Cuba : The story of an uncommon struggle (1)

This is then the story of Cuba–the Latin American island country of slightly over eleven million people with a unique revolutionary history. I shall tell this story outside of the text-book; away from the known Western, especially American propaganda and a previous Eastern European (Soviet Union) perspective. I shall tell it from a lived experience […]

This is then the story of Cuba–the Latin American island country of slightly over eleven million people with a unique revolutionary history. I shall tell this story outside of the text-book; away from the known Western, especially American propaganda and a previous Eastern European (Soviet Union) perspective. I shall tell it from a lived experience of an unforgettable fortnight, which confirms to me, once again, that the best teacher, the best form of education, is, simply travels. I shall try to break down common myths, trodden paths and contrived narratives of the Cuban revolution and lay bare hidden truths, contrived images of this most abused, most assailed but thriving nation, with a huge lesson to teach the world. The story of Cuba is a very long and tortuous one, dating back to 1492, when Christopher Columbus, the same one that was said to have navigated through and opened up many parts of the world, brought his ships, travelling for forty days along the North Eastern coast of the Cuban island, and ‘discovered’, what we also confirmed on our arrival, the serenity of the landscape, the peace of nature and its people, the disarming picturesque beauty and aesthetic delight of the topography, the warmth and alluring friendship of the land and its people.

This is how Rose Ana Berber, who translated the short book on the history of Cuba put Columbus’ instant impression of the island; ‘He observed not only the enchantment of its lush flora and fauna but also the presence of peaceful, naïve inhabitants who offered him cotton, thread and small pieces of gold in exchange for trinkets.’ Hm! Remember the arrival of the British on our shores, and the uncritical hospitality we showered on them; what the Ghanaian leading novelist, Ayi Kwei Armah, described in his novel, Two Thousand Seasons, as the ‘idiotic generosity’ of our forefathers to our eventual colonizers? That was the beginning of a tortuous, tortured history but historic journey of the Cuban people, wading through three eventful periods of colonialism, neocolonialism and revolution. But that is not the story I wish to tell.

Anyone going to Cuba is usually asked to “greet the old war horse”. Everybody who has heard anything about Cuba knows who is being referred to; Fidel Castro, whom the whole world knows as the hero of the Cuban Revolution. Of course, he is the hero of the revolution, but as he himself is usually the first to acknowledge and plant on the minds of all Cubans, he is not the spirit of the Cuban struggle. He is only the living legend among the ‘mythic insurgents’ that gave name, purpose, vision and meaning to the protracted struggle of the Cubans. Jose Marti is the hero of the Cuban Independence, who provided the philosophy and ideals for the Cuban struggle and led the war of independence in 1895; a war in which he perished at its very beginning but which marked the turning point in the history of Cuba. No Republic was established. After a period of neocolonialism during which America took reins of control over Cuba, the revolution proper began. This was led by Fidel Castro, who refused to take all the glory for its accomplishment.  He shared this with the practical revolutionist from Argentina, Che Guevara, his own brother, Rauf Castro ( who many, without the hindsight of historical facts, thought of as ascending the Presidency on  grounds of nepotism, being Fidel’s brother, without recognizing that he had been at the battle-field as war commander, and in the trenches for nearly as long as his brother, Fidel Castro.

It was, I must confess, part of my secret side ambitions, to at least, shake the hand of the Commander-in-Chief, Fidel Castro, and at the very best chat with him! By the time we arrived at Chateau Miramar hotel, where we were to reside, it had dawned on me that that ambition would not be realized. Indeed, it was not necessary to pursue the ambition of engaging Fidel Castro in a chat. You could literally embrace him in the streets, on the air, in the wind that graced your chin in Havana. His legendary presence was everywhere. He is in the fire that raged in the belly of almost all Cuban citizens—from the grizzled old Professor, the army General that received us at the airport and his peers, to the young students in the youth wing of the Communist Party who ran you through the history of the revolution, with uncommon knowledge and passionate lyrical rhetoric. Yes, Fidel Castro, simply Commander-in-Chief, is omnipresent, even long after his brother, Rauf, had been elected President and Commander of the army, and is the living spirit of the on-going revolution. It is pointless trying to book a date with him, as you are with him, in every vicarious sense of the world. I am told the last and only world leader that has seen him recently, at his writing desk where he pores on the future of the revolution, was Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. We were also told that, from that meeting, Chief Obasanjo squeezed a promise from him, which resulted in the training of one hundred medical doctors for Nigeria, free of charge, in the unique, Latin American College of Medical Sciences, Havana.

Another reason why you may not see him is the very nature of the man, described by Ignacio Ramonet, a man who had had the longest interview time with him in life, resulting in an over one hundred hours of discussion and an eight hundred page book titled, In Conversation with Fidel. Ramonet described Fidel as polite, well-brought but shy personage. He also confirmed that he rarely grants interviews; ‘ he ‘has given very few interviews in his lifetime. And there have been only four long conversations with him published in the past fifty years. This is in spite of the fact that dozens of books, articles and reports’ have been written about him. So, there was not the slightest chance of a chat with him, and, there was no absolute need for one. The words, beliefs, ideas, instructions, philosophies and actions of this ‘soldier monk’ are everywhere in Cuba.