On December 10, scholars and diplomats joined in a virtual conference to explore the contribution of Cuba and Fidel Castro to the struggles for the liberation of the African peoples. The event took place in the context of the 45th anniversary of Operation Carlota, the name given to Cuba's intervention in Angola, after the Lucumí black slave who in 1843 rebelled against the Spanish colonial yoke in Cuba, at the “Triunvirato” sugar mill, in Matanzas. The event was sponsored by the National Network on Cuba (NNOC) and the Alliance for Global Justice (AGJ).
Professor Piero Gleijeses, from John Hopkins University, author of works on the topic Conflicting Missions (2002) and Visions of Freedom (2013), explored the geopolitical scene in southern Africa around November 1975, marked by the rise of the ominous Apartheid regime and the attacks on Angola from the North and South of its geography. It is in such scenario that Dr. Agostino Neto, then Angolan president, asked Fidel Castro for Cuba's support. Gleijeses demonstrated through the testimony of US government actors, the idealism that guided Cuba's actions, associated with the solidarity and internationalism of the Revolution and the right of Third World nations to emancipation from all colonial forms, sovereignty and independence.
In a touching presentation, Angola´s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Maria Dos Reis Ferreira, who as member of the military shared ranks with many Cubans, including Raúl Díaz-Arguelles, who fell in combat a month after independence was declared, thanked the fundamental contribution of Cuba and its troops to end Apartheid. The Ambassador pointed out the additional Cuban support in terms of technical collaboration, education and health, which has contributed to the stability of the country.
The South African Ambassador in Washington, Normandiya C. Mfeketo, considered that South Africa "would not be here today if not for the assistance given by Cuba." She described Fidel Castro as "a decorated humanitarian, recognized internationalist, anti-imperialist, who selflessly supported the struggle of the oppressed and the exploited throughout the world." Mfeketo reflected on the connections of Cuba's epic in Africa with the current strong friendship relations between the two and observed the permanence of Cuba's spirit of solidarity, expressed more recently through its doctors, who in 2014 faced the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa.
Cuban Ambassadors Pedro Luis Pedroso, Permanent Representative to the United Nations and José R. Cabañas, top diplomat in Washington, agreed that their personal experiences, as part of the more than 300,000 combatants -2,600 of whom did not return alive - and 50 000 Cuban technical collaborators who participated voluntarily, made them better people and professionals. They allowed them to better understand not only Cuba´s roots, but the reality of the communities of African heritage in the United States.
After recalling the military genius of Fidel Castro, revealed in the decisive battle of Cuito Cuanavale, Pedroso invoked the South African hero Nelson Mandela who, when referring to the Cuban legacy in Angola, said in 1991: “You came to our region as doctors, teachers, soldiers, agricultural experts, but never as colonizers (…) ”. For his part, Cabañas, through passages from Fidel Castro's speech at the closing of the first Cuba´s Communist Party Congress, December 1975, referred to the way in which the United States has been many times on the wrong side of history due to his hegemonic goals, by supporting the Apartheid regime in Africa, the counterrevolution in Nicaragua in the 1980s, as well as the efforts against the constitutional order in Venezuela today.
Professor August Nimtz of the University of Minnesota served as the moderator in a skillful, sensitive manner. He invoked the words of Army General Raúl Castro, who assessed that Angola also contributed to Cuba, in terms of its international prestige, experience, resistance, maturity of the Cuban people, and capacity for sacrifice and unity in the face of adversity. The session was followed live by about 170 participants through various digital platforms, and is available at the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWDOlXsS_-M&feature=youtu.be