ITCHY FEET TRAVELS

Luanda, Angola

June 30, 2024

By most lists and statistics, Luanda consistently ranks among the top ten most dangerous cities in Africa. Sometimes it even makes the top five list. So, it was with bag of common sense firmly in hand, hackles at attention and alarm bells ready to ring that I ventured forth.

The well-to-do areas around the curve of the bay is called the Marginal. I’d seen it at a distance from the top of Fortaleza. Tall glass and chrome skyscrapers and the famous pink megalithic building of the National Bank rubbed shoulders with other tall buildings. From a distance it looks postcard-pretty. But look closer and you see the filth in the waters of the bay, not to mention the aroma. Many are older buildings in desperate need of renovations and some are bare concrete blocks. A couple of open areas have benches where plenty sit around apparently all day. I take plenty of photos and see other locals – likely domestic tourists taking selfies. It is all perfectly fine.

More than a few steps down are some residential neighborhoods where upkeep has been few and far between. Every corner has been taken over as a makeshift shop and laundry flutters from every balcony and window. Right near some well-to-do buildings are shanty towns. I am more careful about fishing out the camera and take photos with the phone instead. Still, I think, this is not so bad and wander on.

Not that many corners later I bump into what are definitely dodgy hoods. Broken windows, empty pavements with dark corners and crevices, they make me walk fast as if I know where I am going. But strangely enough, there are always fancy cars parked right next to them. These cars do not belong to those buildings I muse. So what are they doing there? There must be an attendant somewhere nearby I think; it can’t be that bad.

Just a few blocks later it is definitely worse. None of the buildings here rate security guards. And there are far too many idle men standing around in clusters. A couple approach me saying hellos. But I don’t like the way they seem to corner me against the wall. Out of the corner of my eye I see another pair materialize. They are definitely heading toward me and hemming me in from the street. There seems to be nobody else around. My gut sends up urgent signals and the alarms in my head go off. I step off the curb and just short of sprinting jump into one of the blue and white minibuses that zip through the city on fixed routes. I have no idea where it is going but wait to get out until we are in a better neighborhood. It looks like there are a few shops and I step out and into an opticians.

Before anyone can come up to ask if I want glasses, I have called a cab using the Yango app and am delivered to my guesthouse none the worse for wear.