Chikunga: Metalworking Films from Katanga

18 June 2018

In the late 1950s Herman Philips, an engineer with Union Minière du Haut Katanga, made several films of indigenous metalworking in Katanga. Chikunga, documenting iron smelting and smithing, has been restored and digitized by Professor Allwood of the Use Less Group and made available thanks to Philips’ sons Pieter and Alexander. English subtitles accompany the Flemish narration by Fr Placide Tempels, a friend of Philips with a profound interest in African philosophy. Two other films on copper working, Kanu and Nsambo, will be added at a later date.

Medium and high resolution versions of Chikunga along with photographs and a map of mineral deposits in Katanga have been uploaded by the Cambridge Repository and can be accessed below.