Statement Booker Ngesa Omole. General Secretary Communist Party Marxist Kenya
There is an African proverb which says that a river never forgets its source. Africa must never forget Cuba.
History has witnessed many powerful nations that spoke eloquently about freedom while financing colonialism, supporting apartheid, and plundering the wealth of oppressed peoples. Cuba chose a different path. Cuba did not merely speak. Cuba acted.
When African liberation movements confronted colonial occupation, racist regimes, and imperialist aggression, Cuba stood where history demanded. Cuban doctors healed our people. Cuban teachers educated our children. Cuban internationalist fighters stood alongside African revolutionaries, not as conquerors, not as occupiers, not as exploiters, but as comrades.
From Algeria to Guinea Bissau, from Mozambique to Angola, from Namibia to South Africa, Cuba shed blood for African liberation without demanding territory, minerals, military bases, or political domination. Cuba asked for nothing except that Africa should be free.
No example illustrates this more powerfully than Angola.
When apartheid South Africa invaded Angola with the backing of the United States and its allies, Cuba answered the call of revolutionary internationalism. Tens of thousands of Cuban volunteers crossed the Atlantic, not in pursuit of profit, but in defence of human liberation.
The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale fundamentally altered the balance of forces in Southern Africa. It accelerated the independence of Namibia and hastened the collapse of apartheid. Nelson Mandela rightly described Cuba’s contribution as unparalleled in its principled and selfless character.
Africa must never forget that.
Comrades,
Cuba teaches us that internationalism is not charity.
Internationalism is revolutionary duty.
Fidel Castro reminded us that to be an internationalist is to repay our debt to humanity.
That principle remains as relevant today as it was during the great anti colonial struggles of the twentieth century.
For more than six decades, Cuba has endured one of the longest and most comprehensive economic blockades in modern history. This illegal blockade is an act of collective punishment imposed because the Cuban people chose sovereignty, dignity, and socialism.
Yet despite immense hardship, Cuba continues to send doctors across the world, train African students, advance medical science, and place human life above private profit.
This is not the conduct of an empire.
This is the practice of socialism.
Comrades,
Africa today continues to confront neo colonialism. Our resources enrich foreign monopolies while our people remain poor. Debt, unequal exchange, sanctions, military domination, and comprador rule have replaced the old colonial administration.
Political independence without economic sovereignty remains incomplete.
National liberation without socialism remains incomplete.
That is why Cuba remains profoundly relevant to Africa.
Cuba demonstrates that even a small nation can defend its sovereignty against enormous pressure when its people are politically conscious, organised, and united.
Comrades,
Defending Cuba today is not simply defending one island in the Caribbean.
It is defending the right of every people to determine their own future free from imperialist domination.
It is defending the right of nations to choose their own social system.
It is defending the principle that international solidarity is stronger than economic coercion.
From Kenya to Cuba.
From Palestine to Western Sahara.
From Lebanon to the Congo.
The struggle against imperialism remains one struggle.
Our solidarity cannot remain symbolic.
We must intensify the international campaign to end the criminal blockade against Cuba.
We must defend the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self determination.
We must reject every attempt to criminalise solidarity with Palestine.
We must strengthen the bonds between Africa and revolutionary Cuba.
We must ensure that future generations know the true history of Cuban internationalism, a history too often erased by those who fear its example.
Comrades,
The enemies of Cuba believed the Revolution would collapse.
Instead, it continues to inspire humanity.
They believed socialism would disappear.
Instead, it continues to illuminate the path of millions.
They believed history would forget Cuba.
Instead, history remembers Cuba because Cuba chose solidarity over domination, sacrifice over privilege, and humanity over profit.
Let us stand firmly with revolutionary Cuba.
Let us defend its sovereignty.
Let us oppose the criminal blockade.
Let us strengthen the bonds between Africa, Cuba, and all peoples resisting imperialism.
For as long as imperialism exists, our struggle is one struggle.
Long live African and Cuban solidarity.
Long live solidarity with the heroic people of Palestine.
Long live proletarian internationalism.
Long live the Cuban Revolution.
Hasta la victoria siempre.
Thank you.