Angola’s rainy season

Angola’s rainy season, which lasts from November to May, shapes both the country’s rhythms of movement and the precarious conditions of Luanda during the months before independence. The book sets the season’s rain against the dry-season lull in activity, then shows how changing weather becomes part of a city’s material crisis: refugees live exposed to persistent drizzle, while the approach of hot, dry weather heightens the consequences of failing services.

Calendar and National Rhythm

The rainy season begins in November and continues through May, with most rainfall occurring from January to April. Across the country, activity reaches its height in the dry season and subsides during the rainy months. The contrast is especially consequential in places without paved roads and in areas where traditional agriculture is practiced: weather affects not only the landscape but also the pace at which people can travel and work.

Rain around Luanda’s Airport

During the exodus from Angola, refugees gathered around Luanda’s airport after the hotels filled. The improvised settlement had no roofs or proper streets, and its residents were perpetually soaked because it was always raining. Families waited among their bundles for flights, while the airport became a place of prolonged uncertainty rather than a brief stop on the way out. The season’s weather thus bears directly on the experience of displacement: people waiting for transport are left exposed, and the crowd’s hardship is compounded by the absence of shelter.

The Rains’ End and the City’s Exposure

By the beginning of October, the rains had stopped and summer was beginning. The change did not bring relief to Luanda. Heat pressed on a city already short of water, because its pumping stations stood near the front and were repeatedly damaged in the fighting. Repairs restored service only temporarily; renewed attacks disabled the pumps again. The seasonal shift therefore sharpens the stakes of infrastructure failure: with water scarce and temperatures rising, the city’s ability to endure depends on systems that cannot remain reliably in operation.

Weather, Services, and Urban Decay

The account also links heat and moisture to the worsening condition of the abandoned city. As garbage accumulated in streets and public spaces, the tropical combination of sun and moisture accelerated its decay. This deterioration unfolded alongside the departure of municipal workers and the closure of hospitals and pharmacies, leaving few services to manage the consequences. The contrast between the wet months and the sun-baked period is not simply a change of scenery: seasonal conditions make the effects of institutional withdrawal more visible, while the struggle to maintain water and sanitation reveals how dependent civilian life and the defense of Luanda are on vulnerable infrastructure.