This film is part of Free
Colonial Troops and Cavalry
A dispatch from South Africa? Or an elaborate deception?
Overview
Part of the touring 'Savage South Africa' equestrian stadium show mounted by Frank Fillis and opening at the Greater Britain Exhibition 1899. Fillis's 'cast' of performers, black and white, were recruited in South Africa and brought to Britain to perform in equestrian displays and recreations of recent battles between troops of the British South Africa Company and warriors of the Ndebele Kingdom. The Warwick Trading Company made a number of films showing different scenes from the show. This scene, filmed in Britain, is described in their catalogue as "Regiment of African troopers, cape infantry, and Maxim guns form a brave array as they draw up and prepare to bivouac on the open Veldt. The loose and picturesque array, the free and easy swing of the men, the fiery charges and their riders and the Maxims make a most imposing spectacle as they file past the camera." Some of these men would have been South African Boers with whom British would soon be at war.
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