| | Africa Addio: (Africa Blood & Guts) Part 1.
This is a 90 minute documentary made in the 1960's by some Italians.
It was an award-winning documentary. It was also turned into a book
of the same name. Note: The quality is not as good as I would have
liked. Nevertheless it is well worth watching. The still photos
can be viewed, but they do not convey the same sort of emotion
as watching the documentary evokes.
NB: This documentary can be bought through Amazon.com. It
sells under the title: "Africa Blood & Guts". The footage,
photos, etc on this page come from a copy I bought from
Amazon.com. The original is in colour, but the colour is weak
and in the conversion process we lost the colour and it came
out black & white. I hope this encourages some folks to buy
the documentary from Amazon. They classify it as "horror".
In many places there is humour and it has some really nice
touches. There is a lovely piece showing the happy white
South African girls on the beaches having fun, completely
oblivious to what is going on in the north. Now, decades later,
white South Africans are still the same. They live in their
"happy" (relatively) cocoon ignorant of the hell in the north.
But then the movie switches back to the horror of countries to
the north of South Africa.
When you see it, you will realise
the extreme risks these brave Italians took. That none of them died in
the process is amazing. Indeed there is a funny incident where
they survived certain death. They caught on film the massacre by blacks
of Muslims/Indians/Arabs in Zanzibar. Soldiers caught the Italians
and were going to line them up against a wall to have them shot.
They were saved by black stupidity. A black Officer looked at one
of their passports and declared "They're not whites, they're Italians!"
And so they were let go!! But other life threatening incidents also
took place.
They came to Africa in the early days of its independence to film the
events happening all over the continent. They tried to be as objective
as possible and you will see they criticise both blacks and whites.
However, what is significant is that they recorded many events people
would rather forget. However, this is real history, and this documentary
has been largely forgotten.
NB: It has been said to me that maybe this version of the documentary
has been edited. People who saw it 30 years ago, told me about things
which I did not see in this version. e.g. The Mau Mau's hamstringing of
cattle. I am still looking for the original and am waiting for some
feedback from someone who actually has 3 different versions of the
documentary. If I discover that it has been edited, then I will try
to obtain those missing parts. (28th Feb. 2004)
The video has been split into 8 parts for those people who want to
download the entire documentary. I think it is worth watching in
full in order to put everything in context. However, special
excerpts have been provided for people who do not have the time.
Also, still photos taken from the video are also in the Photo Gallery
section of this website.
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