The casting of award-winning actor Denzel Washington as the legendary ancient general Hannibal Barca in an upcoming Netflix project has reportedly outraged Tunisians who argue it is racial recasting that erases their history.
In a press release, Netflix touted the film about “the Carthaginian general who famously led an army of warriors and elephants across the Alps to fight the Roman Republic during the Second Punic War.”
Hannibal’s home region of Carthage is now within Tunisia, the northernmost state in Africa and considered to be part of the Arabic world.
According to an English translation of French-language Tunisian news outlet La Presse, the casting of a Black actor to play Hannibal is “problematic.”
“To consider Hannibal as a black African would be, according to Tunisians and many observers, a historical error, because Carthage, built by the Phoenicians in the current Tunisia, is located just 200 kilometers southwest of Sicily,” the article said.
La Presse summarized ancient historian and author Mary Lefkowitz pointing out that Hannibal came from a family of Phoenician Semitic settlers, as was common in the region, and claimed that representations of Hannibal in Carthaginian plays depict him as a White Semite man.
The choice of Washington to play Hannibal “raises profound questions about afrocentrism, historical fidelity and the challenges of casting in the motion picture industry,” the Tunisian outlet said.
A petition on Change.org is demanding Netflix cancel the project over Washington because “this miscasting and falsifying History is unacceptable and unethical.” The petition also asked for Tunisia’s Ministry of Culture to “act against this attempt of stealing our history.”
“To consider Hannibal as a black African would be, according to Tunisians and many observers, a historical error, because Carthage, built by the Phoenicians in the current Tunisia, is located just 200 kilometers southwest of Sicily,” the article said.
La Presse summarized ancient historian and author Mary Lefkowitz pointing out that Hannibal came from a family of Phoenician Semitic settlers, as was common in the region, and claimed that representations of Hannibal in Carthaginian plays depict him as a White Semite man.
The choice of Washington to play Hannibal “raises profound questions about afrocentrism, historical fidelity and the challenges of casting in the motion picture industry,” the Tunisian outlet said.
A petition on Change.org is demanding Netflix cancel the project over Washington because “this miscasting and falsifying History is unacceptable and unethical.” The petition also asked for Tunisia’s Ministry of Culture to “act against this attempt of stealing our history.”
Recasting characters in the name of adding diversity has been a major debate in recent years.
Netflix’s recent depiction of Cleopatra as Black also faced backlash, to the point it faced a lawsuit from an Egyptian lawyer over “erasing the Egyptian identity” and a declaration from the Egyptian antiques ministry that Cleopatra had “white skin and Hellenistic characteristics.”
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apparently blm hasnt hit tunisians?
Why is this such an issue? It’s about the story and the film, not about anyone’s color. Denzel is a terrific actor and will be great in this part. This country and this world needs to get off this color bull and consider all people the same.