A documentary about the end of the colonial era in Africa, portraying acts of animal poaching, violence, executions, and tribal slaughter.

Credits: TheMovieDb.

Film Cast:

• Narrator (voice): Sergio Rossi
• (archive footage): Jomo Kenyatta
• Himself (uncredited): Gualtiero Jacopetti
• Himself (uncredited): Julius Nyerere
• Himself (uncredited): Moïse Kapenda Tshombe
• Himself (uncredited): Richard Gordon Turnbull
• Himself (uncredited): Ian Yule

Film Crew:

• Editor: Gualtiero Jacopetti
• Writer: Franco Prosperi
• Assistant Editor: Clara Mattei
• Thanks: Oria Santi
• Thanks: Romano Federici
• Thanks: Anna Gentile
• Thanks: Carolina Ponsomby
• Production Manager: Stanis Nievo
• Producer: Angelo Rizzoli
• Cinematography: Antonio Climati
• Assistant Camera: Ugo Valenti
• Sound Mixer: Fausto Ancillai
• Assistant Camera: Federico Abussi
• Assistant Editor: Maria Gianandrea
• Original Music Composer: Riz Ortolani
• Sound Recordist: Frederick Ridgard
• Thanks: Consuelo Nievo
• Thanks: Maurizio Graziosi
• Special Effects: Tonino Cacciottolo
• Technical Supervisor: Paolo Ketoff

Movie Reviews:

• adorablepanic: AFRICA ADDIO (1966) is a difficult work to evaluate. Released at a time when most major media resources were focused on the Vietnam War, co-directors Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi were among a very, very small group of people documenting the unrest which accompanied the decolonization of Africa. More than 50 years after its release, this is still a brutally graphic film: human death is captured on camera, up-close and unsimulated; hippopotami and elephants are attacked with spears until they resemble living pin-cushions, only expiring after suffering prolonged and agonizing brutality; human remains litter rural fields and city streets like so much discarded waste. There are several scenes where the audio appears to be altered to present the on-screen activity in a manipulated context, which was a technique employed in both MONDO CANE (1962) and MONDO CANE 2 (1963). Charges that the filmmakers were actually complicit in staging some of the death scenes led to a court case in Italy, where they were eventually acquitted. But being critical of a mondo movie for employing deception is like being critical of a baker for employing yeast; it’s one of the tools at the creators’ disposal. Understanding that the mondo genre in general was more concerned with titilation and shock than in absolute narrative truth will go a long way in explaining why Jacopetti and Prosperi may have felt the need to alter already potent footage: they weren’t aspiring documentarians, but rather talented grindhouse purveyors who found themselves in the right place at the right time.