We are a Latin-African nation….African blood flows through our veins”- Fidel Catsro-1975

“The Cuban people hold a special place in the hearts of the people of Africa. The Cuban internationalists have made a contribution to African independence, freedom, and justice unparalleled for its principled and selfless character.” – Nelson Mandela

Last Saturday the retired, but ever reflective activist Cuban revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro turns 85. Precisely on Aug 13! Fidel Castro Ruz was born on 13 Aug 1926, near Birán, Cuba. Fidel Castro emerged as the revolutionary leader of Cuba, following the historic Cuban revolution in 1959. He formally resigned from power in 2008, 50 years he together with his compatriots in the Cuban communist party transformed his country into the first socialist independent/welfare state in the Western Hemisphere. The received image of Fidel in Africa, no thanks to Western media, is that of defiant anti-American strong who had survived countless assasination attempts by God-knows-Who. Yours comradely had reflected on Fidel at 80 and 85, and pointed out that celeberating Fidel is celeberating a genuine African friend as much as celeberating Cuban revolution, almost now at 60!.
When President Barack Obama of United States turned 50 in office, African leaders embarrassingly in Washington were in rat race outdoing each other with birthday wishes to the American President. But if African leaders know their history like the late Nelson Mandela, they would appreciate that beyound, blood affinity the point cannot be overstated that the real and original first “African-American President” was Fidel Castro and not President Barack Obama.
Fidel Castro once said of Cubans; “We are a Latin-African nation….African blood flows through our veins”- Che Guevara, Fidel’s comrade in revolution was in the Congo fighting with Patrice Lumumba for the liberation of Congo. In the same year (paradoxically the year Obama was born!), Cubans sent troops to back Algerian freedom fighters led by Ahmed Ben Bella. Cuba sent as many as 30,000 Cuban volunteer troops to repel racist South African soldiers who were bent on undermining Angolan independence in 1976. In January 1975, the dying Portuguese colonial power was compelled to sign an agreement granting independence in November of that year following the struggle of People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). Desperate to stem the tide of change, given that Mozambique under Frelimo also got independence same year, the racist South Africa invaded Angola from Namibia.
No independent African state was in the position to come to the rescue of Angola. Fidel’s Cuba rose to the challenge and South African troops were beaten to a retreat. That singular historic Cuban resistance against South African aggression paved the way for Angolan independence in 1976. Cuba was the only frontline non-African country in the league of Tanzania, Zambia and Nigeria that felt the heat and sacrifices of liberation struggle. Cuba after Nigeria led by dynamic late General Murtala Muhammed, was among the first countries to recognize MPLA led government and was the country that pushed for its UN membership which was ironically vetoed by United States of Africa. Africans would also recall the historic battle of Ciuto Cuanavale in South eastern Angola in 1987 with Cuban involvement. That historic battle against racist troops led to series of events that eventually led to Namibian independence. The value-chain of Cuban solidarity goes beyond the military.
During a visit to Angola in 1977, the then Cuban defence minister, Raul Castro now Cuban president invited Angola to send 2,000 children to attend schools and universities in Cuba. Cuban doctors and nurses have served and are serving in virtually all African countries as part of comprehensive development cooperation. Today Cuba is a medical super power, which stood shoulder to shoulders with Africans to confront the scourge of Ebola in Liberia and Seria Leone at a time America deployed soldiers as if bullets would halt Ebola virus. In Nigeria former President Shehu Shagari administration proudly hailed the Cuban doctors for their courage and sacrifices to serve in rural Nigeria scorned by Nigeria’s doctors. In 2000, as many as 10,000 Cuban doctors, one third of its total doctors were serving in Africa. The same solidarity applied to education.
When late Julius Nyerere of Tanzania visited the famous Isle of Youth in Cuba, an internationalist school where African youths were undergoing schooling free of charge, he reportedly said “There is no more beautiful place under the sun”. A conference sponsored by the UN Special Committee against Apartheid held in Havana in May 1976, a Cuban leader Armando Hart called racism the “ideology of the exploiters”. That was at a time Britain and America were bursting sanctions against the outlaw regime and were even in bed with the hated apartheid regime through the notorious “constructive engagement” with the racists. In recent times, both the debtor-and creditors-nations, most in Africa found attractive the options of partial and total debt-cancellation and even debt relief. And that was precisely what Fidel Castro had long promoted in his decade-long battle of developmental ideas. He had compared the debt burden “to that torment in Greek mythology in which a man is doomed to push a large stone uphill for all eternity, a stone that always rolls down again before reaching the top.” Debtors, he maintained “don’t need new loans””. Fidel has since been proven right that most debts wee “unpayable and uncollectible”. We must credit the series of debt cancellation of the two decades to audacious alternative views of Fidel Castro, not the astuteness of “negotiators” and so called altruism of creditors. The world has wisely shifted to Cuban development paradigm after the scandalous market collapse of 2007 without acknowledging Fidel and Cubans who promoted the role the sate and governance in development. Cuba has the lowest HIV prevalent rate, thanks to education and non-commercialization of the battle against the scourge. Cuba ranks high on UN development index, much to its nurtured human capital through quality literacy and good health. In fact Cuba shows that the real “resource control” should start with human capital. Long Live Fidel Castro!

Issa Aremu mni