Sharpstone Film Footage of Africa
name: label: Collection Creator
content: Sharpstone, David Collier
label: Collection Creator
content: Smith, Lance Bales
setName: label: See more items in
content: David Collier Sharpstone films
label: See more items in
content: David Collier Sharpstone films / Sharpstone Film Footage of Africa
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 1 Film reel (silent black-and-white and color reversal; 770 feet, 16mm)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1946-1951
container: label: Container
content: Item 2000.6.1-4
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Human Studies Film Archives
objectType: label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Moving Images
label: Type
content: Film reels
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: The two rolls were assembled by the archivist for digitization.
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: This film footage was shot in Victoria Falls, Matobo National Park, Esigodini (formerly Essexvale), and Bulawayo (Zimbabwe). 

The first film roll contains images of the Blue Mountains; a sea plane, boat docks and military brass and white folks debarking; Victoria Falls with a rainbow from the mist; wildlife (giraffe, antelope, and zebra) filmed from a close proximity; filming from a plane (as a geologist, Sharpstone was interested in the topography of the land and liked to film it from the air): flatlands, river, and mountains; an expanse of lawn by a river (possibly the grounds of the Victoria Falls Hotel); white houses; Africans dancing with a couple of men playing drums; and elephants. This film is shot somewhere along what was called the Khami road to Motopos where Cecil John Rhodes is buried. The people dancing are probably from a nearby kraal. Sometimes tribespeople would wait along the way and perform for money.

The second film roll includes, in Bulawayo (a town at the base of cliffs), a western style park with flora, a white colonial building, a landscape, a mountain range, a road, desert flora, white uniformed men along a "parade" route in a town, and a sign: "George Cumming & Co The Statue Corner Outfitters"; along the road to Matobo National park, a sign: "To the Grave and World's View"; at Matobo National Park, African women selling red beads to Ramah Sharpstone, David and Ramah with friends on a rock outcropping with rounded boulders, and signs indicating the graves of Cecil John Rhodes and Leander Starr Jameson: "Here Lie the Remains of Cecil John Rhodes" and "Here Lies Leander Starr Jameson"; on the road to the Great Zimbabwe Ruins, a sign: "Great Zimbabwe Ruins" and Ramah posing in the 1946 Packard she was driving; at the ruins, a guard preventing visitors from removing stones and Ramah and David exploring the ruins with their friends and sitting on an elevated area nearby; on the road back to Bulawayo, Ramah and her friends posing in front of a flame tree, a group of tourists horseback riding, a farmer plowing his fields with oxen, and sunset; in Esigodini (formerly Essexvale), a large baobab tree, Ramah in front of an Essexvale sign, a small colonial town, a garden with a green house, Ramah walking around the garden, and driving through town; on the road, Ramah walking along a stone wall, red soil and more hills, and a herd of black and white goats; the Zambezi River; and by the N'Cema waterworks, a sign: "Municipality of Bulawayo N'Cema waterworks area no admission…", Ramah sitting on the wall of a lookout over the Zambezi River, the garden around the waterworks buildings, Ramah posing in the garden, and local tribespeople in western dress passing them on the road.