Prince Philip in the Gambia shares much in common with the earlier films of Royal African tours from 1925 and 1947, as it represents and displays ‘traditional’ African life, highlights African loyalty to the British Royal family and emphasises the modern developments introduced by the British. However, the film also now recognises and responds to the changes occurring both within Africa and the Empire.

In many respects then, the film offers a traditional representation of Africa, with ethnographic shots of African activities, displaying ‘colour, laughter, movement and excitement’. Costumed Africans dance and perform to the camera in what the commentator refers to as ‘spontaneous displays by witchdoctors and dancers’. These Africans are represented as contented and happy – the voiceover explains that Gambia is ‘certainly one of the happiest’ places in Africa – and welcome the Prince in their ‘colourful, generous, African way’. The film endorses traditional racial stereotypes, as the commentator asks ‘could there have been a more joyous welcome than in the Gambia? It was one gigantic, rainbow-coloured picnic’.

This representation also ensures that the locals display complete loyalty to the Royal visitors, and by extension, the British. The four thousand ‘delightful’ Gambian children have, the voiceover asserts, never before ‘marched so proudly before so distinguished a visitor’, while the film shows repeated shots from a travelling car of the crowds lining the streets. The commentary also emphasises that Prince Philip serves at the Chiefs’ Conference as a ‘symbol of a larger association of which they are a part’. 

Despite the unity presented of Britain and Africa, the film does present a contrast between the British, aligned with modern developments, and Africa, with its ‘ancient unchanging methods’. This is evident as new methods – represented by a tractor inspected by Prince Philip and other British visitors – are contrasted with the ‘pastoral timeless African landscape’, represented by local women working in the fields and collecting rice ‘in the old primitive way’.

However, this film does recognise the changes occurring within Africa and the Empire. First the commentator refers to the new constitution of 1954, based on ‘recommendations of an all-Gambian committee’, before emphasising that ‘The Gambia is a country of change and experiment’. The shots from the conference – ‘these magnificent stately figures are not just taking part in an empty pageant’ – are intended to indicate the shifts in power within Africa and the moves towards self-government. This is further emphasised by the terminology used. The film does not refer to the British Empire, but instead considers the Duke of Edinburgh’s journey within the ‘scattered British Commonwealth’. The film’s conclusion refers to the ‘small and the great, the white and black, the island and the continent, the hot and the cold’, as the commentary emphasises the ‘marvellous mixture of variety on that ever changing but very real thing, the British Commonwealth’. The film thus seeks to validate the Commonwealth at a moment when the Empire was breaking up – Ghana was the first African country to achieve independence during 1957 – and emphasises the continued role of the British within this changing Africa.

Tom Rice (June 2008)