Library
Videos
Interviews, field footage and lectures — the record of his work as it was filmed.
Ten recordings. Nothing loads until you press play.
Start here
“I did not go to give aid.”
INTERVIEW · [DATE] · 42 MIN
The longest recorded conversation with him. He is asked why a surgeon with a British qualification spent thirty years in villages without electricity, and he takes the question seriously.
The archive
Nine recordings, newest last. Each opens on its source; nothing is embedded until you ask for it.
06 MIN
Under the tree, speaking with children
FIELD FOOTAGE · [DATE] · 06 MIN
A gathering in the open air. No platform, no microphone — the form his teaching usually took.
Dr. Al-Sumait Archive
02
Why Africa?
INTERVIEW · [DATE] · 18 MIN
A television interview in which he is asked the question he was asked most often, and answers it plainly.
12 MIN
A working day at the field clinic
FIELD FOOTAGE · [DATE] · 12 MIN
Fitting a microphone, taking a history, moving on. The unremarkable hours that made up most of the work.
08 MIN
The pupils of Kajiado
FIELD FOOTAGE · [DATE] · 08 MIN
Maasai children in school uniform outside a classroom built by the committee.
Dr. Al-Sumait Archive
05
Schools, not camps
LECTURE · [DATE] · 27 MIN
The argument he returned to for thirty years: relief that ends when the truck leaves is not relief.
35 MIN
Address to the committee
LECTURE · [DATE] · 35 MIN
Speaking to the people who carried the work — on method, on patience, and on staying.
Dr. Al-Sumait Archive
07
The Al-Kawthar conversation
INTERVIEW · [DATE] · 22 MIN
The long interview of January 2005, quoted across this site and reproduced here in full.
05 MIN
Receiving the state honour
CEREMONY · [DATE] · 05 MIN
A formal occasion he is said to have found uncomfortable. Included for the record.
10 MIN
Umma University, from the air
FIELD FOOTAGE · [DATE] · 10 MIN
The campus at Kajiado — the institution that outlived the man who imagined it.
Where these come from
Every recording on this page is held by a named archive and published here with permission. Where a date is uncertain it is marked as such rather than guessed. If you hold footage that belongs in this record, we would like to hear from you.