Well, let me put it this way - there is still no good movie on British Colonial History in Africa. "Zulu Dawn" (1979) is just a small episode from the British lore in (South) Africa. The Zulu Nation got the prestige as the most warlike African tribe, more so from the novels of Rider H. Haggard than from some documentary or other objective historical account. I see that far away corner of the world as off shot from European history rather than anything else. My childhood imagination and my mind were also irreversibly influenced by the Tarzan stories - for me, as a child, those were the only true criteria for the unrivaled flora and fauna of Africa, everything you want!
How do we get more for the Cinema and Our Civilization from the Black Continent. That's an essential question. Wilbur Smith - God bless him for his talent - has been a wellspring for information on modern South Africa, both historical fiction and international involvement. From the Wikipedia source I will enumerate the Filmography based on Smith's novels: Dark of the Sun (1968), Gold (1974), Shout at the Devil (1976), Covert Assassin (1994), Diamond Hunters (2001). There are more plots from the Author for which I am not aware. You can put here easily the classic "Khartoum" (1966) about defeat of British General Gordon in Sudan against an invading Muslim army led by a religious fanatic, the Mahdi. "Four Feathers" (1939) and (2002) is about the same historical episode. That's all about Africa, take or leave stories such as "Out of Africa" (1985), "Blood Diamond" (2006), etc.
I again come back to the Zulu Wars theme. You can't abstain from South African history, neither being European or American or Cosmopolitan. I have been there on a journey some 15 years ago. It's a bizarre landscape with some 6-7 million Whites and 35 million Blacks/Colored. Until lately this was country of Apartheid - Blacks were not allowed to vote. They were not allowed to have sexual relations with Whites, also. The African National Congress was a former Communist Party banned in the 1960s. It's leader Nelson Mandela was released in 1990s when the system was reversed. The Boers are the strangest ethnic enclave in the world - they are "Afrikaans" from the reformed Dutch Church and Dutch Language. Their total xenophobia helped them create and preserve the South African Republic from middle of 19th century. Thence the Boer Wars 1899-1902 and thence the Union of South Africa from 1910. Enjoy It!
P.S. South Africa is the cradle of humankind, believe it or not. The oldest remains from Hominids are found there some 2-3 million years old. What is more disturbing for the precarious European Ego is that there are also Rock Painting, some as old as 30 000 years, which is indication for continuous Human Evolution older than the Lascaux Caves in France ...
How do we get more for the Cinema and Our Civilization from the Black Continent. That's an essential question. Wilbur Smith - God bless him for his talent - has been a wellspring for information on modern South Africa, both historical fiction and international involvement. From the Wikipedia source I will enumerate the Filmography based on Smith's novels: Dark of the Sun (1968), Gold (1974), Shout at the Devil (1976), Covert Assassin (1994), Diamond Hunters (2001). There are more plots from the Author for which I am not aware. You can put here easily the classic "Khartoum" (1966) about defeat of British General Gordon in Sudan against an invading Muslim army led by a religious fanatic, the Mahdi. "Four Feathers" (1939) and (2002) is about the same historical episode. That's all about Africa, take or leave stories such as "Out of Africa" (1985), "Blood Diamond" (2006), etc.
I again come back to the Zulu Wars theme. You can't abstain from South African history, neither being European or American or Cosmopolitan. I have been there on a journey some 15 years ago. It's a bizarre landscape with some 6-7 million Whites and 35 million Blacks/Colored. Until lately this was country of Apartheid - Blacks were not allowed to vote. They were not allowed to have sexual relations with Whites, also. The African National Congress was a former Communist Party banned in the 1960s. It's leader Nelson Mandela was released in 1990s when the system was reversed. The Boers are the strangest ethnic enclave in the world - they are "Afrikaans" from the reformed Dutch Church and Dutch Language. Their total xenophobia helped them create and preserve the South African Republic from middle of 19th century. Thence the Boer Wars 1899-1902 and thence the Union of South Africa from 1910. Enjoy It!
P.S. South Africa is the cradle of humankind, believe it or not. The oldest remains from Hominids are found there some 2-3 million years old. What is more disturbing for the precarious European Ego is that there are also Rock Painting, some as old as 30 000 years, which is indication for continuous Human Evolution older than the Lascaux Caves in France ...
