PSEUDO-EXPLORERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 99, 29 April 1933, Page 9 (Supplement)

PSEUDO-EXPLORERS.

AFRICA THE WILD.

AMATEUR "BIG GAME?' hunters.

INSECTS DEADLIER THAN LIONS

(By CAPTAIN CARL VON HOFFMAN.)

At the start of the period when African films were to be a vogue I went to the ornate offices of a, distinguished motion picture executive in New York. I said I liad taken movies in Africa, and tried to make a sale, informing him that these were unusual reproductions of unusual people, incidents, and surroundings. Interested, the executive inquired: '"What kind of pictures ace they?" I replied, hopefully: " They are ethnological." With a sigh of regret, he said, with a gesture of finality: " I am sorry, but we don't handle religious films! " That is the type of mentality that often proffers you what purports to he Africa. Little wonder Africa has been maligned, drilled into the layman's mind as a region of eternal menace, land of dread. It cannot be denied Africa holds many mysteries. Scientists are still .trying to penetrate the secrets of many rituals and customs among the primitives. True, too, there arc little-travelled areas, and the continent has its dangers. But what was Darkest Africa in the days of Livingston and Stanley is no longer the savage region the layman has been taught to fear. Mind your own business, and you may cross Africa without a gun. Make yourself heard on the path, and you will not encounter animals. The sound of your approach will frighten them away. With proper trappings and attendants life is comfortable. v _ Many wealthy amateurs, wishing to burst out in glorious adventures to be paraded before gaping friends, go to Africa with a preconceived picture of their experiences. They try to develop events that will accord. When such an adventurer reaches Mombasa, tho professional white hunters, one of whom will serve as his guide, nudge one another, and remark: " Well, lie's going to tell them when he gets back to America." Wherefore amateur game hunters are known as " I will tell them in America." Luxury in Africa. Leaving Cairo, one may. travel by luxurious train with magnificentlyappointed dining car and comfortable sleeper. Nile River steamers 6top at towns with modern hotels. Later, boats proceed along the river through the wilderness for sixteen days. The humidity is tough at times, but bearable, and deck chairs permit convenient lolling. The amateur may leave his boat in the equatorial zone, where there is 110 dearth of good motoring roads when one seeks such travel rather than an invasion of the jungle. At Mombasa one purchases whatever ho needs froim outfitters. He may get anything from canned milk to elephant rifles. A professional hunter is engaged. He is tqld how much to spend. He employs cook and chamber boys and porters. He arranges every detail of the safari, helping obtain the license which restricts the amount of game to be slaughtered. If tho bloodthirsty amateur is a tenderfoot, too bad, for there is much walking. Ho has to stalk game. Game do'esn't come his way. Jgets out of his way. But the professional knows the locations of lairs, and saves his patron endles& v hiking. • The amateur has a powerful gun with telescopic sights. He may shoot at the safe range of 300 yards or more. As ho pulls the trigger, his professional, at the rear, touches the trigger of his own gun. The amateur's bullet may hit the mark, or may travel across Africa. The professional wounds the beast, leaving the animal to be finished by his patron from America. Tho guide has sped a bullet because he can take no chances on his friend's marksmanship. The animal must be wounded the first time, or .it and its fellows will clear out. One " big game hunter " returned home to show his trophies to admiring friends. He described the hazards of his jungle experience. Among his mementos was a set of elephant tusks. He produced them as clinching evidence of his bravery. Brought down the beast with the second bullet, only 25 yards away. The truth was that the distance was hundreds of feet. The man had used a telescopic-sighted rifle. His guide fired : simultaneously, picking a vulnerable I spot on the head. The elephant came [ down.. The likelihood is that the prot fessional's shot did the work. Lion Shooting from a Tree. I was with a party in Africa headed by a man who wished to shoot a lion. His professional proposed that meat bo set out at night to bait the cat. But our friend wanted to shoot from a tree. The professional rejoined: "Why spend the night in a tree ? Why not poison the meat if you don't want to shoot [ from the ground and give the lion a fair chance ? He can't come at you when ! you're in a tree. ' You might as well shoot at him through the bars of a cage." That's the type of amateur who will shoot at whatever moves. On the other hand, the zoologist selects a particular specimen. He doesn't kill wantonly or at random. He has been instructed by his museum to bring back items for a certain exhibit. He knows anatomical structure. This scientist manoeuvres, into a position to bring down the animal he needs. He makes his first bullet kill. Xo torturing the victim. Africa is pictured often as a land of innumerable snakes awaiting the unwary. In my many years in Africa I have seen few snakes. I have seen a few pythons. Rather than molest me, they writhed away at my approach. It is enlightening to disclose how the fake movie producer does his work. He has bought 500 ft of film showing African natives, among them a half-caste girl. He decides she shall be a white goddess, held prisoner. But to produce a full, feature picture COOOft are necessary. How to get the remaining 5500 ft is the problem. He organises, on the screen, an "expedition." He engages persons to pose as explorers. They spiu a globe. They pin their fingers at the particular point of the earth to be examined as the habitat of the goddess. This is where the 500 ft, purchased by the producer from some old reel, actually were

taken. The production relates in its titles or synchronised comments that the expedition - is seeking a land where white people are held in captivity and elevated to f*ods. There is no authenticated instance of the kind. Scientists have no reason to suspect such instance.

As much footage must be made, the producer devises a circuitous route toward his objective. He touches at | Tahiti and at Bali —not physically, but i through purchase of old films purporting to show these places. Always the idea i is to make it appear that new place 3 and new peoples and new costumes are discovered. Often the dread thought of head-hunters is injected. Nudity for the Films. Nudity is emphasised. Natives are induced, for the camera, to strip off a little more of their meagre apparel to create the nudity takers of such films insist on thrusting upon the public. At the end the "expedition" brings tip at the point in Africa where the original 500 ft were taken, thereby giving some basis for the entire COOOft feature. It appears then in the theatre, where the audience is informed that the men whirling the globe at the outset of the adventure are "Dr. So-and-so" and "Dr. So-and-so," eminent explorers. You often are led to believe Africa is a land of natives who epend their time in weird dancing, a continent of bitterminded savages, of tomtom telegraphy and of charging beasts. That's far from true.

The tomtom is overrated. The native has no alphabet. He :is no reader or writer. The tomtom is a signal system restricted to the tribe. It is unintelligible to any other tribe. It may signal an approach. But, the movies notwithstanding, it never can be translated to say: "Mr. Jones is leaving our village to-morrow morning. He should arrive in your midst by evening. Will you please extend him every courtesyt" On the screen the savage greets you with scowls and menacing weapons. Of course eome tribes are far from mild, but most African hlacks are placid, and, in accord with their standards, hospitable. Some will run away from you in fear. Indeed, many consider the Caucasian a bogy man and threaten their children: "If you are not good, the whitq man will get you." The menacing eavage of the screen hag been induced to pose as such for the benefit of the camera. The dangerous tribes don't go in for camera poses any more than the gangsters of America. It is a capital offence to attack a white person, and therein lies sufficient protection even though the native has ill intent. Occasionally a tribal uprising reduces safety, but such occurences axe rare. Insect Greatest Risk. Possibly man's greatest risk in the wilds of Africa is the insect. It is difficult to combat. Yet even the tsetse fly may be avoided by remaining out of the neighbourhood of the river near which it hovers. It is only when this fly has been infected that it is a menace. I have been hitten often by the species. Fortunately, the flies had not been infected. Game, of course, can be dangerous, even tame game. There are cases where supposedly mild animals have gored men with their horns when crazed by wounds inflicted by the men. But even a dog in the street may bite you. There are tales of man-eating lions. And there are such lions. But they are very few. They are decrepit beasts, too old to chase game. Therefore they take a chance, and alone, or in groups, stalk men and raid villages. There was a raid in which more than twenty natives were killed. But these are extremely rare. I like, as more truly portraying the character of the king of beasts, to tell of a trip I took with a friend who grew oranges in Rhodesia. We set forth in his email motor truck, laden with the citrus, for mai;ket. Before us a 70mile dirt road readied through the veldt. Two native boys went along. Our only possible weapon was a spade, to dig out the car if it mired.

Near the Luensenfwa River, half-way, our gas ran out. Fuel could be had seven miles away. We sent the native boys for it. They stopped at » village on the way. They had not returned when darkness fell. My host observed that the truck had stalled in a water hole much visited by lions. On the truck we built a protective wall of orange crates. We arranged twohour watches, one to stand guard while the other slept. TV e built three rows of fire around the car.

At midnight, the flames ' dwindling, lions approached. Our fingers curved around the oranges. We let go. The oranges found their targets. A lion doeen't like a whack on the nose any more than you or I. Our visitors ran away.

And so, despite Nature fakers* thrillers, it is not too much to venture that, all in all, Africa may be called, not the Dark Continent, but Africa, the MiId.—N.A.N.A. (Concluded.)