Tuesday, April 10, 2007

0 Africa Addio

I watched Africa Addio (farewell Africa) yesterday, a documentary made in 1966 by 2 Italian men.

The link is: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5855323615829365487

It begins with showing scenes from the uhuru(freedom) days in Kenya. Shows us the trial of Njoroge kamau who I believe supported the military campaign against his fellow kikuyu.

Then goes on describing what a popular sport fox hunting was during the times of colonial impearilism. Since no foxes existed in Africa, a blackman had to drag a piece of meat behind him to leave the scent for the dogs.

It illustrated some instances of poaching. It showed how to get your hands on a baby elephant, i.e provoke the mother, draw her away from her baby, and give her illusion of reaching you, soon she'l be far from her baby and unable to defend it. The slaughtering of animals(gazelles and elephants) in this film is no doubt horrifying.

In 1964 John Okello along with his men overthrew the sultan of zanzibar-Jamshid Bin Adbulla. Many lives were lost in a single night and several people fled the Island. The narrator claims that this is the only existing footage between January 18 and 20, 1964.

In 1964 the bantu(hutu) massacred the watusi(tutsi) in Rwanda and fleed to the Ugandan border. On the banks of the river kwoni amputated hands were found, whilst the river Kagera washed the corpses downstream.

During the Tanganyika rebellion the corpses were lined outside the mortuaries as they were full. We see vultures waiting nearby. Some rebels chase a man in Daresalam, he jumps off a seawall only to be drowned later on by them.

It also mentioned the Simba rebellion and showed their defeat by the Congolese and White mercenaries.

Overall it was depicted really well, though not a film for the faint at heart!

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