2007/007

This collection consists of 10 films taken by John Cleave during his time in Uganda. They record various aspects of colonial life with domestic scenes and footage of wildlife taken during his family's travels around the countryside and visits to the National Parks of Uganda. There is also footage recording the way of life of the people of Karamoja District, and a film showing the survey of the frontier between Uganda and Kenya. Cleave attended events held on Ugandan Independence day in 1962, and there is footage of the ceremonies that took place, attended by the Prime Minister Milton Obote and the Duke of Kent.

10 films

Open

None

Collection

John Cleave was born in 1931 and was educated at the universities of London and Oxford where he studied economics. After his National Service he entered the British Colonial Service as an Administrative Officer and was Assistant District Commissioner for Karamoja District, Uganda from 1955 - 1960. In 1958 he married Jennifer Skidmore and they had two children, Roger and Karen. When John Cleave left the British Colonial Service in 1967 he began a PhD at Stanford University in the USA. He was subsequently recruited into the World Bank in Washington DC and worked as an agricultural economist for over 20 years on development projects in Africa, East Asia and the Pacific. In 1974 he published 'African Farmer', which was cited as the authoritative volume on labour use in African agriculture (Anthropology of Development and Change in East Africa, ed. David W Brokenshaw). John married Laura Bally in 1983. On retirement, he devoted himself to photography, becoming President of the International Camera Club and publishing his work in numerous books and journals. He served as a Trustee of the American Farm School in Thessaloniki, Greece for over 15 years. He died on March 14, 2020, aged 88.