Part VIII: The Cuban Revolution Session 11 Pan-Africanism: From Black Power to Cuba in Africa � The Caribbean in Africa � Black Power � Zimbabwe and South Africa � Cuba in Africa 1
The Caribbean in Africa � Edward Wilmot Blyden (1832-1912) , St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands), taught in Sierra Leone, government minister in Liberia. � Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race (1887) � Marcus Garvey ( 1887-1940 , Jamaica), Universal Negro Improvement Association. � The return to Africa 2
� Italy’s war against Ethiopia : “black Trinidadians saw themselves caught up in the military, economic, moral, and cultural conflict that occupied the world’s stage almost until World War II, and…Trinidadians cultivated the symbols associated with a war on the other side of the world in order to address burning issues of local importance” (Kevin Yelvington, 1999, p. 189) � Ghana in the 1950s and 1960s � George Padmore ( 1903- 1959 , Trinidad), and Kwame Nkrumah . 3
CARICOM: “Padmore was hailed at his funeral rites in Ghana in October 1959 as the father of African emancipation. A great revolutionary who at the height of his glory stood on the reviewing stand in Moscow’s Square as the May Day parade marched past. Stalin and Molotov were some of the big Soviet names that stood shoulder to shoulder with him on the platform”. http://www.caricom.org/jsp/projects/personalities/george_pad more.jsp?menu=projects � Padmore, International African Services Bureau (IASB) : “It was under the auspices of Padmore’s African Bureau that Nkrumah went to the Gold Coast and launched his Convention People’s Party’s historic political campaign that culminated in the declaration of independence of Ghana in March 1957, the first British African colony to achieve that status”. 4
� IASB: Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania � C.L.R. James (1901-1989, Trinidad), editor of International African Opinion , journal of the International African Services Bureau. � Nkrumah on Padmore: “There existed between us that rare affinity for which one searches for so long but seldom finds in another human being. We became friends at the moment of our meeting and our friendship developed into that indescribable relationship that exists between two brothers”. 5
Kwame Nkrumah, the then Prime Minister of Ghana, hosted the All-African People’s Conference in December of 1958 in Accra, Ghana. The event was organized by George Padmore , Nkrumah’s advisor on African affairs. The summit attracted over 60 nationalist movements from throughout Africa. For a copy of the Resolution that came out of that conference, see: http://imperfect-black.blogspot.ca/2010/07/all-african-peoples-conference.html 6
Black Power � West Indian activism inspired, led generations of African-American activists: Marcus Garvey ; Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Turé) (Trinidad, 1941-1998); Malcolm X (father was a Garveyite, mother was Grenadian); Rev. Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam (mother was from St. Kitts), former calypsonian. 7
� Dr. Walter Rodney (1942-1980, Guyana) “First, [Black Power means] a break with imperialism which is historically white [and] racist. Second, the assumption of power by the Black masses in the islands. Third, the cultural reconstruction of the society in the image of Blacks.” 8
Zimbabwe and South Africa � Zimbabwe: overthrow of white rule under Ian Smith, and independence from Britain; continued impact on Pan-Africanism in the Caribbean, registering in reggae and calypso songs. � South Africa: anti-apartheid struggle, revolt against white minority rule, solidarity from nations in the Caribbean 9
Cuba in Africa � Cuba’s internationalism and engagement in Angola, starting in 1975, esp. from 1987 to 1991 � The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale in 1988 10
� Cuban internationalism and Cuban nationalism � Cuba, received nearly 10% of all African slaves ever sent to the Americas, many with ancestral origins in Angola, active in the fight against white racists. � “Operation Carlota”— enslaved African woman who led an uprising near Matanzas, Cuba, in 1843 � Over 55,000 Cuban soldiers; doctors, teachers, technical assistants = over 400,000 Cubans sent to Angola between 1975 and 1991; 5% of Cuba’s population had served in Angola � June 27, 1988, South Africa forced to begin withdrawing from Angola � On Cuito Cuanavale, Nelson Mandela: “the turning point for the liberation of Africa from the scourge of apartheid.” 11
Mandela, in Havana, July 1991: “The Cuban internationalists have made a contribution to African independence, freedom and justice unparalleled for its principled and selfless character… We in Africa are used to being victims of countries wanting to carve up our territory or subvert our sovereignty. It is unparalleled in African history to have another people rise to the defence of one of us.” � Mandela to Castro in 1994: “You made this possible” � Cuba as an“Afro-Latin” country. Fidel Castro, 1988: “African blood flows freely through our veins. Many of our ancestors came as slaves from Africa to this land. As slaves they struggled a great deal. They fought as members of the Liberating Army of Cuba. We’re brothers and sisters of the people of Africa and we’re ready to fight on their behalf! 12
� Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Turé), referred to Fidel Castro as “the blackest man in the Caribbean” � Cuba provided troops, advisors, security personnel, doctors, teachers, and other professionals to 17 countries on the African continent. Fidel Castro: “I don’t think that Cuba’s heroic solidarity with our sister nations in Africa has been well enough recognized. That glorious page of our revolutionary history deserves to be known, even if only to encourage the hundreds of thousands of women and men who are internationalist combatants; [it should] be written, as an example for present and future generations. Nor, in my opinion, are people sufficiently knowledgeable about the history of Europe’s imperialist and neocolonial looting and pillaging of Africa, with, of course, the full support of the United States and NATO.” 13
� Cuba sent weapons to Algeria in 1961 to aid the Algerians in their war for independence from France, included “cannons, 105-mm howitzers and lots of ammunition,” brought back orphaned children to Cuba. � First action to support Angola from 1975 to 1976 � Ethiopia in 1977-1978, Cuba sent 15,000 troops to defend the territorial integrity of Ethiopia � In Congo , Cuba sent Ché Guevara + hundreds of its best troops to the Belgian Congo starting in April of 1965 14
Ché Guevara and comrades in the eastern Belgian Congo in 1965 15
Billboard in Angola showing Agostinho-Neto and Fidel Castro, which reads: “That which is a determining factor for Unity is ideology, not geography”. 16
Fidel Castro and Amilcar Cabral, co-founder of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) 17
Fidel Castro and Samora Machel-First President of Mozambique and leader of FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique [Mozambique Liberation Front]) 18
Fidel Castro and Sam Nujoma, the leader of SWAPO and Namibia’s first President. 19
Fidel Castro greets President Ahmed Sekou Touré of the Republic of Guinea. 20
Raúl and Fidel Castro with Mengistu Haile Mariam in Ethiopia. 21
Fidel Castro discussing with Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. 22
Fidel Castro gets a joyful embrace from Nelson Mandela. 23
Fidel Castro meeting with Malcolm X 24
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