PUBLIC LECTURE: UWA Albany Skywest Public Lecture

This lecture will analyse two historical documents - two extremely popular films. Both belong to the rare cinema-released documentary-reportage genre: the first, The path of the Wild Beasts belongs to the most confidant phase of Italian colonial expansion, the other, Africa Blood and Guts to the era of Africa’s struggle for independence. Both films are pro-colonial, but the subordination of Africa is justified in opposite ways: unrestrained hunting in the 1930s and conservation in the 1960s. Looking at the films side by side it becomes clear that there is not a neutral, apolitical way of viewing nature. This becomes important if one thinks how European ideas have had a dominant role in shaping conservation policies and practices in Africa.