Maravi

Cuito Cuanavale changed history of Africa

Cuito Cuanavale changed history of Africa
By Editor
Saturday March 29, 2008 [03:00]

We believe that on a day like today, homage should be paid to the efforts made by the Cuban troops and the Cuban people in the defence of Africa at Cuito Cuanavale. This was a mission they will always feel proud of; it is one more page of glory for Cuba’s militant people and their armed forces. Fidel Castro, that heroic leader of the Cuban Revolution, once remarked: “Whoever is incapable of fighting for others will never be capable of fighting for himself.

And the heroism shown by our forces, by our people in other lands, faraway lands, must also serve to let the imperialists know what awaits them if one day they force us to fight on this land.”

There are moments when difficult and bitter decisions have to be made, and when that moment came for Angola, the Cuban leadership, their party and their armed forces did not hesitate for an instant to come to Angola’s aid in the defence of its independence. We believe that helped to prevent a political calamity, a military calamity for Angola, for Africa, and for all progressive forces. And as we saw later, and we are today witnessing, that decisively boosted the prospects for peace now present in our region, the southern African region.

We know that the United States had some sleepless nights over the kind of boldness whereby a small, blockaded and threatened country like Cuba was capable of carrying out an internationalist mission of that nature in Angola, in southern Africa. The empire couldn’t conceive of that. They are the only ones in the world who are entitled to have troops everywhere, weapons everywhere, bases everywhere. And so the fact that a small Caribbean country was capable of providing support to a sister African nation was something beyond their parameters, concepts and norms.

It is today very clear that that internationalist mission carried out by Cuba in Angola, in our region, had a very big impact on Africa. The African peoples, and even African governments of that time, even those that were not revolutionary at all but rather belonged to the right had viewed with admiration the mission carried out by Cuba on our continent. The African peoples knew that these troops were allied with them; they knew that the only non-African country whose troops were sent to defend an African country against the aggression of racist and fascist apartheid South Africa was Cuba.

All Africa deeply hated apartheid. All Africa viewed apartheid as their greatest enemy, an enemy that despised Africa, attacked Africa, humiliated Africa. It is incredible up to what point African peoples suffered from apartheid, and this turned African feelings, the African soul, into an ally of Cuba.

The imperialists couldn’t understand very well the reasons for Cuba’s broad relations and prestige on the international scene. But the African peoples, who have been humiliated by apartheid and racism, had been able to appraise in all its dimensions the noble, generous gesture, the historical dimension, the heroism of the Cuban people who were capable not only of defending themselves on their own land from such a powerful enemy but also helped the Africans in their struggle

against the fascists and racists. The African peoples viewed the United States as an ally and friend of apartheid and saw it as mainly to blame for apartheid’s survival.

It is a really extraordinary fact that when the Cubans were threatened in their own country, when the empire spoke of crushing them, when the empire forced them to make exceptional efforts in defence, the Cubans never refrained from fulfilling their internationalist duties. They did that even though they had well-founded reasons to suspend their internationalist missions and recall their forces in view of the threat they faced.

Enough has not yet been said, but we believe that at Cuito Cuanavale Cuba had written one of the bravest and most extraordinary chapters of internationalism. They had fulfilled their duty. And they should be proud of having fulfilled their duty, of having made a contribution.

They are a small country. They are a poor country. But they made a contribution they could in the struggle to liberate millions of people from the yoke of apartheid, the yoke of colonialism. And as the Cubans like to put it themselves, they paid their historic debt.

These were the descendants of men and women who crossed the oceans centuries before as men and women in bondage in the hold of slave ships. At the turn of the 20th century they crossed the ocean as free men and women, with arms in hand.

They came to defend the descendants of their ancestors. They returned to their place of origin to fight for freedom. Their ties with Africa, first of all, are blood ties. They are Latin Africans, they have historic ties that were renewed at Cuito Cuanavale. We today express Africa’s gratitude for what Cuba has done for our continent.

And the truth is that Cuba has and had no economic interests in Angola or in Africa. Cuba had and has no strategic interest in Angola or in Africa nor can it or could it, because Cuba is not a big power but a small country. Cuba was in Angola by virtue of internationalist principles, by virtue of its feelings of solidarity, because it was doing its duty of helping other peoples. It was doing its duty of helping the African peoples against apartheid, against racism, against colonialism, against foreign aggression.

We wish to pay special tribute to the Cuban armed forces who travelled thousands and thousands of kilometres to come to Africa and assist in a practical way those who were still languishing in the chains of colonialism, imperialism and foreign domination in our region, the southern Africa region.

We are indeed grateful to the leadership of Fidel, for the concrete material assistance, political and diplomatic support that was given to the liberation movements in southern Africa. And as Fidel himself said at a ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in May 1988: “I can assure you of one thing.

The history of Africa will have one very important moment. But it must be written before Cuito Cuanavale and after Cuito Cuanavale. Because the powerful South Africans, the ‘superior’ white race, ran up against a small piece of territory defended by blacks and mulattos – I call all Cuban mulattos – from Angola and the Caribbean … when you meet a white South African, a racist, the only thing you have to ask him is: what happened in Cuito Cuanavale? What happened in Cuito Cuanavale? That’s all you have to ask him.”

But what was the significance of Cuito Cuanavale? It changed the course of the way in Angola, and in doing so set in motion events that had the potential to change – or indeed changed - the course of African history.

A combined force of Angolan, Cuban and SWAPO troops fought back and defeated a mighty South African invasion of Angola. Fidel has said that the South Africans “broke their teeth against the defence” of Cuito Cuanavale. After five attempts by the South African army to capture Cuito Cuanavale, they were eventually routed.

But the question is: why did more than 300,000 Cubans – of all ages and professions, men and women, black and white – volunteer to help defend Angola from repeated South African invasions? Was the presence of these Cuban forces in Angola an obstacle to Namibia’s independence and peace in the region? Were they a threat to the United State’s security, as it was often claimed by Washington?

Had Angola become Cuba’s Vietnam? We don’t need to answer these questions. These were questions that were being asked at that time. But time has answered them fully. Cuba has answered these questions with examples of the honest and forthright approach of the Cuban leadership. The United States government and others have also given their interpretation of events in southern Africa.

And with all that we can see in southern Africa today, now more than ever can we appreciate the significance of the military and political victory of peoples of Angola, Namibia and indeed democratic South Africa at Cuito Cuanavale. It cannot be denied that these were events that changed the history of Africa.

Labels: APARTHEID, CUBA, CUITO CUANAVALE, FIDEL CASTRO

posted by MrK @ 4:55 AM