In August 1970, Allan Hailstone, a traveler from Coventry, England, set off on an overland and air journey from Cairo to Cape Town. His route cut through Egypt, Kenya, Pretoria, Johannesburg, Rhodesia, and finally South Africa. Along the way, he photographed the landscapes, streets, and daily life of a continent in political flux.
His flight into Egypt offered an aerial view of the Pyramids of Giza — one of the most striking images from the entire trip. On the ground, he visited the ancient step pyramid complex at Saqqara, just south of Cairo.
From Egypt, Hailstone flew south to Nairobi, Kenya, arriving on August 10. His photographs there document city streets and everyday scenes from the Kenyan capital.
He then traveled into South Africa, stopping in Pretoria on August 11 and 12. The apartheid system was in full force — segregated facilities and restricted movement for Black South Africans were facts of daily life, visible throughout the city.
In Johannesburg, Hailstone stayed at a hotel where a suite of rooms cost just £5 per night — a figure that reflected the deep economic inequality embedded in apartheid society. His journey then took him into Rhodesia, a self-declared republic facing international sanctions and severe racial tension in 1970. Street scenes in Salisbury, its capital, recorded a city under pressure.
Hailstone reached his final destination, Cape Town, between August 17 and 18. His photographs there close out a journey that spanned thousands of miles and documented some of the most politically charged corners of the African continent.
