S AFRICAN NATIVE LABOUR CONTINGENT : somewhere in France [Main]


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  • Other title(s): SOUTH AFRICAN NATIVE LABOUR CONTINGENT : somewhere in France [alternative]
  • Year: 1917
  • Runtime: 17 mins
  • Description: The film opens with Number 1 Camp of the contingent by a wood, and a posed group of the black NCOs with their white officers. The NCOs are all "native chiefs". Members of the contingent unload boxes of supplies at a dump from railway wagons, while others use picks and shovels to dig road mending material. The main part of the film concerns the contingent at work in a forest cutting down trees and transporting the logs by means of light rail sledges drawn by horses. The logs are cut to a manageable size by a belt-driven rotary saw. At lunchtime the men relax around a fire, one performs a dance for the camera, and there is a free-for-all, before they return to work. At the main timber yard members of the contingent unload logs from a goods train. The men march back to their camp. One of the sergeants (seen only briefly) is a "Prince in his own country", probably Muti, son of Ntshingwayo, of the Zunga tribe of Zululand.
    Work of the South African Labour Contingent in France, 1917.
  • Keywords: EFG1914 / World War I / Muti, Prince of Zululand / British Army, South African Labour Contingent / South African Army, South African Labour Contingent / supplies, British, storage [RA] - misc / agriculture, South African - arable / recreation, South African military - casual / society, South African military - ethnic / society, South African military - sustenance / 01/3(4-15).7 / France / World War, 1914-1918 -- France / race & [+]
  • Provider: Imperial War Museums
  • Rights: In Copyright / Imperial War Museums
  • Production company: Topical Film Company
  • Colour: Black & White
  • Sound: Without sound

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