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Watch: Tracing Oom Willem’s footsteps up the East African coast (Film 1)

Mozambique: push-pushes and Portuguese forts

By Andries van Zyl • 31 May 2025
Watch: Tracing Oom Willem’s footsteps up the East African coast (Film 1)

Follow Oom Willem's 1920s East African adventure! From Johannesburg to Mozambique, Dar es Salaam, and a surprise discovery of the MV Liemba, witness a unique historical journey captured on rare 16mm film.

Last week, we set off with Oom Willem van den Berg from Levubu on his now almost 100-year-old journey up the east coast of Africa. Back then, the adventurous Oom Willem captured his travels on 16 mm film – one of the few people in the country able to do so at the time. We have since digitised his “home movies”, and, in the absence of sound and subtitles, we are trying to retrace his steps.

Did you have time to watch the first home movie of Oom Willem’s travels on our website? Did you sp...

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