The narrator claims that just as America was built on death and violence, the new post-colonial Africa is undergoing a similar process.

In the English-language version, the narrator states that the film will not tell its audience what to think about these events, but rather that the viewer will have to make their own conclusions about what they see.

Hundreds of rotting animals, mainly zebras and gazelles, that had been killed and left by poachers must be burned by authorities for health reasons.

In Zanzibar during its revolution, rebels target Arab civilians as revenge for Sultanate oppression that occurred almost a millennium prior.

Between 18 and 20 January 1964, a genocide occurs in Zanzibar, with endless lines of captive Arab civilians being marched at gunpoint to a location where they will be shot by a firing squad.

In Angola during the Angolan War of Independence, Portuguese soldiers lay traps for the rebel guerillas in the forest.

In the middle of the Bugesera invasion in Rwanda during January 1964, the Watusi are pursued by the Bantu rebels after anti-Watusi propaganda was pushed by the Chinese for political purposes.

On the banks of the Kagera River, 54 amputated hands are found by authorities near a tree that was used as a makeshift chopping block.

At dawn on 25 February 1964 in Uganda, “operation cropping” begins after the British leave once more and the African government declares that the national parks will be for hunting.

On 3 April 1964 at Queen Elizabeth National Park, hippopotamus are hunted and hundreds of hippo skulls are shown covering a beach.

Rebel forces, armed with bows and believing that a magic spell makes them invulnerable to enemy bullets, go into battle against the Belgians while high on drugs and are massacred.

On 24 November 1964, five months after Tshombe took over Stanleyville, during Operation Dragon Rouge, 320 Belgian paratroopers retake the city in 10 minutes, resulting in 7,000 rebels fleeing before they can continue their massacres.

At a Catholic mission northeast of Stanleyville, on the border of Congo and Sudan, more than 100 nuns, priests and children are held by a band of rebels who control the Ituri Rainforest.

The movie features a controversial scene of a mercenary officer executing another unarmed Simba rebel who allegedly burned 27 children alive in a school.

Now strangers in a strange land, these penguins simply try to survive the violent waters as the dark continent grows hotter and more hostile towards them.

Most notably, the film features footage from the Congo, Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Uganda, Rwanda, Angola, Kenya and South Africa.

Prior to the film's release, allegations arose that a scene depicting the execution of a Congolese Simba Rebel was actually a murder done for the cameras.

He was acquitted after he and co-director Franco E. Prosperi produced documents proving they had arrived at the scene just before the execution took place.

The American version, with the explicitly shocking title Africa: Blood and Guts, was re-released in 1970 by Jerry Gross' company Cinemation Industries.

Praise was usually directed at the film's music and visuals, as well as the courage of the filmmakers to deliver such unique and risky footage to the world, especially of massacres that would have been covered up.

Africa Addio features the only known combat footage of the Congo mercenaries, and the only known visual evidence of the genocide of ethnic Arabs during the Zanzibar Revolution.

Some items from this float, along with other memorabilia including a copy of the book by John Cohen, are kept in Museum of Dizionario del Turismo Cinematografico in Verolengo.

In the 2003 documentary The Godfathers of Mondo, Prosperi argues that the criticism was due to the fact that, "The public was not ready for this kind of truth."

"[18]US Ambassador to the United Nations Arthur Goldberg condemned the film as "grossly distorted" and "socially irresponsible," noting the protests of five African UN delegates.

[19] In West Germany, a protest movement against the film emerged after Africa Addio was awarded by the state-controlled movie rating board.

[7] In the same documentary, Prosperi described their filmmaking philosophy: “Slip in, ask, never pay, never reenact.”[8] Having been initially banned in Zanzibar on its release, the film has become well-known in the country for its alleged depiction of the massacres of 18–20 January 1964.