Africa, Land of Contrast, 1934

[Music] Africa land of contrasts for men and burdens each in variegated settings of mountain desert and sea present a pageant of surprises beyond the scope of human imagination at Alcantara gateway to the vast O'Hara desert in the southern part of Algeria we are suddenly transported into a world of heat and mystery where Arabs and Berbers live their lives and remote and sidled seclusion totally indifferent to the persistent in robes of civilization many people seem to be under the impression that Algeria is mostly populated by arms as a matter of fact they form only a small minority of the inhabitants seventy-five percent of home are Berbers the sentence of that rugged warlike race who had lived in North Africa for untold centuries before the Arabs came because of their Sun tanned skins caused by cause of exposure to severe African Sun the Berbers are often regarded as a colored race but in reality they are pure Caucasian stock racially as white as ourselves among the Arabs there is no nervous tension no eager striving to accomplish in one lifetime what would normally require our century they all waste their scat earnings and buying favourable horoscopes or in playing dominoes and if no fortune comes to them they will come down their bad luck as being the will of Allah the streets are usually strong with this what's all them doesn't want to see a woman and when she does put it in the parents her face is heavily veiled and her manner is shrinking and reserved the reason for this may be due to the fact that according to their Bible the Koran men are superior to women on account of the quality which God has gifted one above the other hello the Arab men do for fall a few menial duties their most important duty in life is to pray five times a day thereby assuring themselves of paradise at fist cry in southern Algeria there is a garden that has become world-famous as the setting for a romantic novel known as the garden of Allah and it was here that Robert kitchens the author of that book created his principal characters and endowed them with a spell of romance that has helped to make the garden of Allah the most popular oasis in the Sahara Desert just beyond this peaceful acre is the Hagen mystic expanse of the Sahara Desert for our sad species of mankind courageously struggles with the unrelenting elements of heat and sand here dwell the nomads of the desert depending upon frugal crops half-starved camels for our livelihood from the time they are able to walk the children are saddled with the care of children and very seldom does the opportunity present itself for the recreation which is so essential normal childhood it is doubtful that human life there survive here without camels for these beasts of burden are fitted by nature for desert life and can travel for days without food or drink they are stubborn and mean beaten with ugly dispositions even when they're young an orphan among them is certainly a pathetic creature but with all its bad traits the camel is one of man's most useful servants and nothing has yet been invented to compete with this animal and plodding its way across the forbidding sand dunes of the new Sahara the site of a caravan starting out for some distant Oasis there is our imagination that prompts us to admire the courage of the men who can earn a living find the means of travel under such inhospitable conditions thousands of miles beyond the trackless wastes of this desert at the southern extremity of Africa why is the Cape of Good Hope it was around this historic problem sorry that the 40's navigators Vasco de Gama sailed over four hundred years ago and thereby discovered a new route to the Indies and it is here that the waters of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans neat and picturesque rendezvous [Music] Neuros Memorial in Cape Town was a fitting tribute from a grateful people the memory of Cecil John Rhodes a famous statesman and pioneer settler who probably contributed more to the early development an expansion of South Africa than any other individual in South Africa itself is a grand tribute to the colonizing genius of the white man West transform what was once a barbaric wilderness into some of the most modern and up-to-date cities in the world of which Cape Town Johannesburg and Durban are the most outstanding but even in this modern environment there still remains an occasional reminder of the primitive that is always lurking or mingling with the civilized sections of Africa the lands of contrasts the fantastic jinrikisha boys of Durban are all original and unique in their style of costume as well as the tempo of their gait when trotting about the city [Music] an interesting and amusing contrast has found even the life the Africans in ricochet boy who dresses like a barbarian when he mingles with civilization but Don's the attire of a well-dressed college student when he returns to his native people with the money he makes posing as a barbarian in the marks of civilization he returns as a gentleman of leisure to purchase his wife and command her obedience and civility and the Lord and master of all he surveyed we have traveled around the world many times but never before have we witnessed such a humorous and twist in the hectic affairs of civilization the crawls or swelling places of the natives led the picturesque charm to the African landscape [Music] in the valley of a Thousand Hills a few miles from Durban we are entertained by two native Chiefs were proud of their prowess in the art of self-defense buying specimens of physical culture that accredit to the health of climate and marked with dexterous fingers using generous applications of mud and butter fat for the desired effect and now we will follow in the footsteps of the famous African Explorer David Livingstone up the Zambezi River the Great Falls he discovered in 1885 the named after Queen Victoria of England Victoria Falls liable only Ryder Agora in its branches [Music] and it is with this beautiful impression of one of the world's natural wonders that we say farewell to Africa land of contrasts