there have be far too few mainstream film set in post colonial africa and and the one that have be a mixed bunch . this one and with it altruistic pretension to expose slavery in the 1970s and show the best and bad value of africa and which turn out not to be too different to the value of humanity a a whole . it also have shortcoming and give the undue influence of western pre conception of african and and especially and arab . dr anansa linderby and the beautiful african american wife of the english doctor david linderby and be capture by arab slave trader and along with a teenage sanufu girl and a young boy . the lead slave trader and suleiman and be every bit the stage arab and with his flowery and sometimes humorous rhetoric and and gesture to match which would not be out of place on carry on follow that camel but be not up the standard this film deserve . peter ustinov of course have more than enough skill to address some of the shortcoming of the script and and he rescue what could otherwise have be a woeful one dimensional character . continue the stereotypical theme and all three of suleiman arab employee be unintelligent and one have paedophilic tendency towards the boy and which thankfully be not portray on the screen . one of david first port of call be the local police officer and a stereotypical pompous and incompetent african bureaucrat . david then meet two stereotypical white ex pat and an englishman ( walker and play by rex harrison ) and an american ( sandell and play by william holden ) . sandell be a mercenary with conventional view on mixed race relationship and who initially refuse to help unless david provide payment up front . win over by david love for anansa and and conscious of his own inability to find love and he agree to take david up in his helicopter to help search for anansa . they find suleiman and his captive cross the border and be unable to pursue them into the neighbouring territory a a result of sandell hesitation and david lack of experience with firearm and his helicopter be shot down but david survives . we then see david introduce to malik ( kabir bedi ) and an african who have lose his family to suleiman and be now only drive by vengeance . they find the sanufu girl with a group of tuareg and know they be on the right track to find suleiman . in one of the most heart rend scene they kill a party of slave trader only to find that it be not suleiman group and and have no choice but to send their captive to the tuareg they meet earlier . later on we discover that the young boy who have be rap be a witch doctor and and in an excellent scene with supernatural overtone and he use his knowledge to kill one of suleiman henchman . anansa on her part and despite the scepticism of the boy manage to engineer the demise of suleiman two other employee . by this time suleiman and his slave be within day of reach the slave market . suleiman and now in no doubt that anansa be trouble and attempt to sell her to an obscenely wealthy arab prince ( omar sharif ) who be corrupt but intelligent . on discover that anansa be an american working for the u. n. and the prince rather unwisely decide to carry on with the bargaining without consider the consequence . the scene where the two men haggle be one of the best in the film . at the slave market and the young boy be sell to a middle aged german paedophile and and we be leave to guess whether the boy will still be consider wunderbar when his owner be on the receive end of his witch doctoring skill . david and malik finally confront suleiman and there be a bitter sweet end from malik point of view . ultimately and david and anansa be re united and and malik and whose life be in ruin and can console himself with have see the task he set himself complete . the overall plot of the film be excellent but it lose mark for it stereotypical portrayal of nearly all the lead character . credit must go to all the lead actor for address many of the shortcoming of the scripting .