Whatever rightwing propaganda you’ve been fed or whatever you think of Fidel Castro now (no one should be leader of a country for more than 40 years), you can’t deny the decisive role Cuba under Fidel Castro’s leadership played in liberating Africans–especially in Southern Africa.
If you’re still in the dark, (or you’re in denial) about what went down in Angola through the 1970s and 1980s and South Africa’s role there as a US proxy and how a series of battlefield victories there by joint Cuban-Angolan forces against white South Africa’s army hastened the end of Apartheid, I’d suggest speed-reading historian Piero Gleijeses‘ book “Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington and Africa, 1959-1976.” You should also watch these films: Jihan Al Tahri’s BBC documentary film, “Cuba! Africa! Revolution!,” “Brothers in Arms!” by Jack Lewis about Ronald Herboldt, a coloured sailor who joins the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and later interrogates white South African soldiers in Angola. Finally there’s the remarkable short film, “Freddy Ilanga: Che’s Swahili Translator,” by Baruch College professor Katrin Hansing.
Anyway, the clip, above, is from, I think, Estella Bravo’s documentary “Fidel.” A significant part of the film deals with Fidel’s internationalism. The best part of the clip here is the recording of the first meeting in Cuba in 1991–at about the 3:20 mark–between two giants of the 20th century: Fidel and Nelson Mandela. Fidel would later visit South Africa in September 1998 where during a speech in its Parliament, after soaking in the praise, Fidel delivered this warning to South African parliamentarians: “Let South Africa become a model of a more just and more humane future. ” I am not sure they took Fidel advice.
Hasta la Victoria Siempre.
Ja , most Africans forget Papa Fidel’s contribution to the struggle , some of my uncles (biological and you know “oom” in the South African sense) went to Angola during the struggle and they got stories to tell about some Cubans who were there. By the way , did you ever read that story about the Cape Townian oom who lived in Cuba for a good part of his life and then came back to S.A.? for retirement and for some reason there was a fiasco about his pension , if I’m not mistaken Dylan Valley did a doccie on him …?
“Brothers in Arms!” by Jack Lewis about Ronald Herboldt, a coloured sailor who joins the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and later interrogates white South African soldiers in Angola.[]
Is the documentary about the Capetonian sailor you refer to. It is available on DVD.
I was a shipmate of Ronald on the S.S. Constantia in 1958 when he jumped ship in Cuba and joined Castro’s “rebels”. I have had some correspondence with the author of a history of that period. Nine years later I graduated from the University of Sussex (UK) where I was good friends with Thabo Mbeki and the Pahad brothers.