Jada Pinkett Smith's African Queens Netflix docuseries becomes the centre of a casting debate

due to be released on 10 May, which will explore the world of prominent African women rulers.tar Adele James, who is biracial, has been cast as Cleopatra – however her casting has been disputed with calls to the film to be banned from Egypt, due to an age-old ambiguity over the racial identity of the real-life Cleopatra.

Cleopatra was born in Alexandria, a city in Egypt, in 69 BC, succeeding her Egyptian ruler father Ptolemy XII in 51BC. Her mother's racial identity is unknown: some Egyptians have reacted with horror to the denial of records which show Cleopatra was Macedonian-Greek.released the latest trailer for the four-part docuseries last week.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass told Egyptian press : "This is 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 . He said: “Netflix is trying to provoke confusion by spreading false and deceptive facts that the origin of the Egyptian civilisation is black.”

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