Cuba, uncommon story: uncommon struggle III

True, there is no questioning the fact that Fidel Castro is the builder and constructor of modern Cuba, but as he himself is the first to demonstrate, he came to inherit and build on a legacy of transformation that began since over six decades before he came into leadership from about 1953, when he led […]

True, there is no questioning the fact that Fidel Castro is the builder and constructor of modern Cuba, but as he himself is the first to demonstrate, he came to inherit and build on a legacy of transformation that began since over six decades before he came into leadership from about 1953, when he led series of assaults and attacks on the Batista’s regime garrisons at Moncada  in Santiago de Cuba and the Carlos Manuel Cespedes—actions which failed initially, with numerous lives lost and Fidel himself imprisoned. The famous trial speech, History Will Absorb Me, which became the revolution’s dictum, was his self-defense speech. The point to be made here is that Fidel Castro built on Jose Marti’s philosophy and Marxist revolutionary dialectics in fashioning the programme of social transformation of the new Cuba. As I said earlier, history was a significant instrument in the hands of the builders of Cuba—as exemplified in the life of Fidel Castro himself. He acknowledged his inspiration by past leaders and theories. At the most difficult moments in the history of the struggle, history was his handmaiden—the thesis of Vo Nguyen Giap, the Vietnamese General, of Ho Chi Minh the Vietnamese Revolutionary and one of the greatest revolutionary leaders of the 20th century; of Mao Zedong, Chinese political leader and revolutionary who participated in the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. Even Ernesto Che Guevara, whom he literally trained in guerrilla warfare and co-opted into the Cuban struggle.  All of these histories, and the philosophy of freedom struggle, laid down by Jose Marti, became part of the political education of Cubans of all generations as codified and concretized in Fidel’s moulding  and the building of the Communist Party ( Partido Communista de-Cuba.)

The history of the struggle and the heroes who oiled and inspired it is found all over Cuba—in books, monuments and museums. It is found in the songs, voices and sounds of man and nature all over Cuba. It is the key source of nationalism, patriotism and national consciousness of most Cubans. Its living legend, of course, is Fidel Castro himself. As you move from city to city, establishment to establishment, the name of Fidel is on the lips of every citizen. His mementos, souvenirs and images welcome you to every shop, every institution. We had direct feel and grasp of this unsurpassed passion of the people for their country and its symbol. “We love Fidel is on the smiling and contented lips of most Cuban citizens. We went to a pharmaceutical shop to pick some items, and one us, curious of a lady pharmacist’s joyful devotion to work and her warmth to us, asked if she would like to come to Nigeria. Her simple answer, offered with a soft smile, was simply, “I love Fidel”.  A young lady of about seventeen, displaying artifacts along a beautiful beach who was inquisitive to know where we came from also replied our invitation to come to Africa in those same simple words: ‘I love Fidel’. The love of country, which most Cuban citizens guard with passionate jealousy from a formidable enemy across the shores, is expressed in the intimate affection for one man—Fidel.

This is the foundation of the success of the Cuban society and revolution. But there are, of course, supporting ingredients to this passion for nation and its heroes. A strong, united and cohesive nation has been built on socialist democracy which transcends racial, ethnic and class boundaries. It is a political system which derives its legitimacy, since 1976, when its reformed constitution came into being, from majority participation and collectivism. It is a legitimized governance running through all cadres, all sectors and generations of the society—the municipal, the provincial and the National Assemblies—through democracy and concession. Let me elaborate a bit here. To the outside world, products of western propaganda machine, Cuba is a dictatorship, whose people are coerced into silence and fear through the iron rule of one man. The crucial factors that can destabilize any nation are also found in Cuba. Issues of race, ethnicity and poverty—all potentially exist in the country. It is a multi-racial country of whites, blacks and mulattoes. There are sprinkles of Jews and Europeans also. We are all familiar with, from our lived experiences in Nigeria, the negative potentials inherent in  multi-ethnic and multi-religious polities.

No doubt, the possibility of racial domination is palpable in a country where 65 percent of the population are Spaniards and only 23 percent and 10 percent are Mulattoes (Mestizos) and blacks respectively. As a result of conscious and deliberate actions of the one-party government with a strong political will for national integration and founded on the political philosophy of the revolutionary leaders of the Communist Party, race, colour, tribe and religion were relegated to the background in pursuit of a united and integrated nation. As we noted earlier, the state which controls the productive and distributive forces of the nation on behalf of the people, has invested heavily on free education, free health-care, free housing, full employment-drive and other necessities of livelihood. It pursues, with palpable tenacity, the building of a classless society in which only the nation and its aspirations count. No doubt, as a result of unequal development of the pro-revolutionary, despotic capitalism, minority races like the blacks and mullatoes were disadvantaged economically and socially. But through the actions of an envisioned governance, founded on committed political and charismatic leadership, with an uncommon guts, diversity has been extensively discountenanced and relegated in favour of a unified, patriotic and strong nation—externally threatened by a formidable foe. Cuba has evolved as one of the most racially integrated countries in the world. In order to forestall division among the people, which was the wish of the enemy, Castro insisted on education to ‘destroy the prejudices of centuries, the prejudices handed down (to the nation) from such an odious institution as slavery’

Today, Cuba has gone past the very worst in its history—its racial, political and security challenges; the challenges of an embargoed society from global economies ensured by the United States. Today, twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and socialism in the East—economies upon which the nation was almost totally dependent– Cuba has made startling break-throughs, expected only from among the so-called First worlds. She has broken down the barriers erected on her path of growth, through an incredible capacity for resistance, deployment of enviable mental strength and human resourcefulness. It has emerged as one of the safest, most secure and least criminalized nations in the world. It has thrived as about the most literate, most educated and most healthy country of the world. She has built bridges of development and friendship across the world through strengthening of ties with over ninety per cent of the 192 member-nations of the United Nations.

Above all, Cuba is a non-complacent but contented nation, based on its history of externally-imposed insecurity. First, Cuba knows that her economy is over-restrictive and does not make for competitiveness in a globalizing world. Her Congress has recently, through referenda, embarked on massive economic reforms which will encourage greater infrastructure, greater liberalization and openness to market economy without doing damage to its fundamental political philosophy and ideology of a society shunned of class antagonism and unstructured development.  Cuba is the society of the future from whom great lessons of development can be learnt—lessons on the truism that no force can break a nation whose cause is just, whose determination and will to survive is gritty.

Well, this is the end of the tip of the ice-berg of my story of the Cuban struggle.

concluded