16mm film of Queen Elizabeth II Official Birthday Celebrations Northern Rhodesia & Kafue (1952)

This is a fascinating piece of mid-20th-century Southern African colonial media history.

Historical & Geographical Context

The Event (1952): 1952 was the accession year of Queen Elizabeth II following the death of King George VI in February 1952. Official Queen's Birthday Celebrations held across the Commonwealth that June were the very first of her reign.

Northern Rhodesia & Kafue: The note explicitly anchors the location to Kafue, Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia). 1952 was right on the cusp of the formation of the Central African Federation (1953–1963), making this a rare full-colour visual record of colonial Northern Rhodesia just before major structural political shifts.

The BSAP Connection: The British South Africa Police (BSAP) on parade. Although primarily associated with Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), BSAP contingents and joint security detachments frequently participated in high-profile ceremonial parades and inter-territorial events across the region.

Physical Film Details

Film Stock: The sprocketing, frame size, and single-perf structure is a standard 16mm colour reversal film (likely Kodachrome or Agfacolor of that vintage).

Colour Preservation: Reversal film from 1952 often suffers severe colour shifting toward magenta/cyan, but the frames shown retain surprisingly vibrant blues, greens, and warm earth tones.

Packaging & Provenance: The mailing box features a label from Holdsworth & Co. Ltd., Chemists & Photographic Dealers, Lusaka, providing direct provenance of where the film was originally purchased or processed in Northern Rhodesia.

It serves as a remarkably well-preserved snippet of regional history captured on amateur 16mm colour stock.

Box size: 100mm x 110mm

Spool dented and oxidised a bit. Film in good condition.

R1,500