Travelogue films showing indigenous life in the interwar period, filmed by the British traveller, linguist, spy and author Reginald Teague Jones OBE, who changed his name to Sinclair after his alleged involvement in the massacre of Bolshevik commissars from Baku in the Caucasus in September 1918.

Aden. Dhow at sea; mountainous landscape of Aden Crater visible behind. Europeans on board a steamer. Shots of steamer; view of Aden. Various small vessels at sea. Further shots of Aden. Camel drawn cart and driver; cart loaded with large barrel. Shots of Aden from the sea as steamer plies up the coast. Various views of a flat coastline (shot list: ‘Distant views of Cape Guardafui & Somaliland coast…Ditto Seychelles Islands from the ship’). Mombasa: tug escort into harbour. Street scenes: very broad streets (shot list identifies as Nairobi). Views of a large lake (Lake Nakuru?). Steam train passes in front of camera; the train’s flat bed trucks carry numerous people. A car in heavy mud, skidding wildly (shot list: ‘Road from Nairobi to Naivasha after heavy rain’). Kikiyu women with heavy bundles and children. Flamingos, Lake Nakuru. Various shots of the bush; panning shot of thin forest. Shots of bush taken from moving vehicle. Shot of car (same vehicle as that seen skidding in mud, earlier) driving on road through forest. Peasants with oxen teams ploughing fields. Rocky outcrops, shots taken from moving car (shot list: ‘country around Tororo and road to Kampala, Uganda’). Bugandan women, carrying babies, earthenware pots. Men apparently burning and cutting grass by hand, using long handled blades (?) (shot list: ‘Natives cutting Grass at Jinja’). Rapids, rope bridge: identified in shot list as Ripon Falls. Lake Victoria. Road through thick bush, filmed from moving car, identified as road to Fort Portal. Lakes. Two armed Europeans, walking through thick forest; looking through binoculars; one climbs a tree stump to gain a vantage point. Various shots on road through very tall grass; various shots of Africans – looking at the camera, seen from within car. African man speaking to cameraman, holding some gathered plants (vegetables?). Man playing large drum (shot list: ‘Mountains of the Moon Hotel. Dinner Drum’). Market scenes (Fort Portal?): men and women with various goods on offer, inc. pottery seller.

Notes

Catalogue entry by Dr Francis Gooding, AHRC Colonial Film Database 2010.