Celia Santos survived the ‘unmerciful’ decolonization of Angola.
The war happened because many natives believed it was time for Angola to be recognised as an independent nation. Mrs Santos talks of this war as a ‘Messy and brutal’ revolution not only against the Portuguese but also against their own people.
Mrs Santos was only 12 when on the 8th of September 1975 in her birth town of Malanje, evething she had known changed . It all started when she heard loud desperate screams and banging sounds’ .
What she overheard at the time were machine guns, going off in the house next door. Her best friend’s house. A place where until that day she spent many happy and peaceful days playing games with her neighbourhood friends.
The screaming and shooting continued not only in the house next door but around the neighbourhood . Shocked , trembling and unaware of what to do and how to escape, she remembers running trough the crowded streets.
‘Everyone was running in what I can only describe as circles; our running only did us bad, it attracted more of them. But who can blame us, we were desperate’.
Although not factually proven, Mrs Santos painted a very disturbing picture of what was happening as she tried to escape; she stated that the armed troops were forcing their entry onto everyone’s homes and raping women of all ages in front of their respective husbands, fathers and brothers. Actions of ‘pure evil’.
According to Mrs Santos, The Angolan troops would then kill all the male members of the families and leave the females distressed, hurt and broken.
‘I was lucky to escape’. Mrs Santos and her family were saved by an uncle of theirs when the troops were only a few meters away from their house, massacring families and breaking homes around them . They were surrounded, but managed to escape.
Her uncle then took them a Portuguese Military Quarter; the only safe place at that moment in time.
’ There were bodies all over the pavements, children and innocent people that were killed without mercy by those we called our people’.
Once Mrs Santos and her family got to the quarter, they were immediately escorted by the Portuguese troops ‘The Military was our only support, our safe haven’.
They stayed in that place for a couple days, she can’t recall how many - all Celia knows is that not too long after arriving, she was escorted out by the military forces ,to the small Angolan city of Silva Porto; now known as Kuito city.
After a long trip she fails to retain much memory of, Celia Santos and her family got to Kuito and took refuge in a local high school, alongside hundreds of other people.
Everything appeared to me normalising; for a week they felt safe and almost able to forget about pain and trauma. There was no sight of distress, death or war. Although they all knew it was still happening, it was easier to imagine that everything would turn out ok .
But unfamiliarly familiar sounds broke their piece. Shot guns.
All hell broke loose; once again hundreds of people were getting hurt and killed, and in those moments she even witnessed the mother of friend get buried alive in front of both her young children.
‘Terrible things happened, I’ve seen terrible things. Things that that are hard to forget. Hard to talk about’.
All survivors, including Celia and her family were once again rescued , and taken away to an “unaffected“ city. This time Huambo, then called the City of Nova Lisboa.
They got there and things weren’t different. As soon as their feet touched Huambo grounds, there were Angolan troops awaiting survivors; and everyone including Celia and her family were put in line for execution .
The line was ‘immense’, hundreds of people were there, and in the midst of waiting for death her 15-year-old brother was badly beaten up and her father taken from the rest of the family.
That was the last time she saw him .
When there were only a few people in front of her - people that she could count with one hand, a young guy from the portuguese Red Cross foundation singled her out and approached her, then pretending to know her as well as her family. Saving them.
She had never seen him before, but she recalls his kind eyes and selfless essence almost daily.
‘Happily there was a young guy from the Portuguese Red Cross, in my opinion he was sent from God. whom else would pretended to know us and take us away from the line just like that ?’.
In that moment despite all she had seen and lived , and despite all that was still happening . She felt relieved .
On the 25th of September Mrs Santos and her Family were taken to Portugal, and although it was evident that war and conflict was no longer going to be an issue, she mentioned that the vivid imagery of all she saw, haunted her for years to come.
The events she experienced, generated a fear of her own country within her. She hasn’t been able to to visit beautiful Angola since.
Celia still lives in Portugal, and describes it all as something that destroyed a country and perpetually broke souls .
‘Only those who lived it know of all the suffering. Of events that destroyed a country and its people - it’s soul shattering to think that it was all because of power. Power that ignorant people so desperately wanted’.
Words by Sofia Mendes
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