Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
lywood has always had its own versions of reality and they have little to do with historical veracity. But if
Cleopatra didn't resemble Elizabeth Taylor, who did she look like?
This isn't simply an idle question. The issue of what ancient people looked like, who they were, where
they came from, and what they accomplished is at the center of an intense debate in American education
that is rattling the sherry glasses in the ivory-white towers of academia. At its heart, the question is about
Afrocentrism, a very specific branch of the multicultural movement that wants contemporary schoolbooks
to reflect the history, achievements, and contributions of overlooked minority groups alongside those of
white European males traditionally taught as “Western civilization.”
Afrocentrists point to the specific impact that Africans had on the rise and development of early cul-
tures. This gets to the heart of the Cleopatra question. Some scholars have come to believe that Egypt, held
up for so long as the first great civilization, was in fact a black African society. By extension, the Egyptian
influences on Greece—and they are many, including Greek mythology, the development of Greek math-
ematics, and astronomical observations—were African influences. Champions of Afrocentrism point an
accusing finger at centuries of biased European scholarship and schoolbooks that they claim have delib-
erately overlooked the African legacy. Proponents of multicultural and Afrocentric schooling in particular
also note the existence of powerful cultures existing in Africa while Europe was in the midst of the Dark
Ages, societies completely overlooked in traditional discussions of the medieval world.
The seminal and most scholarly serious work on this question comes from Cornell professor Martin
Bernal, whose two-volume
Black Athena
opened this debate. In his award-winning topics, Bernal uses an-
cient documents, archeological evidence, and his considerable expertise as a linguist to trace the influence
of Egypt on ancient Greece and, from there, the rest of Western civilization.
Historically speaking, Egypt may have originated in the black African societies of the Upper Nile, in
what is now Ethiopia. But over thousands of years, as sub-Saharan Africans mingled with Asian and Medi-
terranean people, the population became thoroughly mixed. So while Michael Jackson's
Remember the
Time
might be a terrific dance tune, it's on very shaky historical ground.
As for Cleopatra—there were actually several Cleopatras during the Ptolemaic period in Egypt. The
most famous of them was alive from approximately 69-30
BC
and ruled as queen of Egypt from 51
BC.
A
member of the Ptolemaic family, she was descended from the Greek dynasty installed by Alexander the
Great's generals after they conquered Egypt. Given her ancestry, she most certainly was not black.
But she certainly wasn't boring. First she married her brother and was forced into exile. Then she at-
tracted the attention of Julius Caesar, who restored her to power when he conquered Egypt in 48
BC.
As
his consort, Cleopatra bore Caesar a son and lived with him in Rome. She returned to Egypt and married
another brother but had him poisoned. Enter the Roman general Mark Antony, with whom she lived for
twelve years—a bad career move for him, as it cost him support in Rome and he ended up committing sui-
cide after losing the Battle of Actium. When Cleopatra failed to win the love of Antony's rival, Augustus,
she supposedly committed suicide by holding a poisonous asp to her breast.
Milestones in Geography V
1900-1949
1903
The first successful airplane is launched at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, by the Wright broth-
ers, Wilbur (1876-1912) and Orville (1871-1948). The longest flight of the day lasts 59 seconds
and travels 852 feet—a speed of 30 mph. Five years later, Orville makes the first flight lasting one
hour.
