHER DEFINATIVE EVIDENCE TO CONSIDER. GOOGLE...CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY REAL CLEOPATRA
WRONG. Greeks were NEVER black they were European the Y CHROMOSOMES PROVE it. They do NOT change. The Y CHROMOSOMES from the Earliest FIRST Ancestor. If they had black in them then they would have had that in their Y CHROMOSOMES And they DONT. You obviously don't know what reseach is or you WOULD know this. Secondly, You did ZERO RESEARCH ON HER LINEAGE. If you did you would know that Her father Ptolemy XII Auletes and her Mother Cleopatra V TRYPHAENA WERE BROTHER AND SISTER. Third her Mother gave Birth to her in 69BC and DIED in Child Birth to her in 69BC when CLEOPATRA WAS BORN. Fourth. Her Grandmother was Cleopatra IV. The SAME Grandmother of her father Cleopatra IV. As they had the SAME mother and father. You mistakenly don't know that ROYALS KEEP Documents on their lineage because they CANT marry out side of the Royal/ noble lines. It is clear you don't know Greeks either because they DID NOT marry outside of Greeks. They viewed outsiders or Foreigners to be Barbarians. THAT is why there was so much incest in Cleopatra's lineage.
Cleopatra being black is and always has been a preposterous notion. This mockumentary even depicted her father as black, and apparently there were no actual Egyptians back then, just some Sub-Saharans wearing another culture's clothing. Were there no actual black queens deemed important enough to tell the stories of, so they went with one of the most recognisable female rules in history and race-swapped her? Getting audiences angry is not a long-term business plan. Their ire will go as far as attack the actual companies, not just merely everyone associated with the product they hate. Bud Light got ruined, Target is becoming Bud Light 2.0 because of Satan worshipping LGBT items that they refuse to apologize for. And Netflix is getting sue for a BILLION over this stupid historical fanfiction daring to call itself a documentary.
You’re trying to re-write history. Good luck - Macedonia is in the balkans, as are my genetics. Cleopatra spent years in Roman Empire and was painted, sculpted and written about many many times. She was as European as my father. Sorry
Why is it always so hard for people to believe that Egypt which we all know is in Africa was originally created, inhabited and flourished with Black people. So much evidence points to this one fact but people still wish to denounce black peoples true heritage. History mostly want to remember Africa and its people as a source of slavery and not power and knowledge.
Because in north Africa the majority of the population was never been black. And on top of that, the Ptolomaic dynasty were an European dynasty. You need some study.
@pedro Marques In the book of Dr, Diop and many other sources. The “arabs” (North African) arrived in egypt only in the years 600s. In this story we are focused on the years -2000 to -31.
@@infographicsafrica That alone is enough to prove that Professor Diop is either ignorant or a liar. Egypt has always been one of the most populated regions of the Mediterranean and has always had a population many times that of Arabia. Arabia has always been one of the least populated regions of the region and the Arabs conquered everything in a strip from northern India to southern France. Of course nowhere did they replace the local populations. They constituted only small ruling elites. If this gentleman is really a professor, he should know that.
cleopatra was from macedonia and was painted 3thousand yrs ago in pompije with red hairs,prominent greek nose,white skin and green eyes.she was not black.period. stop the lies and this nonsense grandmother's opinion.😂😂😂
@@redbeardsbirds3747 my grandma told me also that charles darwin was black and then i showed her the book of charles darwin with his pic,then my grandma said i meant my cat,he is black and his name is charles darwin🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Cleopatra wasn’t Egyptian though? Not that attributing her and her family as white or black would any kind of “merit” (hate using that word in this context) to either group. Her family was the one that let ancient Egyptian civilization as we think of it slip through its fingers lol. And, whatever she looked like, the Mediterranean was a hub of cultures, and people there at that time would have had all sorts of blood from European, Mesopotamian, and African origin. Skin color meant a lot less during that period, which I think only serves as proof than any belief in African inferiority is ridiculous
Colourism was started by Northern Europeans who had no idea about genetics. It has been used to distinguish them from those were darker skinned, whether from Africa and even as far as recently as US immigrants from southern Europe pre WWII. So, historically Cleopatra would have been considered black because of the darker skin tones. But today, Egypt is actually officially considered white by the US and black has been redefined to mean anyone from sub saharan Africa. However, we know humans share a lot of the same DNA so we should be moving away from divisive colourism and unite through our shared cultures.
@Josie how can people that create an empire so vast and powerful. In wish they allowed greek to enter and participate in the culture. Simply disappears and is “long gone” ? 🤷🏾♂️
@David I agree with you. People should be more able to see pass their colors differences. I tried to make it clear in the video. Colourism tho is pretty evident even in the oldest of drawing we noticed colors and the differences between us. Only later these differences were increased and became what they are today. When being black means being poor or without true culture. Hopefully we do not stop raising awareness to african culture including ancient egypt
@@pedromarques5948 who ruled in Egypt, what? 300 yrs? And you believe they didn't intermingle with the African population? Arsinoe was determined to be of African ancestry, her sister. Of course Cleopatra was at least biracial. Difference enough that the Roman's dislikes her. She wasn't considered beautiful, but knowledgeable and interesting. So was Carthage, originally black, then mixed. The Bible actually tells the story, and it aligns with what's been accepted as fact. It's scary interesting though. Prester John was Genghis Khan, known to be brown skinned. I'd say Indian, but he's supposed to be part of the tribes of Israel. He identified himself as God's judgment. Old books is where information was shared more accurately than now. Do you realize Woodrow Wilson adapted the history we learn, to exclude and whitewash black history? The Bible says that too! Nation's would take crafty counsel to cut us off from being a nation. Trying to erase Israel from memory. Those jews you talked about, were and are black people.
No one commenting has the knowledge to do so. This is an opinion piece. My father is very dark skin and has ex-Yugoslav genetics, just like Macedonians. He is however white, correct? This is grasping at straws at best.
Cleopatra represented the end of Ancient Egyptian civilization. She was the descendent of Greek colonizers. She was most likely not “Black”. Africa and the African diaspora don’t need to claim her when so many other clearly Black pharaohs in the Ancient History of Egypt a.k.a Kemet imo.
Nope.. They have the DNA of the Early Ancient Kemets they were Middle Eastern, Copts and Berbers. NOT Nubians. NUBIANS INVADED EGYPT. And were the FIRST to do so in in 712BC. Infacr there is NO Recorded "Black" Pharoah's UNTIL the Nubians INVADED Egypt. It is FACT. Don't believe me?! Look up Nubians INVADED EGYPT in 712BC. It pops up on ALL search engines.
I like this video matter fact I love this video. I like learning about my black history. I’m like other people. I actually look at my history more than they do.
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Keep your head up king. Everything you stated was fact. They were African descent and dark skin and wooly hair ⚡️🤴🏿🫅🔥
Thanks for the message!
@@infographicsafrica would you do a King Tut video next?
And greek
For Cheikh Anta Diop (as well as his friend Obenga who shares the same faults), he is not considered a leader by many peopld except by political and media actors, that is to say almost all "intellectuals of Afrocentrism. He is not taken seriously in the scientific world (Afrocentrism has almost disappeared from universities) where his work has long been refuted (in his defense, some disciplinary fields such as paleo-genetics didn't yet exist in his time) and are based on different shortcuts, on completely arbitrary or even fictitious connections between different languages, on the amalgamation of the concepts of "culture", "civilization" and "species", "construction" and "classification" or still on a very racist conception inherited from the colonialism of "blacks" whose cultural and biological differences are completely forgotten in his books to make them a perfectly homogeneous people and independent of others. His work often had a more political than scientific aim, such as the Wollofization of Senegal.
Diop was primarily a chemist, did (only) a Bac +3 in linguistics so he is nothing like an Egyptologist, nothing like a researcher. He only interpreted data found in the literature since he was not in Egypt either before the Cairo conference. The said symposium is also far from being a reference in Egyptology (it is a symposium, not a congress) contrary to what many Afrocentrists present without apparently knowing what a symposium is.
Diop certainly had his role to play against the Eurocentrism of his time (which no longer really exists in research today or in an extremely minority way and in other forms) which served to support the discourse of civilizing mission and which made Africa a territory without history before colonization but Diop has unfortunately above all served to give birth to the African equivalent of Eurocentrism: Afrocentrism. It is kind of a pity to have wanted to fight against ethnocentrism by creating a new ethnocentrism. Especially since Afrocentrism does not even have the effect of making African history shine (which is nevertheless rich as Diop defended it) but on the contrary it makes it invisible for the benefit of fantasies about countries whose population does not was not really black or imagining futuristic civilizations like those who invoke the aliens and Atlantis to talk about the pyramids of Egypt.
Scientific studies (linguistics, history, art history, archaeology, anthropology, paleo-genetics, etc.) of the last 40 years clearly show that the population has been predominantly Afro-Asian (Arab/Berber) and a black minority (further in the south) since prehistoric times. So long before the first dynasties. Only the 25th dynasty was black and came from Kush while only the last dynasty was white and came from Macedonia.
For some scientific literature on the subject of the skin color(s) of the ancient Egyptians:
- Kathryn A. Bard, « Ancient Egyptians and the issue of race, dans M.R. Lefkowitz, G. MacLean-Rogers (éd.), Black Athena Revisited, Londres, 1996, 103-111.
- Frank J. Yurco, Were the Ancient Egyptians black or white?, Biblical Archaeology Review 15 (5), 1989, 24-29, 58.
- V. Schuenemann, A. Peltzer, B. Welte et al., Ancient Egyptian mummy genomes suggest an increase of Sub-Saharan African ancestry in post-Roman periods, Nature Communications 8 (15694), 2017.
- Brenna M. Henn, Laure R. Botigué, S. Gravel, Wei Wang, Abra Brisbin, Jake K. Byrnes, Karima Fadhlaoui-Zid, Pierre A. Zalloua, Andres Moreno-Estrada, Jaume Bertranpetit, Carlos D. Bustamante, David Comas, Genomic Ancestry of North Africans Supports Back-to-Africa Migrations, PLoS Genetics 8 (1), 2012.
- Béatrix Midant-Reynes, Yann Tristant (éd.), Egypt at its origins 2: Proceedings of the International Conference “Origin of the State. Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egypt”, Toulouse, France, 5th-8th September 2005, OLA 172, Louvain, 2008.
_Kemp, B. J., Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilisation, Routledge, 07 May 2007.
_Keita, S.O.Y., "Genetics, Egypt, and History: Interpreting Geographical Patterns of Y Chromosome Variation", American Journal of Physical Anthropology (1990).
_Keita, S.O.Y., "Early Nile Valley Farmers, From El-Badari, Aboriginals or 'European' Agro-Nostratic Immigrants? Craniometric Affinities Considered With Other Data", Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 191-208 (2005).
_Keita, S.O.Y., "Studies and Comments on Ancient Egyptian Biological Relationships", History in Africa, 20: 129-154 (1993): The Origins of Afroasiatic, Ehret, Keita and Newman, Science (2004).
_Shriner, D. & Keita, S.O.Y. Migration route out of Africa unresolved by 225 Egyptian and Ethiopian whole genome sequences, 2016.
Ok
I don’t ever remember having been taught that the Egyptians were white. In school, 35 years ago, we were taught about ancient Egypt and we were never left in any doubt that the Egyptians were black. The friezes in the pyramids clearly show this.
That being said, Egypt underwent many changes over the centuries with various groups from different parts of Africa who weren’t necessarily all of sub Saharan origin (one example being the Persians).
Ancient Egyptian friezes show white, black and brown skins. They differentiated between the darker skins of Numidians and the comparatively lighter tones of Egyptians, compared to the whiter tones of the Semitic people.
But I don’t think anyone with any decent sense and knowledge would deny that the original Egyptians were black. I’ve certainly never heard anyone deny it.
The key flaw in this video is that it doesn’t actually address the title. I’m sorry, but proving that the original Egyptians were black does NOT prove that Cleopatra was black. These are two different issues. Whilst the make of this video talks about the importance of research, none whatsoever has been given to Cleopatra herself.
Cleopatra was a direct descendant of Ptolemy I, who ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great seized it from Persian control. Alexander and Ptolemy were both Macedonian Greek. The Ptolemaic dynasty ruled Egypt for a very long time. The championed Greek art and culture. The archaeological evidence is there. They also sent fortunes in resources and profits back to Macedonia.
The Ptolemaic rulers were also fiercely keen on racial purity, marrying within Macedonian blood - in fact, so keen were they that they usually only married Ptolemaic blood. A very incestuous family - even Cleopatra was married to her own brother at one point. And being so keen on proving their pure-blooded status, the family history was mostly very well recorded. We can trace her Ptolemaic lineage fairly well. The only real question marks are over the identity of her mother (probably Cleopatra V) and her grandmother. We can’t completely rule out some degree of black heritage, but the vast majority, if not all, is certainly Hellenistic.
To draw a more recent comparison, the British Raj ruled India for over 80 years, with British Parliamentary rule and Queen Victoria as the titular Empress of India. The people of India had brown skin. But Queen Victoria did not have brown skin. Neither did the governing bodies sent to rule India on behalf of the British Empire.
The maker of this video has ignored an easily accessible piece of information about Cleopatra and hidden the fact by a wall of research and information about the Egyptians in general. I can’t decide whether this is poor research or deliberate misinformation.
In this video I only showed the work of Mr. Diop. If you don’t agree with him, it’s ok ✅ I agree with his vision and research like many other scientist at that point of time.
@@infographicsafrica It’s not that I disagree with him per se. I just disagree with the fact that you’ve used his findings to argue that Cleopatra was black. The points you shared in this video don’t have anything to do with Cleopatra’s skin colour. It’s about Egyptians in general, and I’m not disputing that they’re black. At the end of the video you’ve just taken this as evidence of Cleopatra as being black, which is a different argument because it’s a matter of historical record the entire dynasty she came from was Hellenistic and was not native to Egypt.
Everything in this video is pretty solid except the conclusion about Cleopatra herself. Her family were a dynasty are Greco-Macedonian invaders, while some intermixing could have happened she was likely her self at most only half Egyptian.
Netflix documentary is an unrealistic depiction of Cleopatra because she was Greek of the Ptolemy family who ruled Egypt for over three hundred years. Egypt was also ruled by other countries for over three thousand years...the last was Great Britain. Any other ideas are of the Afrocentrics views of appropriating others' cultures and history.
Egypt is in Africa, so doesn’t it make a little sense to have an afrocentric approach while talking about it? It’s not like I am talking about new zeland being a black culture. If the human species started at the base of the nile river around Ethiopia/Kenya Doesn’t it make sense they would simply grow their culture around the nile river moving more and more north? If so, what is the color of people from that original region… honestly it’s a little simple to just ignore these facts and focus on calling people Afrocentric.
@@infographicsafrica when talking about cleopatra speciffically its pretty callous to sideline her ancestry over the region she found herself in. especially once you find out how the ptolomeys got there to begin with it makes less sense. cleopatra is one more case of the ''stranger king'', this case queen, that is so prevelent in human history.
no ONE is saying that she wasen't Greek,WHAT WE ARE SAYING BASED OF THE EVIDENCE IS THAT SHE WAS OF MIXED RACE,NOT WHITE.EGYPT WEAS NEVER RULED BY OTHER COUNTREIS FOR 3',000 YRS. romans and Greeks started in 300 bc Egyptian Empire was over 5000 yrs old,and it maintained it's black majority until 7th century AD
fACTS!!! Most ANCIENT Greeks were not white she had Persian( black ancestry) who was her grandmother? THE BBC CONFIRMS HER SISTER HAD A BLACK MOTHER ,AND ALSO SAYS CLEOPATRS MOTHER WAS BLACK. ANCIENT GREEKS WERE LESS THAN 20% OF THE POPULATION, THE BUSTS OF HER ARE BOGUS IN EUROPE THEN COMPARE SCULPTURES OF HER IN AFRICA. iT IS CLEAR AS DAY WHERE THE TRUTH IS.
@@matiusbond6052 she wasnt mixed race, her family tree suggests nothing of the sort
You need to study your History we are still here , African Americans.
I am pretty sure Anta Diop knew a thing or two about history my friend
Just look at their own art depictions from that time and most if not all are black but that’s been white washed like with other things
I know!! Happy more people agree with this.
I like this video matter fact I love this video. I like learning about my black history. I’m like other people. I actually look at my history more than they do.
she was white!
👨🏾🔬 science is not agreeing with this statement. But you’re free to keep that opinion
Unfortunately there is no way Egypt can be taken to Europe. That's very sad. They have studied all the way they can move that part of earth to Europe but till now no success. Sorry! Egypt is Africa but not only that the origin of humanity is in Africa. The first homosapiens is black. There's no doubt is a black civilization but let me say If there's any doubt about the race and color and civilization of Egypt I will still think is black for a simple reason Egypt is in Africa. Period.
It’s a pretty simple concept to understand. But yet here we are 🤷🏾♂️
The common claim is Cleopatra was purely white and Greek. The Ptolemies were Macedonians and they took power in Egypt ( Kemet ) after Ptolemy, one of Alexander's generals, took power. The Ptolemies did everything to win over the allegiance of native Egyptians. They adopted Egyptian deities and rituals. They also took Egyptian women as concubines. It is thus ridiculous to assume the Ptolemies retained their racial ' purity ' after so much race mixing. Historian Joel Augustus Rogers noted that Queen Cleopatra ( Cleopatra being a common Ptolemaic name ) came of an ' illegitimate ' bloodline. Her father was so dark and African in his features that he was known as the " New Osiris ". Even William Shakespeare in his play ' Anthony and Cleopatra ' described Cleopatra as one ' darkened as one in the sun '. Cleopatra being involved with Roman leaders does not negate her Africanness. There was no concept of ' white supremacy ' and ' racial purity ' in those days. It has also been determined by DNA testing that Cleopatra's sister Arsinoe was African.
There is no evidence of African bloodline in Cleopatra's family tree.
What are you talking about.
Have some respect for Hellenic culture and Egyptian.
Don't be a racist have some respect and dignity for yourself.
You insult Africa.
Every writer from ancient times refer to Egyptian as dark skinned with curly hair. From Greek to Roman. I really consider this as major evidence. I do not judge cleopatra by her race… I am african and recognize the link between all people from my culture.
@@infographicsafrica irrelevant.
First of all Africa is the most diverse continent in the world.
Hellens says they were also Nubian Egyptians a well. We know that already.
Secondly again your statement is irrelevant .
Because their is No evidence of African bloodline in the Hellenic tree.
Simple.
Stop saying irrelevant things.
Stop making up something out of nothing stop spreading propaganda misleading people in believing a lie.
We don't go with speculations and imaginarios.
Stop making up something out of nothing.
@@EudaimonV Alexandrians where a mixed group of people documented in Strabo's history on that time period; as he was contemporary (they were mixed with Native Stock of Afrikans, along with the foreign soldiers who also dwell there), there is no way you can stay 300 years among millions of Afrikans and keep so-called pure bloodline, Greeks were not North Western Europe's idea of white in the first place (in which they themselves discriminated against them).
@@EudaimonV He is not misleading anyone, it's just that *you* don't know.
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Cleopatra wasn't black or white, I think she was possibly mixed, and mixed races are known to be beautiful and she was known to be beautiful herself,look at the actress Zendaya For example, if Cleopatras skin color was anything, it would be simular to her skin tone or close to it, but idk just a guess
That’s the most probable. And in 2024 Zendaya is called black, Drake also.
@infographicsafrica in 2024 maybe, and calling them black is a matter of opinion they're mixed after all, and I said simular, it was more then likely lighter since women back then preferred lighter skin and back back then the term black and white didn't exist, it's was more of a social status thing, Rome had a couple of emperors that also were probably also similar skin color to Drake and Zendaya, it's all speculation, I'm really not sure myself, I'm not a historian, historians will tell you it's possible, but not enough evidence to say otherwise 😅
I couldn’t agree more. These new terms (Black/White) can hardly be used to look at history. I hardly have an opinion on it, just wanted to make a video on Cheick Anta Diop. I love that man and his contribution to our continent
So obama not black, but mixed lmao.he had a euro mother and African dad but still considered black! That would make cleopatra actually black!
@@setiset516 ya he's mixed not black
Interesting video and a lot of good points were made about Ancient Egypt being a lot more African than Arabic than is commonly taught or believed. However, those points don't prove that Cleopatra was black. The argument basically amounted to, "A statue of the man who founded Egypt shows clearly black features. We have the other statues and drawings, again clearly showing black features, from earlier in Egyptian history. Therefore Cleopatra was black." There was no mention of her Greek heritage, there was no mention, that in the 300 years of Ptolemaic rule, Cleopatra was the first of the dynasty to learn Egyptian and leaned how to read hieroglyphs. If she was as politically savvy as they say I doubt that had little to nothing to do with her skin color as much as it was a move to say to the people of Egypt "Look I'm one of you" so that they would be more likely to support her. The people behind the show are using the ambiguity of Cleopatra's mother's identity to push the black angle. Yes she could have been black, or Persian, or Arabic, or Philistine, or Hittite , or Babylonian, or Greek, who knows. I would hazard a guess that Cleopatra's mother was probably form the Aristocracy of wherever she came from. There was also inbreeding too, so who knows how many parents were actually brother and sister that she had in her family history. She herself married her brother. If they have the funds and the DNA then for the sake of historical accuracy, more than pushing any political agenda, perhaps Egyptologists should try to get a more accurate picture of the racial makeup of Ancient Egypt. That is if anyone outside of the US even cares Egyptians might not have the same preoccupation with race that most Americans have..
Thank you for watching and sharing your thoughts. Indeed there’s a lot more to it than what I shared. My goal was to bring back the work of Dr.Diop because I feel his research has been marked as “Afrocentric” and thrown away. Again thx for sharing! 🙏🏿
@gallienus172....The key words here are RESEARCH,EVIDENCE ,AND COMMON SENSE.I Have been to Africa and many countries,STUDY this history,there is no doubt in my mind the race of Cleopatra. Yes Cleopatra was Greek,but many of the ANCIENT Greeks WERE BLACK SHE HAD a Persian(black ancester) The identity of her grand mother is unknown her sister's mother was black African(BBC confrimation} A-number of claims of her mother as black with concubines ,the BBC has said her mother was black. Cambridge University has done extensive research with writtings, egyptian drawings of her ,wall sculpures.ancient speeches, things said by Cleopatra herself and more. The busts of her in EUROPE are bogus just like those of MOSES,KING TUT,JESUS,HANNIBAL,NEFIRTITI, and more,whereas sculpures of her in AFRICA are more of black features. Even if Cleopatra descended from white Greeks THERE IS NO OTHER DEFINATIVE EVIDENCE TO CONSIDER. GOOGLE...CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY REAL CLEOPATRA
WRONG. Greeks were NEVER black they were European the Y CHROMOSOMES PROVE it. They do NOT change. The Y CHROMOSOMES from the Earliest FIRST Ancestor. If they had black in them then they would have had that in their Y CHROMOSOMES And they DONT. You obviously don't know what reseach is or you WOULD know this. Secondly, You did ZERO RESEARCH ON HER LINEAGE. If you did you would know that Her father Ptolemy XII Auletes and her Mother Cleopatra V TRYPHAENA WERE BROTHER AND SISTER. Third her Mother gave Birth to her in 69BC and DIED in Child Birth to her in 69BC when CLEOPATRA WAS BORN. Fourth. Her Grandmother was Cleopatra IV. The SAME Grandmother of her father Cleopatra IV. As they had the SAME mother and father. You mistakenly don't know that ROYALS KEEP Documents on their lineage because they CANT marry out side of the Royal/ noble lines. It is clear you don't know Greeks either because they DID NOT marry outside of Greeks. They viewed outsiders or Foreigners to be Barbarians. THAT is why there was so much incest in Cleopatra's lineage.
Keep preaching homie
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Thank you!
Wonderful editing. Fantastic and thoughtful content.
Thank you for watching!
Cleopatra being black is and always has been a preposterous notion. This mockumentary even depicted her father as black, and apparently there were no actual Egyptians back then, just some Sub-Saharans wearing another culture's clothing.
Were there no actual black queens deemed important enough to tell the stories of, so they went with one of the most recognisable female rules in history and race-swapped her?
Getting audiences angry is not a long-term business plan. Their ire will go as far as attack the actual companies, not just merely everyone associated with the product they hate. Bud Light got ruined, Target is becoming Bud Light 2.0 because of Satan worshipping LGBT items that they refuse to apologize for. And Netflix is getting sue for a BILLION over this stupid historical fanfiction daring to call itself a documentary.
Egypt is in Africa not Europe
And? If you think everyone in North Africa is black like African Americans you know nothing about the history and have never visited.
Black she pure Egyptian and so were all the cleopatras and Pharoah were black also
Facts 💯
You’re trying to re-write history. Good luck - Macedonia is in the balkans, as are my genetics. Cleopatra spent years in Roman Empire and was painted, sculpted and written about many many times. She was as European as my father. Sorry
Yeah I remember reading in books how Loved she was by Europeans and the romans… great book 📚
Cleopatra’s mother was of African descent. Look it up. Therefore Cleopatra was not white.
Mmhm, i don’t know Rick?
Love to really dig deeper on that if you’d care to share 🤷🏾♂️
Why is it always so hard for people to believe that Egypt which we all know is in Africa was originally created, inhabited and flourished with Black people. So much evidence points to this one fact but people still wish to denounce black peoples true heritage. History mostly want to remember Africa and its people as a source of slavery and not power and knowledge.
Couldn’t agree more! Thanks for watching and sharing ✊🏿
Because in north Africa the majority of the population was never been black. And on top of that, the Ptolomaic dynasty were an European dynasty. You need some study.
@pedro Marques In the book of Dr, Diop and many other sources. The “arabs” (North African) arrived in egypt only in the years 600s. In this story we are focused on the years -2000 to -31.
@@pedromarques5948 this was the exact problem
@@infographicsafrica
That alone is enough to prove that Professor Diop is either ignorant or a liar.
Egypt has always been one of the most populated regions of the Mediterranean and has always had a population many times that of Arabia.
Arabia has always been one of the least populated regions of the region and the Arabs conquered everything in a strip from northern India to southern France.
Of course nowhere did they replace the local populations. They constituted only small ruling elites.
If this gentleman is really a professor, he should know that.
She was black why do y’all need her to be white soooo bad. Egypt is in Africa… Period!
They always want to steal our history
The haters want to rewrite history! I get it! Cleopatra was a black woman period!!
Thank you for watching 🙏🏿
cleopatra was from macedonia and was painted 3thousand yrs ago in pompije with red hairs,prominent greek nose,white skin and green eyes.she was not black.period. stop the lies and this nonsense grandmother's opinion.😂😂😂
@@mercedeswolf9473 I don’t care what they tell you ….Cleopatra was black…my grandma told me ! 🤣
Says the dude who wants to rewrite history 😆🤡😆🤡😆🤡😆🤡
@@redbeardsbirds3747 my grandma told me also that charles darwin was black and then i showed her the book of charles darwin with his pic,then my grandma said i meant my cat,he is black and his name is charles darwin🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
CHARLIE CHAPLIN AND WINSTON CHURCHILL WERE ALSO BLACK 🙄🙄🙄
Cleopatra wasn’t Egyptian though? Not that attributing her and her family as white or black would any kind of “merit” (hate using that word in this context) to either group. Her family was the one that let ancient Egyptian civilization as we think of it slip through its fingers lol. And, whatever she looked like, the Mediterranean was a hub of cultures, and people there at that time would have had all sorts of blood from European, Mesopotamian, and African origin. Skin color meant a lot less during that period, which I think only serves as proof than any belief in African inferiority is ridiculous
Well said!
iNFOGRAPHICS ..EXCELLENT VIDEO THAT NEEDS TO BE SPREAD OVER THE INTERNET
Thank you for the kind words! 🙌🏿
Cleopatric was not black the ancient black egyptians were long gone by the time ptolamies ruled.
Colourism was started by Northern Europeans who had no idea about genetics. It has been used to distinguish them from those were darker skinned, whether from Africa and even as far as recently as US immigrants from southern Europe pre WWII. So, historically Cleopatra would have been considered black because of the darker skin tones.
But today, Egypt is actually officially considered white by the US and black has been redefined to mean anyone from sub saharan Africa. However, we know humans share a lot of the same DNA so we should be moving away from divisive colourism and unite through our shared cultures.
@Josie how can people that create an empire so vast and powerful. In wish they allowed greek to enter and participate in the culture. Simply disappears and is “long gone” ? 🤷🏾♂️
@David I agree with you. People should be more able to see pass their colors differences. I tried to make it clear in the video.
Colourism tho is pretty evident even in the oldest of drawing we noticed colors and the differences between us. Only later these differences were increased and became what they are today. When being black means being poor or without true culture. Hopefully we do not stop raising awareness to african culture including ancient egypt
@@David-ox7ps Cleopatara was of greek descend not african.
@@pedromarques5948 who ruled in Egypt, what? 300 yrs? And you believe they didn't intermingle with the African population? Arsinoe was determined to be of African ancestry, her sister. Of course Cleopatra was at least biracial. Difference enough that the Roman's dislikes her. She wasn't considered beautiful, but knowledgeable and interesting.
So was Carthage, originally black, then mixed.
The Bible actually tells the story, and it aligns with what's been accepted as fact. It's scary interesting though. Prester John was Genghis Khan, known to be brown skinned. I'd say Indian, but he's supposed to be part of the tribes of Israel. He identified himself as God's judgment. Old books is where information was shared more accurately than now.
Do you realize Woodrow Wilson adapted the history we learn, to exclude and whitewash black history? The Bible says that too! Nation's would take crafty counsel to cut us off from being a nation. Trying to erase Israel from memory. Those jews you talked about, were and are black people.
Wasn't that settled long ago?
Doesn’t seem like it 🤷🏾♂️ look at the comments no one agrees
@@infographicsafrica you are the only one that disagrees. Stfu
No one commenting has the knowledge to do so. This is an opinion piece. My father is very dark skin and has ex-Yugoslav genetics, just like Macedonians. He is however white, correct? This is grasping at straws at best.
Cleopatra represented the end of Ancient Egyptian civilization. She was the descendent of Greek colonizers. She was most likely not “Black”. Africa and the African diaspora don’t need to claim her when so many other clearly Black pharaohs in the Ancient History of Egypt a.k.a Kemet imo.
Thanks for sharing
Nope.. They have the DNA of the Early Ancient Kemets they were Middle Eastern, Copts and Berbers. NOT Nubians. NUBIANS INVADED EGYPT. And were the FIRST to do so in in 712BC. Infacr there is NO Recorded "Black" Pharoah's UNTIL the Nubians INVADED Egypt. It is FACT. Don't believe me?! Look up Nubians INVADED EGYPT in 712BC. It pops up on ALL search engines.
I like this video matter fact I love this video. I like learning about my black history. I’m like other people. I actually look at my history more than they do.
Appreciate you