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Advertised by Kinematograph Weekly as "a drama from the heart of Darkest
Africa" enacted by "cannibals turned into screen artists of stellar merit!",
Nionga is a film of uncertain origins. Its opening intertitles claim it
took three years to make and, according to Bioscope, it was made by Jesuit
missionaries. Certainly the story has a religious theme, and could have been
made by any one of a number of missionary societies attempting to venture into
commercial cinema as a means of propagating their evangelical work in
east-central Africa in the 1920s.
Nionga was released by Stoll Picture Productions as one of its 'high class
productions'. The appeal of the film lay in its "curiosity and novelty value",
its travelogue style shots of scenery, and its portrayal of "striking native
types" and their "customs, rites and superstitions" (Kinematograph Weekly). Long
sequences of ceremonial and everyday activities are interweaved into a story of
a romance between Nionga (Honey of the Tribe), daughter of an African chief, and
her betrothed, Masari (Lion's Paw) from a neighbouring tribe, which is doomed
due to the mischief of the 'witchdoctor' Katoto.
This popular ethnographic film's scenes of dancing, drumming, battles, sport,
and craft making were typical of the kinds of representation of so-called
'primitive' people to be found in the live staged ethnographic shows at theatre
halls, the colonial shows and museums in London and other cities in the 19th
century and the beginning of the 20th. Location footage of this sort was used in
later colonial adventure films such as Sanders of the River (d. Zoltan Korda,
1935). It also provided an opportunity to show naked bodies and 'dusky' women
with bare breasts on the screen when similar images of white women would have
been inconceivable.
Nevertheless, the film is a fascinating record of the early encounter of
traditional African societies with film production. The staging of action is
elaborate, with the mobilisation of many local people, and set villages built on
location. As the contemporary reviews acknowledge, many of the performances are impressive for
non-professional actors. The people are adorned in traditional beaded jewellery,
wear animal skins and their costumes and props are used to symbolise a
'primitive Africa'. What is missing from the screen is the influence of Western
values and any evidence of the colonial rule and missionary life the film's
protagonists surely lived under.
Emma Sandon
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Complete film (1:09:27)
