Shot in January of 1942, “Congo Flight” presents a rare look at southern Africa during WWII. This silent film shows a trip from South Africa to the Belgian Congo aboard a Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar. The airplane was operated by the Belgian airline SABENA (standing for Societé anonyme belge d’Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne) and flown by a pilot who escaped Brussels when the Germans invaded. According to notes that came with the film, it has rare views since, a short time after it was created, aerial photography was prohibited in southern Africa for the duration of the war. The notes also explain that “The journey starts in Cape Town, takes a route through Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, the Rhodesias, Congo, and ends with a return to Cape Town.” Since it was wartime, the notes (among other things) mention that the “enormous native populations numbering many millions, stand solidly behind the European inhabitants in their common aim to fight till tyranny is destroyed.”
The film begins in Cape Town (:41) and shows the airplane taking off for Bloemfontein, also known as Bloem, with the Cape Flats and False Bay visible, past the Holland Mountains and over Little Kerroo, crossing the Orange River into the Orange Free State. At 4:21 the Vaal Dam is shown which was constructed in 1938. The city shown at 5:00 is Johannesburg. At 7:48, the Limpopo River is seen from the air. At 11:12, the film shows the airport at Elizabethville, now Lubumbashi, Congol. At 11:15 an interesting flag is shown (which we have not been able to identify but probably belongs to the Belgian military). Scenes in Elizabethville follow, , including the cathedral, war memorial, and town swimming pool. At 12:13 a Katanga man receives a haircut with a knife. At 13:54, men in pith helmets and military uniforms are shown. The man at 13:48 is apparently the Governor-General of the Belgian Congo, Monsieur Paul Ryckmans, who the notes indicate “is greatly loved by his 13 million subjects.” At 14:09, there is a visit to a Congo Army military base, with soldiers marching. At 14:19, a group of African soldiers in uniform are shown at a SABENA airfield. At 14:39, a Fokker trimotor belonging to the airline is visible. It is fueled, but too much, so at 16:51 natives remove extra petrol by hand with a siphon. The Governor General is shown in his private compartment. The (15:08). The woman shown at 15:16 is his aide, Madame Ryckmans. The Congo River is visible at 15:42. The islands shown are papyrus grass. Shots in the cockpit and of the trimotor’s engines at speed. At 17:51 the trimotor is shown on the ground at Luluabourg, now known as Kananga. A group of local prisoners are used to help push, as the plane is bogged down in the grass. The prisoners at 18:13 wear chains around their necks. They rotate the plane for takeoff at 18:19. The Congo River is seen again at 18:43. At 20:27, the Leopoldsville Airport. A miniature windmill is shown at 20:44 and at 20:47, an equestrian statue of King Leopold II, located in Kinshasa / Leopoldsville. At 20:50, river steamers are visible, and crossing by ferry boat, the filmmaker arrives in Brazzaville at 21:54. At this time Brazzaville was home to the Free French Movement in Africa. At 22:18, an ivory handicraft is shown off to the camera. Hoodoo effigies are shown at 22:19. The filmmakers then embark on a plane bound for Stanleyville, almost 1200 miles up river. A large anthill is seen at 23:18, followed by an okapi, a cross between a giraffe and a zebra. At 23:54 a brief shot of Stanley’s falls, and then a visit to the Albert National Park.At 23:49 a steam locomotive rumbles past. At 24:08, the journey resumes in the trimotor, headed back to Elizabethville. At 26:47 a large copper mining operation and smelter are shown. The trip resumes in the Lockheed back to Cape Town..
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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
