How Princess Diana’s 1997 trip to Angola helped change the world

Prince Harry will continue his mother Princess Diana’s legacy when he travels to Angola on Sept. 27.

The Duke of Sussex is making a two-day trip to the country as part of his tour of southern Africa, which began on Sept. 23 with stops in Cape Town, South Africa with Duchess Meghan and Archie Harrison and continued with Harry’s solo trip to Botswana on Sept. 26.

Diana’s landmark 1997 trip to Angola not only fundamentally changed the conversation around landmines, but it is not an exaggeration to say it also changed the world. Her trip and her advocacy there and afterward directly led to an international treaty to ban landmines that same year.

Although Angola remains one of the most mined countries in the world, the awareness Diana raised during that journey are credited with helping Angola in its recovery from its decades-long civil war and with spurring its eventual end in 2002 after it re-erupted the year following her visit.

Click through the gallery (or keep reading if you’re on mobile) for a trip through time back to 1997, what Diana did in Angola and why it matters.

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The sneaker-clad Princess of Wales arrived in Luanda, Angola’s capital, on Jan. 13, 1997. She was there to tour four Red Cross projects in the country, which was in the middle of a quiet period during its decades-long civil war. The conflict had begun in 1975 with its independence and went through three separate periods of fighting. The final round began in 1998. (The conflict finally ended in 2002.)

One-third of Angola’s population was displaced during the civil war, and 80 per cent of Angolans were without basic medical care by 2003, according to the New York Times. Nearly 10,000 children became soldiers during the war, and by 2003 nearly 30 per cent of Angolan children had life expectancies of less than five years of age, the New York Times also reported then.

When Diana visited in 1997, the country was - and still is - one of the most mined in the world. Just last year, more than 150 people were killed in explosions from landmines left over from the civil war, according to southern Africa’s Southern Times newspaper.

Diana was clear about her mission and why she was there right from the start. Upon arriving at the airport, she made a speech to reporters who had gathered.

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“It’s an enormous privilege for me to have been invited here to Angola in order to assist the Red Cross in its campaign to ban, once and for all, anti-personnel landmines,” she said. “There couldn’t be a more appropriate place to begin this campaign than Angola because this nation has the highest number of amputees per population than anywhere [else] in the world.”“By visiting Angola, we shall gain an understanding of the plight of the victims of landmines, and how survivors are helped to recover from their injuries,” she continued. “We’ll also be able to observe the wider implications of these devastating weapons on the life of this country as a whole. “It is my sincere hope that by working together in the next few days, we shall focus world attention on this vital – but until now, largely neglected – issue.”

While there were dozens of journalists there awaiting her arrival, few Angolans in the airport knew who she was, according to a Reuters report from the time. That stood in stark contrast to her status as a very public figure at home.

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The same day, Diana visited Angola’s then-president José Eduardo dos Santos and his wife, Ana Paula Dos Santos (pictured) at their official residence after she had visited the British High Commissioner’s residence and been briefed on the landmines situation at the Red Cross’ headquarters in Luanda.

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The next day, Diana journeyed Viana, close to Luanda, where she visited the Mine Training Centre.

While there, Diana got a close look at some of the instruments of war that were causing death and destruction and violently altering so many people’s lives throughout the country, from grenades to mines and bombs.

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Diana looked shocked and horrified when she saw the relatively small devices that were causing so much havoc.

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The same day, Diana travelled to Neves Bendinha, an orthopedic workshop run by the Red Cross in Luanda that helped victims of landmines. While there, she met with survivors.

At the time in Angola, this prompted shock since it was very unusual.

“She was probably the most recognizable person in the world, and so the fact that she went and met with landmine survivors was really quite incredible,” Paul Hannon, Executive Director of Mines Action Canada, told Time this year. “She showed basic humanity to people who don’t normally get that, and I think that was a wake-up call to all of us.”

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People particularly remember the care and kindness Diana showed Sandra Thijika, then 13, who had lost her leg to a mine in 1994 when she was only nine years old.

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Diana intently listened to the people she met with, and the compassion she showed everyone is still remembered to this day in Angola.

Felisberto Cambonguele, the hospital’s prosthetics chief, told CNN he was surprised how down-to-earth Diana was.

“We started to think that the princess would be extremely well-dressed [and that] she would be wearing a crown,” he said, but then recalled everyone being struck by the love she showed them all.

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“She had contact with our patients, touched our children who were also receiving treatment... it was an unimaginable joy,” Felisberto continued to CNN.

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“So many of us only became aware much later that she was a princess because she presented herself with so much humility,” he finished.

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Diana also visited the Kikolo Health Centre in Luanda the same day, and was greeted by dancers. She seemed very touched by the sweet gesture.

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The next day, Jan. 15, Diana arrived in Huambo, where de-mining organization The HALO Trust was to show her its work. She put on a visor and protective equipment.

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She then completed one of the most famous actions of her life - walking through a clear minefield. She did it twice - once with HALO’s representatives and another time because the press asked her to repeat it.

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She was also shown mines while there, and again seemed horrified.

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“Diana’s visit is something that people in Huambo still talk about today,” Ralph Legg, HALO Trust’s program manager of operations in Angola, told Time.

“For the people that were here at that time, which was obviously still a time of conflict, it led to a feeling of acknowledgement, and that their plight was recognized around the world. The people I’ve spoken to who met Diana on that trip have all said how kind, considerate and how genuinely interested she seemed in them.”

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The area Diana walked through in 1997 is now a bustling street full of shops, schools and homes, Harry and Meghan’s press secretary Samantha Cohen told CNN.

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Upon arriving back in the UK, Diana wrote to the Red Cross, saying, “If my visit has contributed in any way at all in highlighting this terrible issue, then my deepest wish will have been fulfilled,” according to Time.

Sadly, she died months later, after visiting Bosnia-Herzegovina and meeting with other victims of landmines. In December of that year, an international treaty to ban landmines passed, cementing her legacy. If only she had been alive to see it.

Diana would be so proud to see her son carrying on her incredible work.

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