Africa Addio (Farewell Africa)
Africa Addio is an Italian documentary film made in 1966 about the end of the colonial era in Africa. The film was released under the names Africa Blood and Guts in the USA (which was only half of the entire film) and Farewell Africa in the UK.
The movie documents some of the disruptions caused by decolonization, such as poaching in former animal preserves and bloody revolutions, including the Zanzibar revolution which resulted in the massacre of approximately 5000 Arabs in 1964. In most of its edited incarnations, the movie leaves out mention of similar atrocities that were committed under colonial powers.
While the film claims to dispassionately show reality, it has been criticized as biased by many viewers over the years (perhaps most notably Roger Ebert). The film was shot over a period of three years, by Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi, two Italian filmmakers who had gained fame a few years earlier (with co-director Paolo Cavara) as the directors of Mondo Cane in 1962.
This film launched the so-called Mondo film genre, a cycle of documentaries or shockumentaries which often featured sensational topics, of which Africa Addio is arguably a part (it is included in the Mondo Cane Collection currently being distributed by Blue Underground). (Excerpt from Wikipedia)
This is a fantastic documentary. Personally never seen anything like it, so beautiful and so repulsive and brutal at the same time. The accounts of violence are incredibly real and chilling - because they indeed are real. This is what was happening in Africa post 1960, and what in many parts of Africa continues by this day.
It is harsh, naturalistic, but also in its strange way beautiful and profound. The cinematography, music make for an incredible and fascinating viewing. The documentary is certainly not political, it's simply realistic. As a matter of fact, its creators were seconds from being executed by the revolutionary guards, during the making of the movie.
It's caught on cam in the film itself. I remember they also comment on how the past atrocities committed by the previous rulers of the Belgian Congo turned against the remainder of its European population.
The narration is racist, eurocentric garbage, yes...but without a doubt the footage is incredible
I have seen it a couple times and I can make one very high recommendation: If you want to enjoy the pure footage just mute the volume and listen to some music or something. It goes very well with long psychedelic tracks or classical music.
As a warning it is some of the most intense footage I have ever seen, and is not an easy watch. But it appears authentic and is therefore very important to watch from a film-makers or photographer perspective. Best to just ignore the audio.
How_delightful - wow so much bs coming from one should be illegal, you are so ignorant !!
Reading the comments I am disgusted by the amount of ignorance that exists. So many europeans defend the atrocities comitted by european imperialism until today. Pretending as if africans where somehow inferior by nature and better of being enslaved and torchered. So many false claims and so much ignorant avoiding of reality. The whole history of europe has been rewritten to make it appear as if europeans have always been dominant. Arent zou intrested what realy went on. Southern Europe, parts of Italy as well has been under african and arab control for over almost 1000 years. It was a time of science where the ancient greek texts where discovered and tranlated in to arabic. Africans where far ahead the europeans for most of the time in human history. Ancient egypt is the greatest civilization ever and existed thousands of years, while °whites° still lived like cavemen. In Rome western Europeans especially germanic tribes and everything further west or north, where considered primitive apemen and where subjects to slavery. After rome fell the germanic tribees took over and the christian church was created. Then the moors took over. After the christians finally fought off the muslim empire reigning over europe for 700 years they fell back in to the °dark ages° middeaval times where horrible. People where incredibly ignorant. And everyone was a slave. Born to work on a piece of land that was not his. Even kings lived like beggars stinking from their own fecies. All the progress that existed with the romans and the moors was lost again. Just in the renaissance the western europeans for the first time began understanding ancient knowledge. That is when thez started to take over and kill of anyone in their way. Not exactly a glorious history and far from always being advanced.
Shocking atrocities by whites on blacks, blacks on whites, blacks on blacks, and all wiping out the wild life.
It confirms what I've said previously, black people in Africa have
suffered the worst atrocities, .........at the hand of black people.
Wow all these posts miss the point about this documentary i think it is not what all people think or the way all people view things it is a program made by a few people for sensationalism.
Europeans and Arabs did terrible things in parts of Africa, what about the Millions of White Slaves taken from Europe by Africans?, in fact entire coastlines of Southern Europe were deserted because of it.
Ghana had a a very advanced Culture and was a slave based society like many other in Africa throughout History like everywhere else in the World.
Look what has happened and is happening to the Bayaka/Aka people and not just by Europeans, Rwanda, Liberia the list is endless.
Shaka Zulu was one of the worlds greatest military leaders and he did not get an empire by loving his fellow African.
We should all remember the past but not live in it.
The list is endless and all it shows is that Humans all over the World can be nasty SOB's.
Get real people
Sad to say, I cant think of one African country today, that wasnt better off as a colony.....sadly the boundaries of African countries drawn up by the Europeans were artificial ones, thus encouraging the tribal strife that exists to this day....as well, the colonial powers made the mistake of not providing for, and then leaving, before there was a large enough educated workforce(aside from the military) that could run the countries schools, govt, medical systems, and judiciary.....what we are seeing is Africa devolving into its natural tribal state of affairs. But there is a new colonial power in Africa today, and that is China, who see Africa as nothing more than a storehouse of raw materials for their industries at home....Africans today have new colonial masters...Due to Chinese workers in Africa demand for ivory...the price of elephant ivory has gone from $4/Kg to$300/k. Same with rhino horn, resulting in the wholesale slaughter of these animals. Cheap Chinese trade goods are dumped on African markets...destroying any chance of local industries to improve the countries economies. By the time the Chinese are done with Africa, it will make the Europeans at many times misguided and cruel colonialism look like child's play.
everyones going on about racism , ...all i can think about is those poor f****** cows :(
Africa is the birthplace of mankind. When we rape her and pillage the land then we have done it to our own mothers and daughters. In all your intelligence use your common sense first. Stop talking like you don't know...
Africa humanitys birthplace? Pfffft
B.S.
Thats just liberal yap; and not based on what really happened.
Okello will pay with the hellfire for what he did to the arabs in Zanzibar.. Ameen.
What exactly did the white Europeans do to the Africans? I know that they gave them, They gave them schools, hospitals, education, transportation, housing, resources to improve their living standards. When the first white men arrived in Africa, the Africans were living in squalid conditions in tribal communities. They had no running water, No toilet facilities, No medical facilities, No education facilities. I can go on and on…. What are you all on about the video being biased, all that stuff happens as they were filmed. Do you for one moment think that they staged any of it. I was 16 years old when I first saw the movie, and when I was 17 I was in the Second Chimurenga. Robert Mugabe is still there, put there by people such as you, people that have a loud voice but don’t know what they ARE TALKING ABOUT. Your outlook on life has been shaped by propaganda that you are unaware of. You watch too many soap operas and your brain has been pre-formatted. Shame on you for letting that happen to yourself.
The same things are still happening today, take Joseph Kony, Robert Mugabe and many more over the years. I was there, can any of you claim that. I saw it all. I am a white man that was born Africa. I like to refer to myself as a euroafrican. I will never be ashamed of my whiteness and I don’t expect a black man to be ashamed of his blackness. Everybody discriminates in one way or another. I have black friends and white friends, I choose to choose my friends, but some people white or black are a shame to the human race. These people white and black are clearly shown in this movie Africa Addio. Nothing about this video is good, it is all bad, but its true.
Woooow, simply wooow!! That is simplistic, linear and narrow way to perceive reality. Africans were a population that was disconnected from Eurasia, where anthropologist like Richard Dawkins calls "nursery" of humanity; a place where human population boomed and the birth of trades and crafts took off, including weaponry...more population, richer and consistent land for farming, dairy animials...etc etc..
So Africans were living with their wits under a tropical environment with no access to the development that ASIA, ARABS and EUROPEANS exploited through the famous trade routes like the Silk Road.
EUROPEANS EXPLOITED MORE THAN THEY GAVE BACK! Self titled "King" Neopold alone killed an estimated 10 million Africans for his cocoa enterprise.
You build your perception not by asking yourself tough questions or opening your thoughts to another possibility.....but you reinforcing a narrow line of thought which is motivated by your need to make Europeans (yourself) look good under the historical circumstances.
AFRICANS LEARNED QUICKLY...THEY WERE DEALT THE SAME CRUELTY AS NATIVE INDIANS....THEY KEPT THEIR CONTINENT...
Yawn; now throw a spear at an incoming meteorite.
These kind of uneducated comments are what keep most people ignorant to what is going on and mentally enslaved. Learn the facts, do your due diligence and search the material before giving your "opinion" from what you heard. Probably got your facts from FOX news.
All I know is that when I age 16, I was almost kicked to death in England by three large Africans (and I nearly lost an eye), just for my being white and weaker than them.
The York police refused to look into it because they indicated it would upset local race relations.
I eventually emigrated from that suicidal nation run by liberals and hateful queer people.
Due to what they did; the more HIV AIDS and ebola I see between them, the more safe I feel.
you are spot on Wally. I am 70 years old and live in the RSA and know of these things you wrote about. The of the blood of the missionaries in the Kongo is still calling out for justice. The Kongo has never tasted peace since 1960.
What this video didnt show people was what the Europeans did to the Africans when the Africans tried to stand up for their human rights and freedom.
Its a propaganda to make the Europeans look good.
Its hard to look good when you have destroyed a whole continent by subdividing it recklessly, introducing diseases such as AIDS, polio and others, introducing tribalism, impoverishing the young African governments with debt so as to control them etc etc
Ofcourse the Europeans will get away with all that because they control the cheese. What they wont be able to do is make the world forget.
Europeans did not introduce AIDS to Africa, macho African married men refusing to wear condoms with prostitutes did. Black Africa does not need white Europe to cause devastation, they do a fine job on their own. Ask Black Africans living well in Europe.
Europeans and their Western allies created the AIDS virus in a lab. Biological warfare at its finest. Evil Europeans are worse than the worst terrorists.
Wow, someone has been reading only conspiracy theories and little else from the looks of it. AIDs jumped from chimpanzees to humans since we are closely related and viruses do not play favorites. They also evolve quicker than other organisms since they are so
Bushmeat.
Some Africans allegedly ate diseased monkey/ape mear raw.
Allegedly, some hump the dead monkey first.
Baby rape has been ongoing for generations as an African witchdoctor cure for HIV AIDS. Such culture liberals appear to promote..
Yawn; of course Africa was a paradise awaiting an extinction event if it wasn`t for Caucasians returning to the alleged motherland; you semi-educated racist scroat.
Spears will not an incoming meteorite stop.
Caucasians, and global metals and education/technology could.
But how to avoid the drag that people who refuse to work & pay tax, causes.
africa never had human rights the way a european thinks they should have it. they came to work for the white man who gave them something for their labour. they were not slaves to a white colonist like their forefathers who were sold as slave to arabs. For the first time in their lives the got something they could use to buy the things that were in shops. Shoes, panties, bras, long pants, shirts, beautiful coloured beads, headbands, food, they loved it. I'm born an african and I have seen what has happened in the last 70 years. from bare breasted black women to the modern black woman wearing the most expensive clothes, watches, driving Mercs and living in double story houses with swimming pools. They always had their own hospitals, universities, primary and secondary schools that prepared them for further studies. The became medical doctors, advocates, lawyers and shop owners. So don't talk nonsense to me Mr. Liberal.
OMG...AT 25:00....You see soundtrack used which illustrates the propaganda nature of the filming...THEY ARE ACTUALLY PLAYING THE COLONIZERS AS THE VICTIMS.......The level of delusion is EPIC!!!
Oh, those horrible colonizers, they built farms of prosperity based on Western land owning practices and sold produce and meats from their bounty so people can eat, pave roads, protect the savannah, provide jobs, and in return for independence Black Africa loots the property, destroys it, devastates food resources, slaughter cows, kill missionaires, slaughter Muslims and with no clear objective other than hate. What a pity.
How much of that land was cleared and built upon the back of the most brutal and vicious act human kind has inflicted on itself. Slavery. Oh the poor Europeans who didn't think native African people deserved education so that they could understand conservation or freedom so that they can understand the beauty of life. No. Some people on here make me sick because they don't like to talk about the bigger picture. They always just look at the immediate situation at hand and not the domino effect of historical events. You speak about black and white as if we aren't the same f*cking species. Black and white people are capable of the same level of intellect. Not everyone is born with the same level of opportunity. Human behaviour is a pattern and in extremely poor European countries you see behaviour that mirrors that off Africa. In Europe criminals poach farm animals to feed their family. When a man's family is starving because his economy is broken, culture and knowledge of the land erased, etc and he only knows hardship... How the h*ll do you expect him to act? Some people are so busy seeing colour and culture they forget the simple matter of cause and effect.
That was a corny, ad hominem response without much intellect. Where's the big picture? Cause and effect? Wow, you are really smart. Yes, slavery is a horrible thing. Black Africa was and is very good at it. Who was capturing and selling slaves to Europeans in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries? Rival black African tribes. Stop blaming the white man for all your woes. Who gave today's Africa the nation-states that are helping them have self-governance, law, development and educational opportunities? You guessed it. Was everything nice and fair during European colonization? No, but it certainly was better than the alternative.
Gimmie a break. Pffft
North Africans & Blacks were their own worst enemy long before Southern European Caucasians were attacked and sold into slavery in Africa even before the Romans became an empire. Even one of my grandfathers parents were servants in the UK. Not through choice; but through something that is akin to slavery where there were no alternatives; but he never complained that his family were forced to be servants/slaves (literally having their lives owned by the people they had to work for). Yet blacks were given lush tropical Islands to grow bananas and cotton on (Haiti to Jamaica); and they still whine and Beg form whites when their economy collapses due to their own intransigence. Now they are hovels of drugs and crime (especially rape & prostitution); which is no different to the history of such people on a widespread level.
Semi-educated people rely on single issues of "Blame whites"; and fail to bother learning the rest of the detail.
You forgot the rapes of the people/famiy members who brought Africa some prosperity and science..
This is a level of racism journalism that tops it all....wooow! The hate and intention to can even be seen on the simple actions of zooming in ...cherry picking weird actions of rural leaders..etc...this is what shaped the minds of many old white people attitudes when they were young.....
You have to understand the level of western racist attitudes when the movie was made....to see why it is so grossly BIASED....a level of cherry picking realities to fit a preconceived narrative.
I think this should be taught in journalism classes....the show has no clear message but just to dazzle the audience with pictures of far away land with out of context realities only stitched together in the fallible mind of its creators.
If it was cherry picking, there were a lot of cherries to chose from. How do you excuse what Black African hate did to non-white Muslims who by the way are African.
100% agree with that!
people are sick, white or black it doesnt matter, we are the virus, we'll kill are host eventually
Speak for yourself.
@ Ambricourt
By the middle of 20th century, colonization in the form known before that time has already fallen out of fashion. The most significant effort at colonization of Ethiopia was made by the Italians late in the early part of the century, and they were handily defeated by the Ethiopians in that conflict. They were also handily defeated in Libya, a country next door to them. You may want to consult some information about the period of European colonization in Africa. It started in the 16th century.
Most of Italy's colonization efforts in Africa were focused on East Africa, i.e. Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. They came very late in the game and were also considered some of the most repressive, cruel and racist colonizers.
You sound like a Nazi/Fascist empathizer. Yes, they lost and for a good reason. Their attrocites paled those of other Europeans in contrast.
Italy lost because they were late to European colonization of Africa and becaue they were in the middle of a World War in Europe, which they also lost. The invasion of Ethopia by Italy was folly brought on by a fascism in a country that was not united the late 19th century when most of Africa was long before carved up by the Portuguese, French, English, Belgian and Spanish.
Actually the Italians, like the Germans, were extremely good at colonization. In contrast, the British, French, Belgians and Dutch were exploitative and generally indifferent to benefiting the mass of conquered populations.
During World War 2, the battle between Italian and British forces for control of Ethiopia was hard-fought; and the Italian army, with limited resources, performed brilliantly. But the British were able to re-supply and won.
History is written by victors and this is more true of WW2 than of any other conflict in history. The focus on the British blitz, Nazi occupations of European countries, D-day and the heroic Anglo-American Alliance offers a false perspective by omitting or distorting terrible and larger events; the orthodox view underplays colonial conflicts in North and Central Africa, and heroizes blustering victors (British and Americans) at the expense of courageous losers (Italians and Germans).
The Germans only colonized Namibia and not for very long. Parts of North Africa were conquered by Germans militarily but were hardly colonized by them. The Italians were not there for very long so what exactly is your criteria to claim that the Italians and Germans were good at colonization?
Yes, there were atrocities by the British, French, Belgians, Dutch and Portuguese but there were also models of colonization by them.
Interesting such documentary was made by Italians of all Europeans. Italians failed miserably at colonization, even equipped with far advanced weapons than those they tried to colonize. One of the major efforts by Italians to enter the colonization fiasco was an attempt to colonize Ethiopia. After five years of indiscriminate fire bombing and merciless killing, they were still outsmarted and out-gunned.
There is a great deal of inferiority complex at display in the video.
Excellent documentary. How can independence be described as an "achievement" when it results in disaster for the average person ? The documentary shows revolting Africans killing for fun.
To sam:
the reason why the narrator is referring to Africans as "Negri", is that it is not a derogatory word in Italian. It comes from the Latin word for "black", and in Italian it means only-doh-black people. Whatever English speaking people decide to do of the word- making of it a derogatory term- why should it affect the Italian language? Italian language kept the meaning of the word close to its roots, black. English is not the center of the world, believe it or not. Why does Italians should change their language because someone else decided to make a bad use of theirs?
my dearest. perhaps the evolution of ignorance plays a role in referring to ones ethnicity. People of the world are not colours of the rainbow - as ignorance would like to believe or normalize. How on can people of African decent/ethnicty be called 'black' and Europeans 'white', then 'Chinese - chinese', 'Indians-Indians'.... you see, when you perpetuate ignorance, and normalize it as 'cultural norm'... trying to understand history is strayed.
If you knew better, you would know that many 'English' words are rooted from 'latin'... in fact, many European words/language for that matter... and yes, Italy IS in EUROPE.
So, as I see it clearly, and, as debated and over-stood with my 'Italian-Canadian' mate, African's are not 'black' - Europeans (even in North America...or anywhere in the world) are not 'white'.
Perhaps knowledge and consistancy would reinforce people of the world based on their nationality. Putting an end to the ignorance/confusion of race versus ethnicity.
Blacks are not evil, whites are not pure. IF people knew anything about word association, and sub-conscious mentally, you'd comprehend my points. And yes, evolution and generational ignorance even had African referring to themselves as 'black' and Europeans as 'whites'... in addition to the rest of nations.
So, perhaps consistency and knowledge would reinforce being referred to as your nationality and lineage (Continent-Country of birth)...
For Example: European-Canadian, or Asian-Indian
Me: African-Canadian
Remembering, Where you live makes you are CITIZEN (by paper) of that country, NOT your 'race, ethnicity, colour, nationality'...
Then again, people are probably just too ignorant you figure this out.
Best Regards to Promote Anti-Oppression and Anti-Ignorance
In contemporary times, the word ''negro'' is as derogatory in Italian just as it is in English. Nowadays you wont find people using this word on the streets. The situation in Spain however is different, over there ''negro'' actally means black. In Italy the word for black is ''NERO''.
Thank you for clarifying. In the Romance languages, "negro" does not mean the "N" word as we know it in the Anglo-American world. It only means black" and is not derogatory in the Romance languages.
It's no suprise to hear white lies from white people the invaders and enslavers of our people.
This documentary is nothing but another white ignorant attempt to impose themselves on others so they can feel good and important, Africa never one day needed no help from outsiders untill white crusaders, exploiters,liars, cheats who came in various disguises as missionaries, explorers and europeans and Asian savages started coming around.
The truth is now out for all to see, Italians used chemical weapons on Africans while fighting to steal a part of Africa, Ethiopia.
The catholic church invented and promoted slavery from Rome, we Africans know how good Europeans are at lying, cheating, exploiting, manipulating, killing, lynching and how boldly they can turn around and blame their victims.
It's a big shame Europeans think they can get away with their ugliness.
Excuse me, but it wasn't Black Africa who entrapped and sold its own people to white European slave traders hundreds of years ago? I think Black Africa needs to look at itself instead of always pointing fingers across the Mediterranean.
girish zalera please contact me via facebook!!
I have no comment exept I am still looking for the ORIGINAL blac & white Africa Addio .
I do not remember sound of a helicopter flying above where I lived,but saw a single propeller aircraft flying around.
Don't watch this doc it's full of BS, also it's from a racially motivated stand point:)
It's full of BS? You mean it was produced in Hollywood and not documented? Must have been a $250 millions dollar movie production to get that level of accuracy.
I can't finish watching this doc,I also don't recommend anyone whom would like the facts to view it.It's so one sided it ridicules, next there going to say the barbaric AFRICAN'S revolt was unjust. Can someone also explain to me why the narrator is referring to the African's as the N word or is their not a more politically correct term in Italian.
It's not the N word. It's only the N word as you know it in English, not in Italian, nor Spanish, nor Portuguese nor French.
I have seen the killings in zanzibar `64Jan while I was 6yrs old living off the Hollis Rd Batini in zanzibar I have seen/experienced a coupler of killings on the 12 th Jan 1964 but as a kid, it would be like seeing a movie.
Please I am looking for the original BLACK & WHITE movie shot by the Italian journalists with single proprller 2 aircrafts, one was arsoned & destroyed while landing on a runway and another just took off ,later it took some clips around the island .
I have seen one clip in colour shot by helicopter but I am sure it is not the original one.
If anyone has please inform, this is only 11or 12 minutes movie with OLD zanzibar market shots where a local woman with a gun is sitting by The Good Luck Stores smoking a cigarate.
best
gzalera
Just from reading the description of this film, as well as the previous comments, I'm choosing not to watch this doc.
Jesus Christ.
"Africa has no fallen soldiers on either side. It has only corpses."
So true, even up to this day.
The film offers wonderful image-making but facts are confused and names of some tribes wrong; "Africa" is limited to British-controlled territories, except for brief excursions to Angola and Congo. As in MONDO CANE and WORLD OF WOMEN, Jacopetti shows his fascination with the grotesque: in this film, the grotesque is mainly killing.