START 10:00:00 Scenes at a coming-of-age ceremony for young Masai males (a continuation of the colour film scenes in AYY 1179). Watched by other members of their clan, young warriors armed with spears perform the 'adumu' or jumping dance. The dreadlocks and copper earring worn by one young Masai tribesman. A row of older men dances in a jerky rhythmic style. An old woman with a pendulous pierced left earlobe weighed down by a heavy ear ring. A young Masai woman, her head shorn of hair, carrying her baby wrapped up in her robe on her back. Flies gather round her baby. A child dances between two adult relatives. A young Masai warrior wearing a copper headband, for earrings copper bands and a wooden plug (?).

10:03:05 Kenyan African fishermen (?) in their village on Lake Victoria check their fishing net for damage. Satisfied that it is in good condition, they load the net into a wooden box and carry it to their fishing boat, a craft approximately fifteen feet long with a lateen rig and a transom stern. Using wooden poles, they manoeuver their boat through the shallows at the edge of Lake Victoria and come alongside other similar craft moored nearby. Lateen-rigged fishing boats out on the lake. Three fishermen on board one craft, registration K31X, pulling in their fishing net and extracting fish from it. Two of the fishing crew drag their boat by the stern back to the shore.

10:05:32 A fishing boat in full sail approaches the vessel in which Sergeant Wernham is filming and ties up alongside. The three man crew lowers the lateen sail, stows it away and drops the anchor over the side. The fishermen sit in their boat chatting. They load their catch into a big tin tub. The crews of other fishing boats are seen returning to shore at the end of a day's fishing. Everything is brought ashore from the boats. The fish are emptied out of a tub onto the ground. A fisherman rests in the shade. A pile of freshly-caught fish, including one still gasping for oxygen.

10:08:10 Top shots of two young alligators in a pen; somebody (off-screen) prods them with a long thin piece of wood which they try to bite.

10:08:56 Two young girls (the one with the long hair is Gillian Burnham, seen in AYY 1165) go for a walk along a country road in Limuru outside Nairobi. They enter a bamboo wood and pick wild flowers, including some hibiscus.

10:11:04 A landing stage on Lake Victoria (?) showing a European couple and their daughter in a boat powered by an outboard motor. On board the boat, Sergeant Wernham films its progress close to the shore of Lake Victoria, with the steerman's hand on the steering lever on a 'Johnson Sea Horse' outboard motor at the stern of the boat. The boat's other passengers are a young woman wearing sun glasses and a patterned dress, seen unreeling a line from a fishing rod, and a black and white dog. A flamingo takes to the air to avoid the humans. Another flamingo perched on a branch of a dead tree. Views of the lush tropical vegetation lining the lake as Wernham's boat motors by (speeded up shot from 10:12:03 - 10:12:08). Birds nesting on shore scatter as the boat passes close by. The sun sets behind the trees lining the lake.

10:13:33 An adult giraffe feeds from the uppermost branches of a tree in dry savannah country.

10:14:31 Two warthogs kept in a wire enclosure eat nuts in a trough.

10:14:52 A relief map of Victoria Falls on a roughly west-east orientation, with Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) on the left and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) on the right (see AYY 1184).

10:14:57 Views of savannah country and a large hill or kopje dominating the landscape.

10: 15:13 Manoeuvres with the King's African Rifles (KAR) near the Aberdare Mountains: infantrymen in open order in grassland. Four emaciated bullocks tow a cart carrying sacks of food past two stationary Universal carriers manned by African soldiers. African infantrymen advance in extended order across a grassy plain. Views of the Aberdare Mountains overlooking the open country where the KAR maneouvres are taking place.

10:16:17 Two thoroughbred horses, one grey, the other a chestnut. A KAR soldier leads both horses by the reins around a paddock.

10:16:57 Football in Nairobi (see AYY 1163 for additional scenes): Africans queue up at the entrance and are allowed in by two stadium officials. Spectators, including many Askaris, are seen seated on terraces waiting for the football match to begin. One of the football teams runs onto the pitch. Scenes from the game in which there are two goal kicks and a goal scored at Sergeant Wernham's end of the pitch.

END 10:18:33

A record of different kinds of human activity and animal life in Kenya during the Second World War.

Notes

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

Remarks: Excellent footage, especially the scenes filmed with the fishermen on Lake Victoria. 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.