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 color reversal; 400 feet; contains intertitles, 16mm)
unitdate: label: Date
content: circa 1946-1955
container: label: Container
content: Item 2000.6.1-8
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: Film footage was shot in Mbeya, Tabora, Mpanda, Blantyre (Malawi), Kisumu, Nairobi (Kenya), Kazinga Channel, Kabale (Uganda), and Kivu (Democratic Republic of Congo). A description of the scene follows the intertitle in square brackets.

Main Title:  A Journey from Southern Rhodesia Through Nyasaland, Tanganyika, Kenya and Uganda, 1946

At Blantyre descendants of Livingston's disciples greet visiting missionary [people performing in military formation with drummers, a mountain (possibly Mount Mulanje) in the background, and sheaves of grass tied up and ready for thatching]

Amid Scenic Mountains Lies Mbeya the Southern Gateway to Tanganyika [scenic view of a mountain (possibly Mount Rungwe)]

Tabora, on the Old Arab Slave Trail, was to have been the Capital of German East Africa [shops and people on a street in Tabora, a Jaccaranda tree with white birds flying above it, a man and a woman in long African costumes (possibly Muslims) striding through the street, an engine sitting on the tracks (possibly near the Tabora train station), two men in shorts and shirts walking on the tracks, and a woman hoeing in a field with trees and housing behind her]

Many Elephant Hunts were Celebrated in Prince Wilhelm's Hunting Lodge Now the Principal Hotel [Park Hotel]

This Massive German Fort, new Administrative Head Quarters for the Colonial D.C. [African women and children walking along a road; a man in western dress; women in traditional dress hoeing; and crowds of men, women, and children near a church]

Mpanda, Near Lake Tanganyika Where Elephant and Tsetse are Gradually being Displaced as a New Mining Camp is born [long shots of scenic views of the mine area with buildings]

Back to Tabora We Slowly Chug Through the Native and Arab Locations [a view of a kraal with thatched roof houses from a train, people wearing traditional and western dress, a herd of goats, and a crowd of people at the train station]

Lunch time by the Road Side [an African woman nursing a baby, people passing in traditional dress, and houses of corrugated tin in the background]

Early Morning Finds a Baby Auster Poised to Wing us Northward Across Martin and Johnson's Beloved Serengeti Plains [the Auster Aircraft]

Native Kraals, Heavily Barricaded Against the King of Beasts dot the Interminable Spaces Which are Africa [aerial views of kraals]

Abruptly 'Wildest Africa' is transfigured by the Remains of One of the Great Airbases of the Last War, Kisumu [aerial views of the Kisumu airfield with red tiled roofs and planes on the airstrip]

Lifting from Kisumu the Little Craft Wings Westward Toward Uganda [aerial views of countryside]

Now Enshrouded in Clouds, Stanley First Saw the Snow Covered Peaks of Ruwenzori which Rise Behind This Mountainous Foothills [panoramic view of Rwenzori Mountains]

Ruwenzori is the Source of the Nile and also of Trouble for our Caravan [cars stuck in mud and being pushed by David Sharpstone, members of the expedition party, and two locals]

And then the Deep Blue Waters of the Mobuku River Fed by Ruwenzori's Glaciers, Cross Our Equatorial Path [view of the Mubuku River from the bridge and a car on the bridge with two of the party looking down at the river]

We Move Down the Great Rift Valley Toward Kilembe Where the Duke of Abruzzi Expedition Discovered Copper in 1906 [views of the scenery as the caravan travels along rough roads through the Great Rift Valley back towards Kilembe]

A Water Buck Crosses Our Tracks [African men with spears walking on the roadside]

The Road turns to What Some Day may become a Great Mining Camp [two men from the Sharpstone caravan standing by the sign "Kilembe 8 km"]

Now Many Primitive and Curious People Travel the Trail [Africans walking, carrying spears, and posing for the camera; huts; a man posing in front of a house made of twigs, sticks, and poles with a thatched roof; a woman and child in front of a thatched house, joined by four children; a group of men in traditional dress, carrying spears, posing for the camera; and women wearing skirts posing]

At Day's End Our Caravan Reaches Kasinga Channel [Fishermen at the water's edge with native dugout boats, trucks being ferried across the Kasinga Channel, and Africans hurrying past to avoid being filmed]

Resting at Kitchwamba Inn, the Great Rift Valley Spreads Before Us [scenic views from the inn]

From Gorilla Inhabited Bamboo Forests We Look Downward Toward Kivu and the Craters of the Moon [a sign: "Kanba Gap" and scenic views]

Nearby, on an Isolated Pyrethrum Plantation Evening Calls the Workers to their Homes [Africans (possibly Bakiga) leaving the fields and posing for the camera]

In the Heart of Most Scenic Africa Lie Kabale and its Famous White Horse Inn [panoramic views of the White Horse Inn, three men and a woman (possibly guests of the Inn) with four dachsunds, and one of the men and the woman walking through the gardens]

Great Horned Ankole Cattle Graze Peacefully [cattle with very large horns]

In Close by Marshes Stalk Groups of Tufted Kavirondo Cranes [a flock of cranes and a close up of a crane]

Near Nairobi, a Family of Giraffe Prove Unwilling Subjects [a blur of animals running, possibly frightened by the noise of the plane]

Nairobi, Jumping Off Place for Many Famous Safaris

A Jacaranda Tree Lifts its Head Above a Park [a tree in bloom in Nairobi]

Second Roll Intertitles [African fishermen with local boats on shore, Ramah Sharpstone and a friend posing with an a local tribal chief and his family inside the walls of a kraal, and Ramah and her friend posing with King Mutara III Rudhigwa of Ruanda-Urundi]

Nearly Home We Cross the Great Zambesi Far Below Victoria Falls [aerial view of the Zambezi River]

Approaching Salisbury as Our Journey Ends, the Great Dike and Chrome Mines Stand Out in the Evening Light [aerial views of the Great Dike and Chrome Mines]