This 1954 color tourism film directed by Harold C. Weaver and narrated by E.V.H. Emmett for the South African Tourist Corporation provides a travelogue view of the region’s natural beauty and popular attractions from a distinctly British colonialist perspective that exoticises and otherizes native peoples, and does not mention the policy of apartheid (TRT 35:07).

Opening titles: “Satour presents” and credits (0:06). An illustrated map shows the Cape of Good Hope, South West Africa, Transvaal, Orange Free State, Natal, and the cities of Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban (0:27). Title card: “The Fairest Cape.” Cape Town is indicated on a map. Illustrations of colonialist ships. Pan to silver and porcelain china. Fade to relief sculptures (0:45). The main house of the Groot Constantia vineyard near Cape Town (1:33). Table Mountain. Travelers disembark from an ocean liner. Automobiles and british soldiers on horseback wearing pith helmets on parade in Cape Town. Young children and elders selling flowers to tourists wearing white gloves (1:48). A woman in a dress picks flowers from a garden of Calla Lilies. More colorful flowers including King protea and water lilies at the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden (3:03). Table Mountain. An aerial cableway lifts passengers to the summit. Views from the mountaintop (3:28). Farmhouses. Grapes. A Dutch-style windmill. Seaside highways wind around coastal mountains (4:43). Bathers in swimsuits crowd a seaside resort at Muizenberg. A more secluded beach. A couple looking out on a sweeping coastal vista (5:17). Title: “The Garden Route.” A map indicates the coast east of Cape Town. A farm growing hops. Wildflowers and gardens. A golf course (6:01). Beaches. A seagull in flight. A sailboat. (7:03). Logging. A man drives a tractor, hauling timber. Stinkwood is milled into polished vessels and boxes. A salesman shows off a handcrafted box (7:30). A 1950s automobile drives a rocky coastal highway. An ostrich farm. Baby ostriches. Men and boys ride ostriches with varying success (8:54). A holiday resort of thatched cottages. Port Elizabeth. Snake Park. A man holts out two large snakes (10:51). Fountains and urban traffic (11:30). Title: “Red Blanket Country.’ South of Durban (11:43). A vendor shows of indigeonous handicrafts (12:00). A tribal native consults a “witch doctor” at a shop counter (12:16). Native women plow a field using oxen. Native women are approached by the British man from the curio shop, who shows off staged scenes of native life to a tourist couple. Dancing and singing (12:53). A tribe of Xhosa women work the fields of a pineapple farm (15:00). Fruit being exported via East London. Another seaside resort. Racing motorboats (15:31). Title: “Dragon’s Mountain.” The region north of Durban. An elderly family is waited on. Horseback riding around lush, green mountains of the Drakensberg range. Swimming in a stream (16:10). Zulu peoples. Colorful beadwork. A dancing child is applauded and cheered on (18:54). Durban and its hotels and apartments. An urban business center, with many double-decker buses. A Greyville Racecourse in Durban. Zulu rickshaw paraders in elaborate headgear (19:55). A summer Shembe gathering of Zulu dancers (21:17). Title “Gold and Diamonds” near Johannesburg. An airport and international aircraft (22:20). Auto traffic in Johannesburg. High rise buildings. A traffic officer. Fine dining. A mine. An indigeonous “mine dance” performed for a crowd of exclusively white tourists (23:34). Molten gold is poured into ingots (25:06). The diamond mines at Kimberly. The Big Hole. A white man smoking a pipe watches as people of color toil below him (25:43). Minecarts on rails, pulled by cables. A tour guide leads a group. Diamonds are sorted. Cut gemstones (26:33). Pretoria. The Union Buildings. Voortrekker Monument (27:41). “Smoke and Thunders.” The Zambezi River. Natives paddle a canoe for tourists (28:09). Victoria Falls (28:53). A sunset (30:18). “Wild Heritage.” Elderly people drive a car into Kruger National Park. Giraffes and buffalo. A white rhinoceros. Lions and passing cars. A woodpecker. A pangolin (30:30). Elephants on the move (34:34).

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com