START 10:18:40 Scenes shot in the commercial district of Nairobi (a continuation of Nairobi street scenes in AYY 1163) where most properties are no higher than two storeys and the pavements are covered with awnings to shelter shoppers from the sun: the interiors of a shop run by Mohammed Ali al-Harazi where African men are seen buying goods. Outside, a man passes by carrying rolls of paper on his back. A sign for 'Ranji Pitamer & Bros', a boot and shoe maker. An African policeman is seen on traffic duty at a busy intersection on Delamere Avenue (?); the traffic includes two American limousines and an AEC Regal bus (with Nairobi on its destination indicator board). African pedestrians are seen crossing a street in the midday sun. A panning shot from where someone has parked an old motorcycle along a row of Indian shops (one shop sign reads 'K H Jani Confectioner'). An African woman out shopping heads across the street away from the camera.

10:19:36 Views of King George V Jubilee Park in the centre of Kampala, Uganda, complete with trees, a landscaped grass lawn, a pergola arranged in a semi-circle and a white marble bust of King George V on a tall plinth. Sergeant Wernham's African batman (?) is seen walking up steps leading to the park's main entrance and the plinth. A view of the white marble bust of the King and a close-up of the inscription on the plinth - "This Monument and the Park in which it stands were presented to the People of Kampala by Nanji Kalidas Mehta Esq. in Memory of the Glorious Reign of His Majesty King George V 1910-1936". A view from the King George V Jubilee Park over the centre of Kampala. African pedestrians are seen using the pavements and road in a section of the main street in the city, seen here lined with old-fashioned two- and three-story colonial-style buildings.

10:20:45 A view of St John the Evangelist Anglican (?) Church, Entebbe, and a close-up of its notice board outside its main entrance. Nearby in the shade of a tree an African man is seen stitching together strips of cloth from which he has made a long cigar-shaped bag. Views of parkland stretching down to the shore of Lake Victoria and sportsfields (including a cricket pitch ?).

10:21:46 Views of the main street in Nakuru in Kenya's Rift Valley; the street is lined with low commercial properties with awnings over the pavements to shelter shoppers from the sun and with motor vehicles, mainly owned by local European settlers, that are parked nose to the kerb. Shop signs - 'Nakuru Press Ltd' and 'Kenya Weekly News' - above a corner store on the main street. Nearby, there is a landscape feature consisting of an old ornamental lamp set in a semi-circular traffic island. The pedestrians seen in the street are almost entirely Africans, including the two men seen here walking along a covered walkway under a shop sign 'Colonial Stores'. African petrol pump attendants fill up the tanks of an American saloon car and a pick-up truck at a garage built in Art Deco style (the sign 'Hughes and Company' clearly visible on the wall); the time on the clock tower reads 12.40.

10:22:27 Brief views of an African market (in Nakuru ?) where the traders - almost entirely women - are seated in rows next to the items they are selling.

10:22:38 Brief views of Sergeant Wernham's Ford 15-cwt pick-up truck travelling around a bend on a dirt road somewhere in Kenya or Uganda.

10:22:50 A view of heavily-wooded country in the Aberdare Mountains (?). Three European settlers ride down a dirt track on horseback. A view of their (?) bungalow, complete with a covered verandah and a large corrugated iron water tank. A dog similar in appearance to a Jack Russell terrier lying on a neatly-manicured lawn. African cattle grazing on grassland near the Aberdare Mountains. A view of another European settler bungalow set in terraced grounds. 10:23:36 Views of a pergola and flowerbeds in a large English-style garden and a section of the driveway leading to a European settler's country home (possibly the one at Nanyuki seen in AYY 1162 (10:05:19 - 10:06:09) and AYY 1179 (11:12:22 - 11:14:37).

10:24:12 A shot of Sergeant Wernham's Ford 15-cwt pick-up truck motoring over the Bailey Bridge built by African sappers over the River Tana during manoeuvres held by East Africa Command sometime in 1945 (see AYY 1169 and AYY 1180 for additional scenes).

10:24:32 Views of a garden belonging to a European settler and the property, a large bungalow with three chimneys, which has a good view of the Aberdare Mountains (?).

10:25:01 Views of ostriches in savannah grassland somewhere in Kenya's Rift Valley; as they detect the presence of humans or other predators, they make a rapid getaway.

10:25:26 An African in his twenties walking along a path with his belongings wrapped up in a cloth bundle and balanced on his head; his wife follows him with a bunch of bananas perched on her head. Heading in the opposite direction are four African women who also carry their possessions on their heads; the older man who follows them is carrying nothing.

END 10:25:45

Glimpses of life in four major urban centres in Kenya and Uganda. European settler homes in Kenya.

Notes

Summary: John Wernham recorded audio commentary over this film on 14 May 1992.

Nanji Kalidas Mehta (1889-1969), the individual named on the plaque in King George V Jubilee Park, was East Africa's best-known philanthropist. A leading member of the Hindu Lohana community in the Indian province of Gujarat, he moved to Uganda in 1905 and subsequently amassed a large fortune from his tea, cotton and sugar enterprises.

Remarks: This material, together with the rest of Wernham's film record of his time in East Africa, constitutes a valuable and possibly unique pictorial record at this time in the region's colonial history. Of special interest here and in AYY 1163 and AYY 1175 are the scenes featuring Indian shopkeepers and artisans, who until the late 1960s provided the backbone to the economies of both Kenya and Uganda.