Image of Tut stirs debate
African scholars and black activists dispute a computer portrayal by researchers.

Gregory Lewis
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

September 25, 2005

FORT LAUDERDALE -- Computer-generated portraits of Tutankhamun in an exhibit coming to Fort Lauderdale's Museum of Art in December have sparked criticism and protests by black activists who say they depict the boy king as white.

Researchers hired by the National Geographic Society, one of the exhibit's sponsors, say current forensic data and recent CT scans of his mummy were used to create the images.

African scholars and black activists dispute the portrayal and predict protests when the show moves here like those that have occurred in Los Angeles. The debate is similar to the question of whether Jesus was black.

"We're concerned about fake pictures of one of our ancestors," said Ricky Innis, who leads Kheprera, a local black study group that focuses on ancient Egyptian history and culture. "I'm sure people are disappointed the system would perpetrate this myth of information."

Terry Garcia, executive vice president for mission programs at the National Geographic Society, said computer images of Tut showing him with light, medium and dark skin will be included in the Fort Lauderdale show.

"No one really knows his exact skin tone," Garcia said. "There is no way to judge a skin tone. We went down the middle. We took the best science available."

Only the medium-skinned portrait was included in the Los Angeles exhibit. Activists from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Committee for the Elimination of Media Offensive to African People and the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations picketed outside the Los Angeles County Museum of Art when the show opened there in June.

The controversial Tut portraits in Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of Pharaohs are pictures of three busts created from CT scans by teams from the United States, France and Egypt. The portraits hang in the final room of the exhibit.

On exhibit are relics from Tut's tomb, which was discovered near Luxor, Egypt, in 1922. Tutankhamun died at age 19, nearly 3,300 years ago. The exhibit opens in Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 15 and runs through April 23, 2006.

Black activists are critical of the new Tut image because they say the three teams of researchers hired by the National Geographic Society reviewed data from the mummified corpse and concluded that Tutankhamun was a North African Caucasian.

But earlier research by New Zealand, British and African scholars, such as the late Cheikh Anta Diop of Senegal, had determined Tut was Negroid. Professor Manu Ampim, a historian and professor of Afrikana Studies at Peralta Community College in Oakland, Calif., said the artists and sculptors of Tut's time left "firsthand evidence" of Tut's blackness in their paintings and sculptures. Ampim is the author of Egypt as a Black Civilization, a book on ancient Egypt.

"If you have all these images already, why would you need a computer to create an image that makes him a Caucasian from North Africa?" asked Derek Davis, program director at the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center.

Davis is planning a series of programs at the library in November about Egypt and Africa, while Kheprera, which meets at the library, will discuss King Tut at its Saturday sessions on Nov. 12 and Nov. 26.

Davis said the programs at the African-American library were planned not only because the exhibit is coming to Fort Lauderdale, but also because officials felt "people of color needed to learn" the different schools of thought about ancient Egyptian culture.

Other programs are also planned around the exhibit. The main library and Florida International University's African-New World Studies program are organizing a symposium Feb. 16 entitled Egypt: Africa's Eldest Daughter, which will draw Egyptian scholar Theophile Obenga and Asa Hilliard, an Afrocentric educator who has led Egyptian tours for more than a decade. They also expect a host of black scholars from Africa and around the world to participate.

Anthropologist Niara Sudarkasa of Fort Lauderdale said Tut's image is an important topic of discussion so people can put what they see at the exhibit in historical context.

"At the African-American Research Library, we will present comparative images," she said.

"What's important about the Tut exhibit coming here is that it's a reminder that we must archive, preserve and disseminate our own history. We have to explode myths."

Gregory Lewis is a reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a Tribune Publishing newspaper.