Fascinating Vintage Color Snapshots From a Trip Through Africa in 1970

In 1970, British traveler and photographer Allan Hailstone took a trip from London to Africa that took in six cities and four countries. He traveled to Cape Town and back with stopovers in Cairo, Nairobi, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Salisbury in Rhodesia (now Harare in Zimbabwe).

“My arrival in Cairo was a culture shock, as it would be today, but I had experienced Morocco in 1960 and so I knew to some extent what sort of atmosphere to expect.” He told MailOnline Travel. “Rhodesia was fascinating because the country had declared itself independent of British rule in 1965, and the so-called Smith regime was regarded as illegal by the UK and one was advised not to visit. There were no UK consular links, and the only country friendly to it was South Africa. The only air link was from South Africa so I had to travel there from Johannesburg, then return to Johannesburg, rather than visiting it en route.

“South Africa existed under apartheid. I found the people intelligent and cultured. I remember that it was commonplace in Cape Town to see men playing chess in the street. The hotel where I stayed gives an example of the very cheap pricing. It was a luxury hotel, and I had a suite of rooms at £5 per night, which even then was ridiculously cheap. It had a closed-circuit TV in the lobby, which attracted much interest as ordinary TV did not exist.”

Take a look back at Africa in 1970 through these fascinating images. For more photographs, visit Hailstone's brilliant Flickr site.

Midan Tahrir (Liberation Square), Cairo

Cairo

Nile Hilton Hotel, Cairo

Cairo

Sunset over the Nile, Cairo

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Two Boys Making a Trade in Kenya, 1962

Fair exchange in Kenya! An African prince learns that in America, swinging clubs is a game – while Kevin Gorman from Rye, N.Y. picks up the finer points of a Masai warrior’s favorite sport.

Great moments in the lives of two boys – fleeting moments of human experience – are caught by the camera’s magic and brought to LIFE’s pages.

9-year-old Kevin Gorman was on an adventure that only the story books could match—a vacation that combined the is flavors of Kipling’s Kim with the excitement of Tarzan of the Apes. Kevin had come to Kenya to join his stepfather as guest of a Masai tribe, the proudest of all Africans. He and the chief’s son Dionni became close companions  and Kevin went around wearing a headband Dionni gave him.

“Dionni has painted red hair and he wears lots of other jewelry,” Kevin wrote. “Someday I think he will he the chief.”

Each morning the two ventured forth, Dionni from a mud hut inside the thornbranch barricade that surrounded his village and Kevin from his tent pitched just outside. While they stalked lions from a safe distance and followed rhino tracks, Kevin’s stepfather stayed near with his camera. In between exciting forays into the bush Dionni taught Kevin to throw a spear and was introduced, in turn, to the mysteries of baseball. Each day Kevin conscientiously kept his diary of his epic visit.

“The Masai taught me lots of things,” Kevin wrote in his diary. “They are very nice people and we had no problems understanding each other. They taught me to shoot the heaviest bow I have ever seen and I taught Dionni how to play baseball and write his name. He doesn’t speak any English and I learned 11 words in Swahili.”

“The whole Masai tribe liked to look at the pictures in my encyclopedia so I left it with them as a present. Besides being warriors the Masai are herders. So Dionni and I went to get sticks to herd with. You whistle and hit the stick on the ground. We brought lots of cows to the well to drink water that way.”

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27 Rare and Amazing Photos Documented Everyday Life of El Molo Tribe at Lake Turkana, Kenya in the 1970s

The El Molo, also known as Elmolo, Dehes, Fura-Pawa and Ldes, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the northern Eastern Province of Kenya. They historically spoke the El Molo language as a mother tongue, an Afro-Asiatic language of the Cushitic branch.

The modern El Molo are believed to be nearly extinct, with almost no unmixed members left.(are now found in Kenya).

Here is a rare collection of 27 amazing photos documenting everyday life of El Molo tribe at Lake Turkana, Kenya in 1979.

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10 Rare Photographs From Barack Obama's First Trip to Africa in 1987

Barack Obama at the age of 26 visited his father’s homeland of Kenya for the first time in 1987. He met his brothers, sisters and grandmother and later he said, the visit was to transform his life. The images below come from that trip to connect with his African roots. What a transformation from an unknown young African man to the leader of the free world.

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