Leni Riefenstahl interviewed by Kevin Brownlow
"If Leni Riefenstahl had done nothing but visit Africa and bring back her photographs, her place in history would be secure."
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The Nansen people drove on through the Nuba hills. After searching for a week, the only Nuba they had encountered looked like any other black African, wearing shirts and shorts. The morale of the expedition plummeted. One day, after they had been driving for hours through a deserted valley, the distinctive round houses of the Nuba appeared high above. Leni spotted a young, naked girl, who scampered away in fright. With great caution, and immense excitement, they moved forward on foot.
"Several naked men, 'she wrote in her memoirs,' covered with snowwhite ashes and wearing bizarre headgear, were followed by others, whose bodies were painted white and adorned with white ornaments. Girls and women, similarly painted and decorated with white pearls, nimbly trailed the men, walking straight as candles and bearing calabashes and large baskets on their heads. No doubt about it; these were the Nuba." (p. 468)
That same evening, the expedition saw the phenomenon of wrestling-a vast crowd of shrieking and strangely painted Nuba surrounded pairs of wrestlers who, accompanied by the constant sound of drumming, fought through a ritual which ended with the victors carried on shoulders, just like the Rodger photograph.
I asked Leni if she, a lone woman of advanced years in the middle of the African bush, felt the fear that I know I would have experienced.
"Not at all. I felt far safer than I would walking around the streets here on my own. One could see they were very good people. I felt it, I saw it in their faces, they radiated it. I was never afraid. Never, never-even when I was alone-did a Nuba touch me. They always treated me as one of their own."
The Nansens pitched camp near a Nuba settlement in December, l962, under a tree which would become Leni's favourite spot in the world. She set out to learn the language and the customs. "The blacks whom we live among here are so delightful that I'm never bored for even a moment," she wrote to her mother, telling her how the Nuba, carrying spears, gathered round the radio and listened to their first broadcast-Christmas carols from Germany. (p. 471)
Since stopping at Kadugli, a young Sudanese policemen had joined the expedition with the specific purpose of acting as censor, and to prevent Leni photographing naked people. For nakedness was forbidden by the Muslims.
"As long as I was with the Nansen expedition, there was always a government policeman with us. But that was only up to l963. Aftewards, when I was on my own, I never had a policeman with me. The Minister of Tourism in the Sudan, Ahmed Abu Bakr, gave me special permission so I could be there without a policeman accompanying me."
"Did the policemen ever stop you taking pictures?"
"Yes, they tried. Despite the permission I had. At the last settlement where there were still Sudanese living, the officials there tried to stop me, and I screamed and raged and threw myself on the ground. I refused to go on and forced them to give in. I had worked out a plan. At a stop in a town a few hundred kilometres back, I had recorded an officer saying that I had got the permission from the government in Khartoum to go and stay with the Nuba, and he was a high-ranking officer. And that tape I played at the last station. The distances are enormous-from Khartoum to the capital of the province, Elobe, is five hundred kilometres. And that's where I showed the documents from the Ministry of Tourism in Khartoum to the officer in charge and I asked him to read the official permission on to tape for me. And I played that tape at the last station. They couldn't read there. But they could hear!"
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Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
The Nansen people drove on through the Nuba hills. After searching for a week, the only Nuba they had encountered looked like any other black African, wearing shirts and shorts. The morale of the expedition plummeted. One day, after they had been driving for hours through a deserted valley, the distinctive round houses of the Nuba appeared high above. Leni spotted a young, naked girl, who scampered away in fright. With great caution, and immense excitement, they moved forward on foot.
"Several naked men, 'she wrote in her memoirs,' covered with snowwhite ashes and wearing bizarre headgear, were followed by others, whose bodies were painted white and adorned with white ornaments. Girls and women, similarly painted and decorated with white pearls, nimbly trailed the men, walking straight as candles and bearing calabashes and large baskets on their heads. No doubt about it; these were the Nuba." (p. 468)
That same evening, the expedition saw the phenomenon of wrestling-a vast crowd of shrieking and strangely painted Nuba surrounded pairs of wrestlers who, accompanied by the constant sound of drumming, fought through a ritual which ended with the victors carried on shoulders, just like the Rodger photograph.
I asked Leni if she, a lone woman of advanced years in the middle of the African bush, felt the fear that I know I would have experienced.
"Not at all. I felt far safer than I would walking around the streets here on my own. One could see they were very good people. I felt it, I saw it in their faces, they radiated it. I was never afraid. Never, never-even when I was alone-did a Nuba touch me. They always treated me as one of their own."
The Nansens pitched camp near a Nuba settlement in December, l962, under a tree which would become Leni's favourite spot in the world. She set out to learn the language and the customs. "The blacks whom we live among here are so delightful that I'm never bored for even a moment," she wrote to her mother, telling her how the Nuba, carrying spears, gathered round the radio and listened to their first broadcast-Christmas carols from Germany. (p. 471)
Since stopping at Kadugli, a young Sudanese policemen had joined the expedition with the specific purpose of acting as censor, and to prevent Leni photographing naked people. For nakedness was forbidden by the Muslims.
"As long as I was with the Nansen expedition, there was always a government policeman with us. But that was only up to l963. Aftewards, when I was on my own, I never had a policeman with me. The Minister of Tourism in the Sudan, Ahmed Abu Bakr, gave me special permission so I could be there without a policeman accompanying me."
"Did the policemen ever stop you taking pictures?"
"Yes, they tried. Despite the permission I had. At the last settlement where there were still Sudanese living, the officials there tried to stop me, and I screamed and raged and threw myself on the ground. I refused to go on and forced them to give in. I had worked out a plan. At a stop in a town a few hundred kilometres back, I had recorded an officer saying that I had got the permission from the government in Khartoum to go and stay with the Nuba, and he was a high-ranking officer. And that tape I played at the last station. The distances are enormous-from Khartoum to the capital of the province, Elobe, is five hundred kilometres. And that's where I showed the documents from the Ministry of Tourism in Khartoum to the officer in charge and I asked him to read the official permission on to tape for me. And I played that tape at the last station. They couldn't read there. But they could hear!"
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