“IN the early hours of the morning of November 25 1956, there was unusual activity at the small town of Tuxpan, one of the few settlements situated between Vera Cruz and Ciudad Madero on the long sweeping arc of Mexico’s eastern coast.
A group of 82 men were busily carting biscuits, water and medical supplies onto a pleasure craft moored along the river that flowed into the port. Already on board that pleasure craft were oranges, ham, rifles, ammunition and anti-tank guns. The pleasure craft was later named the Granma.
Overseeing these last minute preparations was the six foot figure of the Cuban lawyer, Fidel Castro. Tonight was the most important moment in Fidel Castro’s young life to date. He was the mastermind of this whole operation. He wore a black cap and a Thompson machine gun rested on his thighs”.
The ‘operation’ being referred to above was the epic journey that Fidel Castro and his fellow freedom fighters embarked upon that night from Mexico on their way to Cuba to start a revolutionary war to overthrow an oppressive Government led by Fulgencio Batista.
The journey took them seven days and the revolutionary war they later started took them two years and five days to achieve victory.
In this article we are looking at the Cuban Revolution under Castro and its positive impact on Africa through the battles the Cubans fought in support of the people of Angola.
Once the Cuban freedom fighters had landed on Cuban soil from Mexico, they were immediately attacked by the oppressive Batista forces.
Fidel Castro tells us the story which reminds Zimbabwe freedom fighters of their own experience with the despicable Rhodesian racist soldiers’ planes.
“We were attacked three days after we had landed. We had been marching from the sea to the mountains. We had to walk through two whole nights to get through the Batista army’s perimeter. Some of the ‘companeros’ – freedom fighters — were totally exhausted. I decided to camp on a little hill. The men spread out with their platoons to rest and wait for the night to come. The Batista army post was just a 100 yards from our camp. Overconfidence.
Late that afternoon, enemy spotter planes, and small one engine planes started to explore. About four o’clock, fighter jets began flying low over the woods. And then about five, the first shots came and seconds later heavy infantry fire against us. They caught us off guard. We all dispersed like crazy. I stayed more or less where I was. Each man or small group had its own battle to fight.
Almost simultaneously the fighter jets coming in from the east started machine-gunning us passing over again and again for what seemed an eternity to us. The earth would shake under the fire power of the eight 50 calibre machine guns that each jet carried.”
Fidel Castro and his comrades suffered a number of causalities. But they regrouped. And they were to enjoy victory sooner rather than later.
“Five days later, a platoon of paratroopers marching at the head of a column of 300 men fell into an ambush we had planned to the last detail. Our fire inflicted about five causalities and we captured a Garand semi automatic rifle with all its rounds”.
The Cuban Revolution was fully and truly underway.
Victories like the one above were to follow one after another and two years later, Cuban freedom fighters brought down the Batista army leading to Castro and his men forming a Government which began to transform the Cuban economy for the good of everyone.
One of the greatest achievements of the Cuban revolution was in the health sector. Today Cuba is proud to have the best health sector in the world.
Pound-for-pound Cuba has the largest number of doctors per capita in the world.
And these have been exported to Third World countries like Zimbabwe to help the people there.
One of the continents to benefit immediately from the Cuban Revolution is Africa.
When Cuba won its independence in 1959, most of Africa was still under colonial rule. And so most African liberation movements turned to Cuba to learn how to fight for liberation using the guerilla tactics Cuban-style as well as getting training and military assistance from that Caribbean nation.
The best known case where Cuba assisted an African country is Angola. The great help that Cuba gave to Angola not only helped Angola itself, but also helped to bring about the demise of apartheid and the freeing of Southern Africa from that diabolic monster.
Castro tells us the story:
“In 1965, our collaboration with the independence movement in Angola began to take clear shape. In this case our aid consisted essentially of training troops and sending in instructors and material aid. When it came to Angola, the imperialist Government had a covert plan.
It was to turn Angola into a condominium of corrupt Mobutu and South Africa fascism. And so the imperialists urged South Africa and Zaire (DRC) to invade Angola. The invasion by South Africa happened twice.
First in 1975. During that year, armoured columns of South African troops crossed the Southern border of the country and advanced quickly into the heart of the country.
The objective was for the racist South African forces coming from the South to meet up with Mobutu’s mercenaries from the North and occupy Luanda before Angola proclaimed its independence which was scheduled for November 11 1975. This posed a big challenge.
We accepted the above challenge without a moment’s hesitation and sent troops to Angola.
All fully armed and equipped for combat. They were quickly sent in by air and sea to fight against the apartheid regime’s invasion.
The operation was a success.
By late November 1975, the enemy aggression had been halted in both the North and South.
During that encounter, the apartheid forces faced 36 000 Cuban soldiers with complete tank units, a great deal of regular and anti-aircraft artillery, armoured infantry units up to brigade level.
Our forces launched a fierce offensive right up to the borders of the powerful apartheid nation.
Our troops forced them to retreat over 1 000 kilometres. We forced Mobutu to pull his relatively weak army back.
On March 27 1976, the last South African soldier was pulled out of Angolan territory. Victory was ours.”
This was the first time that apartheid forces tasted defeat. But they were not finished.
And so they came back again into Angola in 1987. This time was to result in the biggest land battle in the annals of Southern African history.
The battle of Cuito Canavale. Cuito Canavale is in Southern Angola. The South Africa apartheid forces invaded Angola from the South and advanced towards Cuito Canavale with the aim of ‘preparing to launch a mortal blow on Angola’.
The Angolans asked for help from the Cubans once more. The Cubans obliged. Fidel Castro again tells us the interesting story:
“We decided to pull together troops and material for handing a definitive defeat to the South African forces. And so there we sent 55 000 Cuban soldiers to be joined by 30 000 Angolan troops and 3 000 SWAPO fighters. These were backed by 600 tanks, hundreds of artillery pieces,
1 000 anti-aircraft weapons and the daring Mig 23 air units that took over the skies.
They were commanded by one Leopoldo Cintas Friais, a veteran from the Cuban Revolution.”
These forces swept away the South African forces by means of many hard hits which were not expected. The Apartheid forces suffered a very heavy defeat.
“The enemy had to swallow its arrogant bullying and sit at the negotiating table.”
This spelt the end of apartheid and the freeing of the people of South Africa and the region.
From a Zimbabwean perspective Cuba contributed a lot to us after our independence. Many of our students were trained in their Universities in Maths and Science.
Many Cuban doctors came here to help improve our health delivery system. The Cubans also helped us to set up the Bindura University of Science Education.
Rest in peace Fidel Castro!