Some of the wonderful looking shots of African river scenes were in fact filmed on the River Thames at Shepperton.
Paul Robeson disowned this picture, telling journalists that it was the only one of his films to have been screened in Italy and Germany. However, his claim to have walked out of the premiere in disgust was a re-invention of history.
This film had originally started as a project Alexander Korda assigned to be directed by Alfred Hitchcock, called "Wings of the Jungle". Hitchcock was only minimally involved in the earliest stages of script preparation, three years before the film was released.
This film was included in the first syndicated television presentation of a package of major studio feature films on USA television; it premiered in Philadelphia Friday 4 June 1948 on WFIL (Channel 6), followed by Chicago Monday 21 June 1948 on WGN (Channel 9), by Cleveland Sunday 11 July 1948 on WEWS (Channel 5), by New York City Sunday 25 July 1948 on WPIX (Channel 11), by St. Louis Thursday 14 October 1948 on KSD (Channel 5), by Detroit Sunday 24 October 1948 on WWJ (Channel 4), by Baltimore Saturday 30 October 1948 on WMAR (Channel 2), by Buffalo Tuesday 7 December 1948 on WBEN (Channel 4), and by Los Angeles Sunday 2 January 1949 on KTLA (Channel 5). The package consisted of 24 Alexander Korda productions originally released theatrically between 1933 and 1942.
Jomo Kenyatta, who was President of Kenya from 1963 to 1978, had a bit part in this movie as a tribal chief.