Media News

A Pan-African Tribute to Fidel Castro will also be held at the Trane Studio,964 Bathurst St., Toronto, Canada 416.913.8197, Monday, May 26th at 7pm.Afrikans at home and abroad will honour Castro and the people of Cuba for their many sacrifices on behalf of Afrika.

In the April edition of the London based New African magazine, editor Baffour Ankomah wrote: “In the 1970s and 1980s, Fidel Castro sent 350,000 Cuban soldiers, civilians and doctors to support the African liberation struggle, especially in Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, and Sao Tome & Principe… A good 2,077 Cubans died fighting in Africa.”

John Woodford, former editor of the Muhammad Speaks newspaper supports the idea. Says Woodford, “Sign me on as a supporter for the Afro-American tribute to Fidel Castro. I remember when he came to Harvard's campus in 1959-60, my freshman year. Later, though I missed chance to go on Venceremos Brigade, I knew many who did and we wrote up the Brigade favorably in Muhammad Speaks more than once.”

Elombe Brath, Professor Ron Wilkins, Kali Akuno, and Abayomi Azikiwe have endorsed the idea. Brath and Wilkins represent the Patrice Lumumba Coalition in New York City and Los Angeles respectively Akuno is with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan African News Wire.

This writer joins the trio in calling on Afrikans in the West to heed Ankomah’s call by screening the BBC‘s film "Cuba! Africa! Revolution!" on Sunday, May 25th the 45th anniversary of Afrikan Liberation Day.

Ankomah also suggests that people study Castro’s life. “Interestingly, in his memoirs, Castro talks about Cuba’s love affair with Africa with such gusto and passion that you might think it happened only yesterday.” Titled “My Life, Fidel Castro” ... Every African must get a copy!”

Norman 'Otis' Richmond can be contacted norman@ckln.fm

416 979-5251 ext 2372

Jihan El Tahri’s 2007 documentary “CUBA! AFRICA! REVOLUTION!” (aka “Cuba, an African Odyssey”) tells the previously untold story of Cuba’s support for African revolutions. This documentary unravels the story of the so-called Cold War, through the prism of its least known arena: Africa. Against colonialism, capitalism, and communism, the newly independent nations attempted for the first time to gain real control of their own countries. From Che Guevara's military campaign to avenge Lumumba in the Congo, up to the fall of apartheid in South Africa, 300,000 Cubans fought alongside African revolutionaries.

Patrice Lumumba was an African anti-colonial leader, and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, after he assisted it achieve independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup. He was subsequently imprisoned and assassinated. President Colonel Mobutu, the key figure in the coup, supported by the Congo's former colonial power, Belgium, and the CIA, became the Congo's ruler. Cuba shared Africa's revolutionary quest for independence.

Fidel Castro decided that Cuba could not stand idly by, so he sent Che Guevara to Africa to assess how they could aid local liberation movements. In 1965, Guevara went to the Congo in an attempt to spark a revolution against the pro-Western regime, which had emerged after the assassination of Lumumba. The problem was, Guevara was without formal military training, and was up against the Congolese, who were aided by US Army Special Forces. So he returned to Cuba and recruited 120 soldiers, taking them back to the Congo. Still, Guevara's army was no match, and they eventually withdrew in August, 1965.

From the tragicomic epic of Che Guevara in Congo, to the triumph at the battle of Cuito Carnavale in Angola, Cuba: An African Odyssey attempts to understand the world today through the saga of these internationalists who won every battle, but finally lost the war.

Director: Jihan El-Tahri
Coproduction with Arte, BBC, VPRO and SBS this docu was originally named Cuba an African Odyssey, but was renamed by BBC's Storyville into :Cuba! Africa! Revolution!