Politics & Governance / International Politics / War & Conflict

How Angola's 1975 Civil War Turned a City into a Coffin of Wooden Crates

Another Day of Life

Ryszard Kapuściński

In 1975, as Portugal abandoned its African colony, Angola erupted into a brutal civil war fueled by Cold War powers. Ryszard Kapuściński, a Polish journalist, witnessed the chaos firsthand and documented it in his book 'Another Day of Life.' This video dives into the collapse of Luanda—a city where 95% of Europeans fled overnight, leaving behind a 'city of wooden crates' filled with abandoned lives. We explore the terrifying 'Confusão' (absolute confusion) that governed survival, where a single wrong word at a checkpoint meant death. From child soldiers firing blindly to suppress fear, to the desperate race between South African tanks and Cuban troops for the capital, this is the raw, human story of a war that became a perpetual motion machine of destruction. Discover how oil and diamonds fueled a conflict that lasted decades, and meet the forgotten heroes and victims caught in the crossfire.