A Camera Actress in the Wilds of Togoland The adventures, observations & experiences of a cinematograph actress in West African forests whilst collecting films depicting native life and when posing as the white woman in Anglo-African cinematograph dramas

We carried out our intention, as narrated at the end of the last chapter, and stayed at Sumbu several days, making short excursions into the surrounding country, and a dash nort...

From Nambiri as far as Kugnau, our next stage, there is no road, nor practically any trail; only an immense variety of native tracks, leading anywhere and everywhere. The countr...

We were expected in Kamina by our old friend Baron Codelli von Fahnenfeld, and by the baroness, his wife, a young woman of about my own age, whom he had recently brought out fro...

On January 11th, 1914, we left Mangu, where we had been since December the 23rd, and resumed our journey northward. Beyond Mangu, Togo has not yet been opened up, nor is the cou...

On December the 16th, at five o'clock in the morning, we left Bafilo, where we had been since the first day of the month, and started on trek again, bound for Dako and the north...

The march from Paratau to Aledjo-Kadara, or Aledjo, as it is generally called for short, was a very tedious one, and took us two days. One reason for this was that the men so ki...

I have entitled the following chapter "A Woman Palaver," and this it is--no more. Men may skip it, if they like. Women, I venture to think, will find it interesting. In what I h...

Mangu, the northernmost Government station in Togo, is in charge of a District Commissioner, Captain von Hirschfeld, who is assisted in his duties, which are arduous and importa...

The first stage of our journey to Malfakasa, the half-way house, so to speak, between Bassari and Sokode, led us down to the Kamaa River along a beautiful, well-kept road, plant...

While in camp at Sumbu I had another adventure with a puff-adder, which is, as I have explained elsewhere, one of the most venomous snakes in all Africa. We were sitting outside...

I found that the change in temperature at Mangu was very marked indeed since we had left it not so very many days ago. The harmattan was lifting, and the nights, as well as the...

The chief of Nambiri turned out to be a charming little old man; one of Nature's gentlemen. He wore a long grey beard, and not much else beside, but his manners were courtly and...

I forgot to say that owing to the forethought of the chief of Banjeli, in making all arrangements beforehand for us to film the iron industry there, we were enabled to get away...

Actresses who, like myself, specialise in cinema productions, frequently find themselves "up against" all sorts of queer propositions of a business character; and we are not, th...

I forgot to say that shortly after leaving Kamina, at a village called Anâ, we were overtaken by another caravan convoying a European, a certain Dr. Berger, who was travelling u...

Oh that railway journey! Shall I ever forget it? The dust and heat were awful, and owing to some unaccountable oversight, nobody had thought to lay in any provisions for the tri...

Besides the films mentioned in the last chapter, we also took advantage of there being an unusually large market at Bafilo in order to photograph a series of unique moving pictu...

Paratau, where our camp was situated, is the residence of Uro Djabo, the paramount chief of the important Tschaudjo tribe. Uro means "king," and it is indeed virtually as King o...

There seems to be no end to trouble when filming cinema plays in equatorial Africa. No sooner had I recovered from my bout of malarial fever than our leader and producer, Major...

The first few days of November were spent in packing up our belongings and making ready to start up-country away from the rail-head, and into "the back of beyond," as Schomburgk...

For these reasons I am inclined to dissent from the view, expressed by her in her foreword, that the book possesses no scientific value. I also disagree with most of what she ha...

Warm welcome to Kamina--I am introduced to the Baroness Codelli von Fahnenfeld--Good news--A faithful black "boy"-- The great wireless station at Kamina--Feminine vanity --Campi...

Tschopowa to Kugnau--No roads--A careless guide--Schomburgk loses his way--Crossing the Oti River--Mosquitoes at Kugnau--Asmani and his "mosquito slaps"--A disconcerting mistake...

At Sumbu--Wild savages--Our boys afraid--Tschokossi refuse to sell us provisions--I enter a village and buy a chicken--Astonishment of the people at their first sight of coined...

On the march from Paratau to Aledjo-Kadara--A terrible stage --Doubt and depression--An uphill journey--I feel my health improving--An accident--Native sympathy--Our cook annexe...

The native market at Bafilo--Native sweetmeats--Cowries as currency--A native barber shaving a baby's head--Togo boys playing at the West African equivalent of pitch and toss--A...

At Mangu--Captain von Hirschfeld--I make an "impression"-- Though not the kind I should have liked to have made--"The Place where Warriors Meet"--A brush with the Tschokossi --C...

Northward from Mangu--Wild savages and poisoned arrows--A treacherous attack and a lucky escape--Different arrow poisons--Grass fires and their drawbacks--Mosquitoes and some ya...

Bassari to Malfakasa--Crossing the Kamaa River--A fearful climb--Mountain scenery--Uro-Ganede-Bo--A royal sanctuary--The last of our provisions--The outlaw of the "Long Gun" mou...

On trek once more--A disquieting discovery--I am very angry --A long day's journey--I narrowly escape sunstroke-- "Wholesome anger a good tonic"--I taste native beer for the fir...

At Mangu--The harmattan--A meteorological mystery--Filming ethnological pictures--Building the new Mangu station-- Drilling native soldiers--Marriage in the native army-- Buying...

The chief of Nambiri--One of Nature's gentlemen--Killing the fatted calf--Pretty Konkombwa villages--The Konkombwa and the Dagomba--Elaborate head-dresses of the Konkombwa men--...

Banjeli to Bassari--In a mountain country--Crossing the Katscha River--Bush riding--Arrival at Beapabe--An avenue of mango trees--We reach Bassari--Hospitality of Mr. Muckè, the...

In camp at Paratau--Uro Djabo, paramount chief of the Tschaudjo--A courtly savage--The Tschaudjo a conquering tribe who came riding on horses from the north--Djabo's palace--His...

A tiresome railway journey--My hut in the forest--A trying toilet--Native inquisitiveness--_Haute cuisine_ in the heart of Africa--Mosquitoes--My first night in the bush --A ver...

Our friend the doctor--A new way with natives--Laughable results--And to Njamassila--Travelling by hammock --A rash resolve--Njamassila to Agbandi--Sleeping on the march--A nati...

LONDON TO LOME PAGES I am "up against" a queer business proposition--Doubts and difficulties--Assent--Major Schomburgk, F.R.G.S., the leader of the expedition--His African exper...

On the march into "the back of beyond"--Packing our "chop boxes"--Quinine--"I didn't want to do it"--The starting of the caravan--Good-bye to Kamina--Kindly forethought of the D...

An adventure with a puff-adder--Welcome news--"Chief's mail"--Out after hippo--Inexperienced hammock boys-- My first sight of hippopotami--I am not impressed-- Crocodile island-...

Native marriages--A matter of sale and exchange--Infant betrothals--Native weddings--A Tschaudjo ceremony-- A trying ordeal--Polygamy--Childbirth--Infant diet and infant mortali...

Troubles of cinema playing in Central Africa--Enforced leisure --Native girls and a gramophone--Women and work--Native children--A negro philosopher--Native servants-- Learning...