By Ian Dunt
Inconvenient
figures have been whitewashed from the coverage of Nelson Mandela's
death.
The
photo pull-out sections show the South African leader with Bill Clinton, with
Princess Diana and Naomi Campbell and the Spice Girls. But his close friendship
with Fidel
Castro and the two men's habit of calling each other 'brother' is written
out of history.
At
his memorial service today, the presence of figures like Cuban leader (and
Fidel's brother) Raul Castro is treated as an example of Mandela's ability to
straddle political and ideological divides. After all, something has to explain
the presence of these evil figures at a service for a saint.
But
Castro is not being given pride of place as a sign of Mandela's ability to
straddle divides. He is given pride of place because black South Africans,
unlike Brits or Americans, recognise Cuba's proud role in the end of apartheid.
While
Britain was supplying arms and military equipment to the apartheid regime, Cuba
was sending its men to fight it, securing key military victories and crippling
its room for manoeuvre.
For
decades, Cuba supported the armed struggle liberation movements in South
Africa, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Mozambique. In 1961, when Che
Guevara attended a summit in Geneva as industry minister, he attacked "the
inhuman and fascist policy of apartheid" and demanded the expulsion of
South Africa from the UN, all decades before Britain could bring itself to
challenge the racist government.
The
climax of the decades-long campaign came when Cuba supported liberation forces
in Angola against South African interference. In the 1988 battle of Cuito Cuanvale,
a victory celebrated across southern Africa, South African soldiers were
defeated a volunteer Cuban army , dragging PW Botha and FW de Klerk to the
negotiating table.
Mandela
described Cuba as "our friend", a country which "helped us train
our people, who gave us resources that helped us so much in our struggle".
He added: "The defeat of the racist army at Cuito Cuanavale has made it
possible for me to be here today. What other country can point to a record of
greater selflessness than Cuba has displayed in its relations with Africa? For
the Cuban people internationalism is not merely a word but something that we
have seen practiced to the benefit of large sections of humankind."
When
challenged on his friendship with Castro by Clinton, Mandela replied: "We
should not abandon those who helped us in the darkest hour in the history of
this country."
What
does it mean? Does it mean that the gay people and political campaigners
imprisoned in Cuban jails are any more free? No. Does it make it any less sickening
that the Cuban regime treats freedom of speech as an aberration against single
party rule? No. Does it protect Cubans from impoverishment in the name of
dogma? It does not.
But
it speaks to a far more complex and nuance reality than that tolerated by the
mainstream media.
While
Margaret
Thatcher was branding Mandela a terrorist and selling arms to the apartheid
regime, Communist Cuba took up arms against it. While Britain was
strutting the world stage, throwing around high-minded accusations about human
rights, Cuban volunteers were dying in Angola fighting the racist regime.
For
all the endless hours of coverage about Mandela in the last few days, a typical
reader would have no idea about the role Cuba played in the overthrow of
apartheid. The media refuses to look at history independently. It is still
guided by government-mandated assessments of good guys and bad guys. Cuba are
bad guys, so they could not possibly have done anything good.
The
public are fed a sanitised and self-serving view of history. It's small wonder
Britain's moral posturing on the world stage contrasts so disappointingly with
its moral failures.
Source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com
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