Wild River Safari is a short 1954 documentary/travelogue from Castle Films that follows an expedition upriver into the heart of Africa. It appears that the expedition travels up the Congo River and then moves up the Ubangi River during the expedition. The film opens with a shot of a river (likely the Congo, or possibly the Ubangi). Men paddle dugout canoes up the river. A massive colony of flamingos wade along a stretch of the river (00:58). The expedition arrives at a village where women and girls greet the expedition with singing and clapping (01:30). In the village, several women appear to knead dough with mortars and pestles. Men burn grass and leaves under the expedition’s canoes to fire-harden the wood (02:10). The expedition leaves the village and continues upriver to what the narrator refers to as “the land of the Ubangi” (03:07), so presumably up the Ubangi River. At another village along the river, women show off their lip plates or drooping lips that have been stretched out from the practice. The expedition moves inland and comes across a group of Pygmy children hunting birds and monkeys with small bows (04:00). In the Pygmy village, a mother takes care of her children and weaves a basket. Other Pygmies cook caterpillars for a meal. A member of the tribe weaves a net for hunting (05:38). Men leave the village (06:00) and set up nets near where prey was spotted. They chase a small member of the antelope family (possibly a duiker) into the net, then free the young animal. They flush out an adult and spear the animal. Back at the village, the Pygmies dance around a fire (07:30); men play drums while others dance and sing. The film ends with a shot of the expedition back in their canoes paddling on the still waters of the river (08:10).
The Ubangi River (/(j)uːˈbæŋɡi/), also spelled Oubangui, is the largest right-bank tributary of the Congo River in the region of Central Africa. It begins at the confluence of the Mbomou and Uele Rivers and flows west, forming the border between Central African Republic (CAR) and Democratic Republic of the Congo. Subsequently, the Ubangi bends to the southwest and passes through Bangui, the capital of the CAR, after which it flows south – forming the border between Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of Congo. The Ubangi finally joins the Congo River at Liranga.
The African Pygmies (or Congo Pygmies, variously also “Central African foragers”, “African rainforest hunter-gatherers” (RHG) or “Forest People of Central Africa”) are a group of tribal ethnicities, traditionally subsisting in a forager and hunter-gatherer lifestyle, native to Central Africa, mostly the Congo Basin.
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