Nelson Mandela and Fidel
Castro: years of blood, sweat, and tears
opposing South Africa's apartheid
regime and its American backers
lay behind their
long-enduring friendship.
Explaining Mandela's Loyalty to Fidel and Cuba (La
Jornada, Mexico)
"The ambitions of the South African racists and the United
States were not only to crush the Angolan regime, but to eliminate the training
bases of the ANC and Namibia’s South West African People's
Organization, whichwereestablished in Angola with
Cuban trainers. ... A long and bloody war to confront the South African military
intervention ensued, lasting from 1981 to 1988. ... The cracking of this racist
and genocidal military adventure not only ensured the ultimate sovereignty of
Angola, but the independence of Namibia, which was the harbinger of the end of
apartheid South Africa."
President Obama and Cuba dictator Raul Castro: The handshake that launched a thousand front pages. But first things first: why was Raul Castro at Nelson Mandela's funeral at all? Read on ...
For
most people in South Africa, Nelson Mandela is recognized as their liberator
and the man who symbolized the long struggle to defeat the racist apartheid
regime imposed by descendants of Dutch and British colonialists - the White Afrikaner. During the 27 years
Madiba was imprisoned, his indomitable courage and dignity encouraged and
inspired the Black population and the African National Congress (ANC) in their
struggle for liberation. And as in other African nations under colonial rule, South
Africans had to achieve their deliverance by combining the actions of popular
resistance with an armed insurrection, which in South Africa was led by detachments
of ANC fighters in a strategy initiated by Mandela.
Wars
of national liberation that occurred in other parts of the African continent or
triumphed and achieved independence in a number of countries allowed solidarity
and support for the struggles in South Africa and Namibia, the latter being the
last country occupied by the South African racists. In early 1976, Angola
gained independence under the leadership of the People's Movement for the Liberation
of Angola. However, the nascent People’s Republic had to face a siege from
counter-revolutionary forces and mercenaries supported and financed by Zaire,
South Africa, and the United States. In short order, the Pretoria regimen would
opt for a military invasion of Angolan territory to overthrow the new
government. Faced with this threat to its independence and the subjugation of
their nation by the South African colonialists, Angola’s government accepted the
solidarity of revolutionary Cuba. As in other times and places in Africa, and reiterating
the internationalist principles of their revolution, thousands of Cuban
combatants joined the struggle of the Angolan people.
The
ambitions of the South African racists and the United States were not only to
crush the Angolan regime, but to eliminate the training bases of the ANC and
Namibia’s SWAPO
[South West African People's Organization] whichwereestablished in Angola with Cuban trainers. After its initial defeat in 1976, South
Africa invaded Angola again. A long and bloody war to confront the South
African military intervention ensued, lasting from 1981 to 1988.
During
those years, military forces from Angola fought with tens of thousands of Cuban
Revolutionary troops and voluntary combatants. In March 1988, at the hands of Angolan
patriots and Cuban internationalists, the South African army, the most powerful
in Africa, and with atomic fangs, suffered the most resounding defeat in its
history. The cracking of this racist and genocidal military adventure not only
ensured the ultimate sovereignty of Angola, but the independence of Namibia, which
was the harbinger of the end of apartheid South Africa. This was ratified by
agreements concluded in December 1988, between the governments of Angola and
Cuba on one side, and the heretofore arrogant South African government on the
other, with the mediation of its U.S. government advisers. The subsequent story
is well known: Mandela was released, the shameful racist regime disappeared,
and later, Madiba would be elected by his people as the president of the new South
Africa.
In
1991, Mandela was in Cuba, in commemoration of the July 26 Cuban Revolution. Alongside
Fidel, Mandela
said: " We have long wanted to visit your country and express the many
feelings that we have about the Cuban revolution, about the role of Cuba in
Africa, southern Africa, and the world. 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. ...The defeat of the racist army at CuitoCuanavale has made it possible for me to be here today!"
For
his part, Fidel, in his 1998 speech to the South
African Parliament, noted that over the course of 30 years, more than 24,000
Cuban civilians had been on the continent: teachers, nurses,
engineers, doctors, and other skilled technicians, and over 380,000 soldiers
and officers had fought for national independence and against foreign
aggression: from the African soil on which they worked and voluntarily and
selflessly fought, the only thing they took back to Cuba were the remains of
their fallen comrades and the honor of duty fulfilled.
For
Fidel, the internationalist missions and the internationalism of the Cuban
revolution are our way of paying a debt to humanity.
*Cesar Navarro is
a researcher at the Mora Institute and the author of El secuestro
de la educación [The Hijacking of Education], edited
by La Jornada and UPN
