Large and abrupt shifts between extreme climatic conditions characterise the last glacial and deglacial period and are thought to be transmitted by the atmospheric and oceanic circulation. Millennial-scale climatic shifts associated with North Atlantic Heinrich Stadials (HSs) are thought to be closely related to a reduction of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which lead to the accumulation of heat in the South Atlantic and a southward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Due to the linkage between the oceans and the atmosphere it is assumed that HSs also influence the vegetation composition in the African tropics. To address the connection between tropical African vegetation development and high-latitude climate change we present a high-resolution marine pollen record from ODP Site 1078 (off Angola) covering the period 50-10 ka BP. Although several tropical African vegetation and climate reconstructions indicate an impact of HSs on the African subcontinent, our vegetation record shows no response. Model simulations conducted with an Earth System Model of Intermediate Complexity (EMIC) including a dynamical vegetation component lead to the hypothesis that the vegetation response during HSs might have been muted by mechanisms that partly cancel each other.