Havana, December 12, 2024.- "A meeting like this strengthens us; you have been thanking Cuba, but we have to thank you very much, because you have given us a lot of energy with your participation," said the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, to a representation of those attending the International Conference Cuba 2024 Decade of Afro-descendants.
The president received on Wednesday evening, at the Palace of the Revolution, guests from 18 countries who attended the event, from North America, Central America, the Caribbean, South America and Africa, and which included interventions, virtual or in person, from the President of the United Nations General Assembly, UNESCO, directors of United Nations agencies, the African Union, CARICOM and other international organizations.
At the presentation of the exchange, which was also headed by Inés María Chapman Waugh, Deputy Prime Minister, and Alpido Alonso Grau, Minister of Culture, the Cuban intellectual Rolando Rensoli Medina, coordinator of the Cuban Color Program, paid special tribute to the American artist Danny Glover Laverne, present at the meeting, who ten years ago, after UNESCO declared the Decade of People of African Descent, had said that Cuba was the country with the most moral capacity to develop this type of meeting.
«And Cuba, Rensoli said, has thus closed the Decade of People of African Descent, with dignity, with morality.»
The American James Counts Early, retired from the Smithonian Institute and social activist, pointed out that «in Cuba we see something different in our America, because it has been able to promote a path of possibilities, of a new world, with the triumphant Revolution of 1959, which faced racism, which raised awareness in the people, mapping the sociological reality of racism.»
He thus stressed "the importance of informing the American people of the Cuban model against racism, which is, he emphasized, another legacy of Cuba to America and the world."
Geoffroy De Laforcade, professor of History at Norfolk State University, said that "Cuba is the country in the world where people feel most comfortable, because here people speak intelligently and with hope about the future of humanity."
He considered that the International Conference Cuba 2024 Decade of Afro-descendants has been "an opportunity to dialogue between authorities, social activists, organizations and communities, which constitutes a different model of improvement and happiness."
The Mexican Sheila Zamudio Beltrán stressed that the event has constituted "an exchange between the African diaspora and its descendants, which has confirmed that the struggle is still alive. The fundamental point here has been, he said, the meeting of people who are talking about how to be treated as people."
American Colette Pean, founder of the December 12 movement, an organization for the rights of African Americans, thanked Díaz-Canel, on behalf of her organization, and the Cuban people, who "have acted in terms of leadership and a future of resistance."
Diana Hamra Robaina, from Argentina, reported that in her country there are Afro-descendants, and contrary to what President Milei says, who speaks of the Argentine nation being formed with ships coming from Europe, it was also formed with those who arrived enslaved on ships from Africa.
In Argentina, she explained, "the Afro-descendant movement is incipient, but it is strengthening," and she thanked for being at the conference, which has allowed her to interact, and especially Cuba, which is, she said, "a beacon of solidarity, of integration between our countries." "In Argentina," she reiterated, "many people continue to support Cuba, which is a beacon of this continent."
Barbadian David Dennys, secretary general of the Caribbean Peace Movement, commented that “Cuba has represented a movement that defends the poorest people in the world,” and called for taking the fight against racism to another level, reinforcing the demand for the right of Afro-descendant peoples to receive reparation for having been stolen from Africa and for slavery, especially in historical moments like the present, when fascism is resurfacing in countries like those in Europe.
Dorothy Davis and Keya Barron, of the Black Caucus Institute in the United States, pointed out that they had never been to Cuba, and now they have learned a lot about what its people have done and continue to do, and we have cleared our minds of the wrong information we receive about this country.
They asked to continue and expand such exchanges. "For our part, we will share what we have learned here, the new approaches to race that we have seen here," said Dorothy, whose great-grandfather, she said, participated in the construction of the Cuban railroad in the first decades of the last century.
Havana, December 12, 2024.- "A meeting like this strengthens us; you have been thanking Cuba, but we have to thank you very much, because you have given us a lot of energy with your participation," said the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, to a representation of those attending the International Conference Cuba 2024 Decade of Afro-descendants.
The president received on Wednesday evening, at the Palace of the Revolution, guests from 18 countries who attended the event, from North America, Central America, the Caribbean, South America and Africa, and which included interventions, virtual or in person, from the President of the United Nations General Assembly, UNESCO, directors of United Nations agencies, the African Union, CARICOM and other international organizations.
At the presentation of the exchange, which was also headed by Inés María Chapman Waugh, Deputy Prime Minister, and Alpido Alonso Grau, Minister of Culture, the Cuban intellectual Rolando Rensoli Medina, coordinator of the Cuban Color Program, paid special tribute to the American artist Danny Glover Laverne, present at the meeting, who ten years ago, after UNESCO declared the Decade of People of African Descent, had said that Cuba was the country with the most moral capacity to develop this type of meeting.
«And Cuba, Rensoli said, has thus closed the Decade of People of African Descent, with dignity, with morality.»
The American James Counts Early, retired from the Smithonian Institute and social activist, pointed out that «in Cuba we see something different in our America, because it has been able to promote a path of possibilities, of a new world, with the triumphant Revolution of 1959, which faced racism, which raised awareness in the people, mapping the sociological reality of racism.»
He thus stressed "the importance of informing the American people of the Cuban model against racism, which is, he emphasized, another legacy of Cuba to America and the world."
Geoffroy De Laforcade, professor of History at Norfolk State University, said that "Cuba is the country in the world where people feel most comfortable, because here people speak intelligently and with hope about the future of humanity."
He considered that the International Conference Cuba 2024 Decade of Afro-descendants has been "an opportunity to dialogue between authorities, social activists, organizations and communities, which constitutes a different model of improvement and happiness."
The Mexican Sheila Zamudio Beltrán stressed that the event has constituted "an exchange between the African diaspora and its descendants, which has confirmed that the struggle is still alive. The fundamental point here has been, he said, the meeting of people who are talking about how to be treated as people."
American Colette Pean, founder of the December 12 movement, an organization for the rights of African Americans, thanked Díaz-Canel, on behalf of her organization, and the Cuban people, who "have acted in terms of leadership and a future of resistance."
Diana Hamra Robaina, from Argentina, reported that in her country there are Afro-descendants, and contrary to what President Milei says, who speaks of the Argentine nation being formed with ships coming from Europe, it was also formed with those who arrived enslaved on ships from Africa.
In Argentina, she explained, "the Afro-descendant movement is incipient, but it is strengthening," and she thanked for being at the conference, which has allowed her to interact, and especially Cuba, which is, she said, "a beacon of solidarity, of integration between our countries." "In Argentina," she reiterated, "many people continue to support Cuba, which is a beacon of this continent."
Barbadian David Dennys, secretary general of the Caribbean Peace Movement, commented that “Cuba has represented a movement that defends the poorest people in the world,” and called for taking the fight against racism to another level, reinforcing the demand for the right of Afro-descendant peoples to receive reparation for having been stolen from Africa and for slavery, especially in historical moments like the present, when fascism is resurfacing in countries like those in Europe.
Dorothy Davis and Keya Barron, of the Black Caucus Institute in the United States, pointed out that they had never been to Cuba, and now they have learned a lot about what its people have done and continue to do, and we have cleared our minds of the wrong information we receive about this country.
They asked to continue and expand such exchanges. "For our part, we will share what we have learned here, the new approaches to race that we have seen here," said Dorothy, whose great-grandfather, she said, participated in the construction of the Cuban railroad in the first decades of the last century.
Nigerian social activist Abdulrahman Abbe Terab stressed that the African diaspora, especially that of his country, will not be able to work for its rights without Cuba, where in every corner "there is Nigerian, Yoruba, Changó." "The world has to understand," he said, "that Nigeria and Cuba not only have similarities, but are one people."
Angela Naa Afoley, head of the Diaspora Division at the African Union, acknowledged the efforts made by Cuba in the Decade of People of African Descent, and its contribution to the liberation of several African countries, as well as the sending of medical brigades and other acts of solidarity that have benefited millions of inhabitants of the Mother Continent.
THERE IS NO RACE, WE ARE JUST HUMANS
The International Conference Cuba 2024 Decade of Afro-descendants, at the conclusion of a year that closes that decade, has reaffirmed "the conviction that we share common ideas, a common good, that aspiration that there is a more just world for all, without distinction, without evaluations, without distinguishing people by whether they have one color or another of skin," said the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, at the closing of the exchange.
"We, he pointed out, always start from the Martian conviction that homeland is humanity, that we are all equal and that there is no race. We are humans who inhabit this planet, and for us your presence in Cuba has been very important."
The Head of State shared with the attendees details about the complex situation that the Cuban people are currently experiencing and that has led to the deterioration of some social indicators. If these are compared with those of many countries, such as Health and Education, they continue to perform well, but - he noted - they have had a hard impact. However, despite this, he said, we do not lose optimism and we have a strategy to overcome it.
Díaz-Canel expressed the high value that Cuba gives to the fight against discrimination based on skin color, an issue that for us, he explained, has a lot to do with feelings, with the spirituality of peoples, of nations.
In this sense, the legacy of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, who was a passionate and severe scholar of the work of the Cuban national hero, José Martí, was significant. And Martí, he recalled, was a man with a humanistic thought, a tremendous dimension; and he was one of those who taught us that people could not be distinguished by skin color or other discriminatory reasons.
Thus, he noted, since the triumph of the Revolution, Fidel promoted, within the revolutionary work, the elimination of discrimination; discrimination based on skin color in a country that had lived for years, centuries, of Spanish colonialism and then a neocolonial republic dependent on the United States.
After the triumph of the Revolution, Fidel —he stressed— was one of those who headed, with Raúl's continuity, a whole group of social policies to seek equality, equity, inclusion, opportunities for all in a country that had experienced all that lag of colonization, of racism.
Throughout the Revolution, the President reflected later, in Cuba we recognize ourselves as equals, we have social policies and we have laws that combat discrimination, which have given equal rights to promote cultural development, the education of any citizen; however, he recognized, there are still vestiges of racism, which is why in recent years a national Program against racism and racial discrimination has been developed.
The president also addressed Cuba's contribution to the liberation of African peoples, which was, he said, a way of settling that debt we have with our roots. «We are proud to be descendants of Africans, to be descendants of our indigenous peoples, to be descendants of Europeans.»
And always, he stressed later, we distinguish that there is a group of values shared by Cubans who come to us from Africa; courage, rebellion, joy, the ability to resist; to defend our roots, of which we are very proud.»
«From Africa, he added, we have a rich cultural presence, which distinguishes us, which we share, that is why when Cubans are there we feel at home; when we are in the Caribbean, we are at home, when we are in Latin America, we are at home. That is why I believe that we are all brothers.»
(Embassy of Cuba)