Back to 1909: Kenya’s First Film Ever

Despite obvious gains made over the years, the Kenyan film industry hasn’t grown as much as it has potential to. It will come as a surprise to many when they learn that Kenya has a richer film history, and one that stretches further than most African countries.

The first film in Kenya was shot in 1909, at a time when the medium was not only transition in the United States, they also hadn’t fully learned how to fully take advantage of the fairly new discovery. Theatres were just beginning to pop up and artistes were just learning how to use it to tell stories. At this time, film had only been discovered 16 years earlier.

A man who went on to be President of the United States was visiting the country when he commissioned a wildlife photographer to follow his adventures. Theodore Roosevelt’s trip across the country was also the first documentation of Kenya in moving pictures. There are a few inconsistencies, though, which might have been due to the editor’s ignorance: assuming all Africans are Zulus. The women are obviously Agikuyu. Nevertheless, the film is a fascinating look at “native” life in the early 1900s.

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