African independence movements realized that their fight was out of national boundaries. Imperialism: the common enemy. Since the triumph of the Revolution, Cuba puts his humanism based on the future of their brethren across the Atlantic
2010 is a special year for Africa as it marks the fiftieth anniversary of the process of decolonization. Although between 1952 and 1956 Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco gained independence, and since 1954 the Algerians fought against the French metropolis, 1960 was recognized by the UN as the Year of the decolonization of Africa, because from then inflated with much more strength of nationalist movements.
Amidst the tense Cold War, a total of 17 of the 54 countries of the continent became independent this year. Back began to be the shameful colonial past, which began with the Berlin Conference, held in Berlin between November 1884 and February 1885, when the imperialist powers defined their zones of influence and shared this great region, so rich in natural and human resources.
However, since arriving in the land, the white settler found a resilient people who fought for not bowing to the yoke, as, for example, Algeria, Sierra Leone, Western Sudan, South Africa and Tanganyika, etc. .
With the weakening of the colonial system after World War II, the relation of socialism in the former USSR, and increasing plundering of natural resources, African independence movements began to gain in organization. Thus, the first countries that became independent were the North, and did so between 1952 and 1956: Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco. In 1954 began the Algerian revolution, one of the most violent processes of emancipation on the continent, which broke a powerful France.
was not until 1957 that a sub-Saharan African country, Ghana achieved its independence, becoming the voice of African nationalism. Also in 1958, the Guinean Democratic Party of Sekou Toure, refused to join the French Community, a sort of autonomy proposed by Paris to its colonies, and declared the independence of Guinea.
The idea of \u200b\u200bliberation began to erupt throughout the region like wildfire, and Since 1960, Belgian Congo (DRC), Cameroon, Togo, Mali, Senegal, Madagascar, Somalia, Dahomey (Benin), Niger, Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), Ivory Coast, Chad, Central African Republic, Congo- Brazzaville (Congo), Gabon, Nigeria and Mauritania broke their chains with the metropolis.
The reluctant opposition from colonial authorities to the idea of \u200b\u200bfreedom only response was to the rebellion of nationalist movements, so that some powers preferred to yield to the orders of their colonial enclaves because of cleverly calculated, which thus maintain some political and economic influence on the new states.
But in countries where political negotiations did not work, the solution was the armed struggle, as in the case of the Portuguese colonies Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and Mozambique, which became independent between 1974 and 1975, after several years of violent war.
Much of the success of African exploits due to the emergence of leaders who provided their movements of a political and moral authority, they won the support of the masses. Among them should be reminded of Abner Gamal Nasser (Egypt), Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Sekou Toure (Guinea) Amilcar Cabral (Guinea Bissau), Patrice Lumumba (Congo Belgium) and Julius K. Nyerere (Tanzania).
The Bandung Conference, held in 1955, was a great impetus to the process of decolonization. At that meeting the participants of Asian and African states sought to promote economic cooperation between both continents, as well as support to other nations that fought against colonialism and neocolonialism in the former colonial powers and the United States-a nation but had no colonial enclaves in Africa, always opposed to the emancipation of the continent and supported the creation of puppet government, like that of Zaire. At the conference there was also a unanimous condemnation of the racist system of apartheid.
The continent's anti-imperialist leaders quickly realized that the struggle did not end with independence within the borders. Lumumba himself was convinced that the liberation of Congo marked "a decisive step towards the liberation of the entire African continent."
There was also a belief in the need to carry out a social revolution and promote the unity of all African states. Once the nation became independent, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, one of the leading exponents of this line of thought, was raised among the most urgent needs for the abolition of poverty, illiteracy and improving the health system, including other social ills that have historically plagued Africa and other developing countries. And went much further when he posed as the only way to fulfill the commitment made to the people, the implementation of the socialist experience, because the public ownership of the means of production and control over land and resources, would oversee income and put them in terms of meeting the needs of its people, recognized.
Meanwhile, Guinea's Ahmed Sekou Toure was clear from the nature of their movement when he established the interdependence between dignity and freedom. On the basis of a revolution that radiate across the continent, this leader offered his rear to the guerrilla movement in Guinea Bissau.
In the capital, Conakry, Amilcar Cabral and other senior leaders of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC)-strong independence movement in the Portuguese colonies and one of the most able to ensure national unity political structures and establish liberated zones ", they found what might be his headquarters. It was precisely in this city where Cabral met with Che, and established their first link with the Cuban Revolution that guaranteed the beginning of the help of the Mayor West Indies to contest the PAIGC.
This movement had started armed struggle in 1963 after three years of hard political work of the country, and two years later controlled the third of Guinea Bissau, representing a sharp challenge to the 20 000 Portuguese soldiers. Amilcar Cabral, was a great captain of war, which not only earned him the respect of the pro-independence, but also the strength of the metropolis.
As African nations were gaining independence states emerged as a voice in various international and multilateral forums, where they have patented their anti-colonialism and its condemnation of Western interference in the internal affairs of developing countries.
The helping hand of Cuba
Although Cuba did not participate in these processes of emancipation, from the early days of the Revolution gave political support to any country on the continent to fight for independence or for the conservation of this.
Mayor's voice boomed from the West Indies in the Non-Aligned Summit, the UN and other international forums to condemn colonialism and apartheid regime in South Africa and his desire hegemonic in the southern region of the continent, especially in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Namibia.
Despite the pressures and economic siege, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States since 1959, our country has not abandoned Africa. Since 1960 began arriving in the Island Fellows of the Republic of Guinea, to study at university or technical institutes, at no expense to them. Then arrived the Congo Brazzaville (now Congo) and Mali.
In late 1961, Cuba sent its first military aid to Africa. From the port of Havana, the ship sailed Nipe Bay, with some 1 500 rifles, more than 30 machine guns, four mortars, and other fixtures of war, for the National Liberation Front of Algeria, at no cost.
One year after Fidel himself, inaugurated the Institute of Basic Sciences and the Victoria de Girón, which would form the new health professionals in a social and human conception of medicine she needed Cuba, called for providing medical aid to free Algeria from French colonialism. Most of its doctors were French and had migrated to Europe after independence. On May 23, 1963, the first contingent of 55 health professionals, comprised of 29 physicians, three dentists, 15 nurses, eight technicians, came to this country from North Africa, where they took their places in six cities including the capital, Algiers.
In that year, Morocco tried to take over areas of the newly liberated nation, supported by U.S. elusive, which provided arms and dollars to King Hassan, with the aim of making the monarchy Allawi in a fort against the Algerian revolution and President Ben Bella whose thinking was progressive and full Assembly for the establishment of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) electrified the audience in Addis Ababa with his call for the liberation struggles around the continent. Moroccan threat to Cuba did not hesitate to send military aid consists primarily of tanks, antiaircraft and soldiers. Here, too, received military training of Party members Zanzibar Nationalist who participated in the revolution in that country.
Also, after the assassination of Prime Minister of the Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of Congo), Patrice Lumumba, on the orders of the CIA and the U.S. government, a small group of Cuban fighters, led by Che, came to this country Central Africa, with the goal of educating and strengthening the liberation movement and achieve a united front against the trio Kasavubu-Tshombe, Mobutu. The idea of \u200b\u200bthe heroic guerrilla was not only launched a struggle within the Congolese borders, but spread the flame of liberation to the whole continent, waging a war "against the master common everywhere, in Mozambique, as in Malawi, Rhodesia, South Africa, Congo and Angola. "
The African Party for Independence of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), ranked the strongest guerrilla movement of the Portuguese colonies, was also the hand of solidarity to Cuba. The link of this movement to the island came through the encounter of Che with Amilcar Cabral, leader of the group in January 1965 in Guinea, which formed the rear guard for the revolution. Later
Cabral met with Fidel in Havana, which was ratified the commitment of our country with the PAIGC. Cape Verdean students came to study in Cuba, and we send artillery and medical specialists. Our men were the only foreigners who fought alongside the PAIGC.
The rapid response of Cuba and Angola win in that sister nation prevented from falling into the hands of a puppet of imperialism and apartheid, led by the FNLA and UNITA. But the dirty and undeclared war against the government of Agostinho Neto internationalist forces prevented the return home, so that delayed his return to preserve the territorial integrity of Angola to the attacks from outside, and give instruction to the FAPLA.
In that war are still alive the painful memories of the atrocities and massacres racist by the troops. What in the morning of February 4, 1978 was a community of more than 3 068 people, was in ashes and rubble after the indiscriminate bombing of the forces of Pretoria on the Namibian refugee camp in Cassinga. Almost half of the 600 children who were there were killed by shrapnel and bayonets.
Cuban soldiers, stationed in Chamutete (15 miles south), braved minefields and the powerful South African aviation, to approach the camp, whereupon the racists decided to withdraw. So our troops were able to save the lives of many wounded. Most of the surviving infants were brought to Cuba to study at a school for SWAPO, which was founded on the Isle of Youth.
The battle of Cuito (15 November 1987 - March 23, 1988), planned by Fidel from Havana, turned over to the history of Africa as it dismantled the power of the white dictatorship in the southern region. The forces of apartheid had to abandon the Angolan territory, allowing the final release and the enjoyment of peace, and promoted the independence of Namibia and the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa.
unconditionally
The Cuban military presence in Africa was accompanied by technical assistance programs. Miles of our internationalists, mainly doctors, teachers and technicians and building engineers have served in nations such as Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Burkina Faso and Benin, among others. Our doctors came to the Saharawi refugee camps in Tindouf (southwestern Algeria).
Throughout the history of Cuba's cooperation in Africa has been based on seeking peace and prosperity, and nonprofit and detached from any political and ideological conditioning. Priority areas include the comprehensive health care in primary and secondary care technical, human resources training, development of health programs and management of medicines.
The Mayor of the West Indies is one of the States has shown greater sensitivity in the struggle for Africa to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. These objectives include achieving universal primary education, reducing child mortality under five years, improving maternal health and combating HIV / AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
According to some reports contained on the website of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, until this year counted 252 South African doctors who graduated in Cuba. Also today, 433 Angolans studying here and for the next school year is expected to provide 190 scholarships of various specialties, a hundred of them for Medical Sciences and 40 for teaching careers.
since 1961 and to date we have trained 8 148 young people in this State, 1 833 top level.
regard to education, Guinea Bissau plans to eliminate illiteracy, which affects more than half of the 1.5 million inhabitants, in 2015, with the implementation of the Cuban "Yes, I can 'works in three regions of the country with an enrollment of 1 646 and 1 943 cumulative literate.
In Mali, the construction of Ernesto Che Guevara Eye Center, which began in 2008 is almost 97 percent of its execution. From September 2009 to date have been diagnosed more than 12 000 patients, of which 3000 require surgical treatment for the disease suffer from cataract.
are just some examples from the Cuban love today has its roots in every corner of the African soil.
The celebration of the XVII World Festival of Youth and Students in South Africa later this year will be a boost to Africa now seeks to consolidate its independence ... and a true appreciation for the small island that continues to bet on welfare of their brethren across the Atlantic.
