Africa Addio

Africa Addio (also known as Africa: Blood and Guts in the United States and Farewell Africa in the United Kingdom) is a 1966 Italian mondo documentary film co-directed, co-edited and co-written by Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco E. Prosperi with music by Riz Ortolani. Jacopetti and Prosperi had gained fame (along with co-director Paolo Cavara) as the directors of Mondo Cane in 1962. Africa Addio documents the end of the colonial era in Africa, and the violence and chaos that followed. The film was a huge success, which ensured the viability of the so-called "Mondo film" genre, a cycle of "shockumentaries"- documentaries featuring sensational topics. The film encountered criticism and praise due to its controversial content, but is nevertheless considered to be a very important film in the history of documentary filmmaking. Vignettes The narrator (Gualtiero Jacopetti) explains the purpose of the film: to document that Africa has changed forever following decolonization and to show the turmoil in the time immediately following the withdrawal of Europeans from the continent. The narrator states that the film will not tell its audience what to think about these events, but rather that the viewer will have to make up their own minds about what they see. Somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, the natives celebrate the British relinquishing control and allowing them to establish their own government. Celebrations start with fireworks but end with mobs of locals destroying imported goods from European countries or African colonies that have not yet gained independence, such as Portuguese eggs and South African oranges and beer.