Africa Hunters

Ade Adepitan travels to Tanzania, where 400 women died in witch-hunts last year, twice as many as in the year before. Many others were attacked and ostracised. More people in Tanzania believe in witchcraft than anywhere else in Africa. But some people think that there's more behind recent witchcraft attacks than a fear of the supernatural.

"Unforgettable. . . . An outstanding adventure in its lyrical, utterly compelling, and heartbreaking investigations of the world of diamond smuggling." —Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Buzz Johnson (Bud Abbott) and Stanley Livingston (Lou Costello) go on an African safari in search of treasure. Buzz is a bookseller who tricks Diana Emerson (Hillary Brooke) into believing that his fellow bookseller Stanley is an expert on Africa. They are thereby abducted by Diana's henchmen who expect the two self proclaimed hunters to lead her to an African tribe. On the way there they run up against giant apes, lion tamers, and a wild river. Eventually Buzz makes his way back to the States and Stanley lucks into some diamonds and purchases the store where they both used to work. By the end, Stanley hires Buzz to operate the elevator. Charles Barton directs some great gags and funny comedy routines in this lively film. This story contains the much-loved theme of Lou being terrorized by an evil pushy woman who eventually gets so fed up with his ineptitude that she wants him dead. Look for great comic turns by Martin Wilkins as the dreaded Cannibal Chief and Shemp Howard as Gunner.

By distilling the interactions between European science and African vernacular knowledge, this stunningly illustrated work offers a fascinating examination of the colonial and postcolonial politics of expertise about nature.