Conversations with my Son: When National Geographic Attempted to Whitewash King Tut
Updated: 5 days ago
I recently talked with my son about his school day. He is in middle school, and this conversation is part of our routine during the car ride home, allowing me to keep track of the private school education my wife and I are funding. As a former history teacher, I am particularly attentive to his history class, although we discuss all his subjects. He mentioned that his teacher was starting a lesson on Ancient Egypt, which initially excited me. However, my enthusiasm diminished when I saw the class's approach. The teacher began by showing a DreamWorks movie, "The Prince of Egypt," which immediately concerned me because the film focuses on the Hebrews/Jews' captivity in Ancient Egypt.
This is not an appropriate starting point for a lesson on Ancient Egypt, as most Egyptologists do not believe the Jews were ever enslaved there, and there are no Egyptian records of such events. If any slavery ever happened in Egypt/Kemet it was the Middle Eastern invaders known as the Hyksos who invaded and enslaved the actual Egyptians not the other way around. Egyptologists also assert that slaves did not build the pyramids of Giza; instead, skilled craftsmen, likely engaged in religious practices, undertook this work. Furthermore, the teacher showed the class an image of King Tut's face, but it was not from his actual tomb. It was the controversial reconstructed face by National Geographic in 2005, which upset the African-American community for making an African king appear European. In fact, National Geographic described the image as Caucasian. About 20 years ago, as a younger teacher, I remember taking my wife to a protest lecture on the King Tut bust in Philadelphia. The lecture was given by Afrocentric scholars Morehouse College's Dr. Charles Finch and Temple University's African Studies Head Dr. Molefi Asante. For my part, I even decided to write to the magazine's editor to express my feelings. To my surprise, the editor included some of my comments in the magazine's October 2005 editorial. I had warned National Geographic by saying:
"I disagree strongly with National Geographic's version of the reconstructed face of King Tut. By calling his image Caucasoid, you are misleading many people."
Who would have imagined that after about twenty years, things would come full circle with my son's history teacher using the reconstructed version of King Tut in class? I always found it strange that National Geographic didn't simply use the numerous busts from King Tut's tomb that depicted his actual appearance, including his skin tone. The best example is the bust of King Tut's head emerging from a lotus flower, which, despite being somewhat chipped, still captures the king's brown skin tone.
Additionally, there is an excellent depiction of the king wearing his cobra uraeus, which portrays him with very brown skin. I personally believe that King Tut was partially Nubian, a view largely influenced by observing the bust of his grandmother, Queen Tiye.
The bust of Queen Tiye is distinctly African, in stark contrast to the renowned Nefertiti bust, which many suspect may have been based on a forgery.
The portrayal of King Tut as many describe as "whitewashed" is part of a longstanding pattern of diminishing African identity in Egypt, a trend perpetuated by Hollywood and Eurocentric historians. These historians propagated a form of pseudohistory known as the Hamitic Myth, which suggested that in ancient times, a group of white/European invaders from the North subdued the native population and established the civilization we recognize today as Egypt. Fortunately, it is now acknowledged that Egyptian civilization was developed by native or indigenous Africans. The invaders arrived in Egypt years after the pyramids and the Sphinx were constructed, and after the foundations of math and science were already firmly in place. The role that Hollywood played in the misrepresentation of Egypt is the many movies about Ancient Egypt created in the past all the way up to the present where all the Egyptian cast is played by Europeans this can be seen in the Charleston Heston classic The Ten Commandments as well as Ridley Scotts more recent movie Exodus Gods and Kings.
Traditional Afrocentric scholars have long asserted that the Egyptians were African, and they now find support from others. Fortunately, today there is a group of professors, primarily American, including Christopher Ehret, Kara Cooney, Sally-Anne Ashton, and Rebecca Futo Kennedy, who consider Egypt to be an African civilization. Moreover, they openly state that the Egyptians were indeed Black. In this context, Black does not refer to West African but signifies being African and possessing melanin. The ghost of the white washed Egyptians is not dead yet recently about a few months ago the modern day Egyptian community in Egypt was upset over a mural that was painted.
The primary complaint was that the depictions of Egyptian kings and queens on the mural were painted too dark, aligning too much with the Afrocentric view of Egypt. Critics wanted the mural to resemble modern Egyptians more closely. The discontent among the people in Egypt was so significant that the mural eventually had to be repainted. The issue here is that modern Egyptians look quite different from the Ancient Egyptians who constructed the pyramids. The builders of the pyramids were much darker than the faces you might see in Cairo today. Egypt has experienced numerous invasions over time, including those by the Persians, Greeks, Romans, and finally the Arabs. These invasions altered the appearance of the Ancient Egyptians, making them progressively less brown. The Egyptian government acknowledges this, as evidenced by their recent Egyptian Genome Project, which analyzed the DNA of modern Egyptians. The findings revealed that contemporary Egyptians are not predominantly African; they are approximately 72% Arab and only 19% African. To put this into perspective, African-Americans are about 20% European, yet they do not claim to be white. Modern Egyptians are only 19% Native Egyptian, yet they assert influence over the portrayal of Ancient Egyptians, and thus the debate continues.
If you're interested in learning more about the topic, I'll share some thoughts from Dr. Molefi Asante regarding the painted-over mural and the ongoing whitewashing of Egypt.
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