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Umsebenzi Online, Volume 14, No. 46, 11 November 2015
In this issue:
* Paying the Debt to Africa: On the 40th Anniversary of Cuba's Operación
Carlota
Red Alert:
Paying the Debt to Africa:
On the 40th Anniversary of Cuba's Operación Carlota
“Cuba’s internationalist missions in Africa are a profound challenge to those
who argue that relations among the world's nations and peoples are – and can
only be – determined by self-interest, and the pursuit of power and wealth.
Cuba provides the example that it is possible to build relations based on
genuine solidarity and social love…”:
http://www.sacp.org.za/pubs/umsebenzi/images/umsebenzi_hand.gif
BY ISAAC SANEY
“The Cuban people hold a special place in the hearts of the peoples of Africa.
The Cuban internationalists have made a contribution to African independence,
freedom and justice, unparalleled for its principled and selfless
character...Cubans came to our region as doctors, teachers, soldiers,
agricultural experts, but never as colonizers. They have shared the same
trenches with us in the struggle against colonialism, underdevelopment, and
apartheid.” Nelson Mandela
The 5th of November 2015 marked the 40th Anniversary of Operación Carlota,
Cuba’s 15-year mission to defend Angola’s independence, which played a decisive
role in Southern African national and anti-colonial liberation struggles.
Cuba’s extensive and decisive role in the struggle against the apartheid regime
in South Africa is marginalised in the dominant Western discourse and
narratives. Cuba’s critical contribution is not only, frequently ignored, it is
treated almost as if it had never occurred. However, the overarching
significance of Cuba’s role cannot be erased.
Havana initiated Operación Carlota on 5 November 1975, in response to a direct
and urgent request from the government of Angola. Having just achieved
independence after a long and brutal anti-colonial struggle, Angola confronted
an invasion by racist South Africa. Apartheid South Africa was determined to
destroy the Black government of the newly independent Angola. Operación
Carlota was decisive in not only stopping the South African drive to Luanda
(the capital) but also in pushing the South Africans out of Angola. The defeat
of the South African forces was a major development in the Southern African
anti-colonial and national liberation struggle. At the time, The World, a
Black South African newspaper, underscored the significance: "Black Africa is
riding the crest of a wave generated by the Cuban success in Angola. Black
Africa is tasting the heady wine of the possibility of realising the dream of
"total liberation."
Named after the leader of a revolt against slavery that took place in Cuba on 5
November 1843, Operación Carlota lasted more than 15-years. During that time,
more than 330 000 Cubans served in Angola. More than 2 000 Cubans died
defending Angolan independence and the freedom and right of self-determination
of the peoples of Southern Africa.
Africa’s Children Return!
Cuba’s solidarity with Angola was not simply one country coming to the aid of
another, but a part of the African diaspora – the Black world – rising to the
defence of Africa. Since the triumph of Cuban Revolution on 1 January 1959,
Cuba has engaged in ongoing solidarity with the peoples and the continent of
Africa. In tribute to Cuba's assistance to African liberation struggles,
Amilcar Cabral (celebrated leader of the anti-colonial and national liberation
struggle in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde) stated: "I don't believe in life
after death, but if there is, we can be sure that the souls of our forefathers
who were taken away to America to be slaves are rejoicing today to see their
children reunited and working together to help us be independent and free."
The Cuban Revolution’s involvement with Angola began in the 1960s when
relations were established with the Movement for the Popular Liberation of
Angola (MPLA). The MPLA was the principal organisation in the struggle to
liberate Angola from Portuguese colonialism. In 1975, the Portuguese withdrew
from Angola. However, in order to stop the MPLA from coming to power, the
United States of America (U.S.) government had already been funding various
groups, in particular the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA)
led by the notorious Jonas Savimbi. In October 1975, South Africa, with the
support of Washington, invaded Angola. On 5 November 1975, the Cuban
revolutionary leadership met to discuss the situation in Angola and the Angolan
government’s request for military assistance to repel the South African
invasion force. The decision to deploy combat troops thwarted apartheid South
Africa’s goal of turning Angola into its protectorate.
The Cuban leadership justified the military intervention as both defending an
independent country from foreign invasion and repaying a historical debt owed
by Cuba to Africa. Fidel Castro frequently invoked Cuba’s historical links to
Africa. On the 15th anniversary of the Cuban victory at Playa Girón (Bay of
Pigs), he declared that Cubans “are a Latin-African people.” Jorge Risquet,
Havana’s principal diplomat in Africa from the 1970s to 1990s, was also
unambiguous in explaining Cuba’s military intervention in terms of Cuba’s
obligations to Africa, and this linkage resonated especially with black Cubans,
who were able to make a symbolic connection with their African roots.
As scholar Terrence Cannon for many blacks fighting in Angola was akin to
defending Cuba except that the fight was “this time in Africa. And they were
aware that Africa was, in some sense, their homeland.” Reverend Abbuno Gonzalez
underscored this connection: “My grandfather came from Angola. So it is my duty
to go and help Angola. I owe it to my ancestors”. General Rafael Moracen echoed
this sentiment and the words of Amilcar Cabral: “When we arrived in Angola, I
heard an Angolan say that our grandparents, whose children were taken away from
Africa to be slaves, would be happy to see their grandchildren return to Africa
to help free it. I will always remember those words.”
Cuban involvement in Southern Africa has been repeatedly dismissed as surrogate
activity for the Soviet Union. This insidious myth has been unequivocally
refuted. John Stockwell, the director of U.S’ Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) operations in Angola during and in the immediate aftermath the 1975 South
African invasion, in his memoir, In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story, stated “we
learned that Cuba had not been ordered into action by the Soviet Union. To the
contrary, the Cuban leaders felt compelled to intervene for their own
ideological reasons.”
In his acclaimed book, Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington and Africa,
1959-76, Piero Gliejeses demonstrated that the Cuban government – as it had
repeatedly asserted – decided to dispatch combat troops to Angola only after
the Angolan government had requested Cuba’s military assistance to repel the
South Africans, refuting Washington’s assertion that South African forces
intervened in Angola only after the arrival of the Cuban forces and; the Soviet
Union had no role in Cuba’s decision and were not even informed prior to
deployment.
In short, Cuba was not the puppet of the USSR (Soviet Union). Even The
Economist magazine (no friend of Cuba) in a 2002 article, acknowledged that the
Cuban government acted on its “own initiative.”
That Cuba could act on its own initiative, independent of the will of the great
powers, was not only an anathema to Washington but also inconceivable. In 1969
Henry Kissinger, a National Security Advisor who then became U.S. Secretary of
State, unambiguously and un-categorically declared: "Nothing important can come
from the South. History has never been produced in the South. The axis of
history starts in Moscow, goes to Bonn, crosses over to Washington, and then
goes to Tokyo. What happens in the South is of no importance." That Cuba – a
poor "Third World" country, a Latin-African nation – could act on its own, and
through that independent action shape history, enraged Kissinger.
At his behest, a number of extensive military plans were drawn up by the
Pentagon in 1975 and 1976 to specifically punish the island for daring to defy
the imperial order, with its racist global hierarchy. These detailed plans
encompassed naval blockade to aerial bombardment to outright invasion. While
they were never carried out, these options were seriously discussed and debated
within the highest levels of the U.S. government, poignantly illustrating the
dangers that Cuba faced and accepted during its internationalist defence of
Angola.
Apartheid South Africa’s War of Terror
The survival of the racist South African state depended on establishing its
domination of all of Southern Africa. Towards this end, Pretoria had
militarised the South African state, fashioning it into the sword to defend the
racist system and wage a regional war of terror.
>From 1975 to 1988, the South African armed forces embarked on a campaign of
>massive destabilisation of the region. The war of destabilisation wrought a
>terrible toll. The financial and human cost can not only be measured in direct
>damage and deaths but also in the premature deaths and projected economic loss
>caused by destruction of infrastructure, agriculture and power networks.
>While, it is very difficult to estimate the economic cost and damage, it was
>undoubtedly enormous. One study calculates that up to 1988, the total economic
>cost for the Frontline States was calculated to be in excess of $US 45
>billion: for example, Angola: $US 22 billion; Mozambique: $US 12 billion;
>Zambia: $US 7 billion; Zimbabwe: $US 3 billion.
The human toll was immense. The South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation
Commission underscored that: “the number of people killed inside the borders of
the country in the course of the liberation struggle was considerably lower
than those who died outside…the majority of the victims of the South African
government’s attempts to maintain itself in power were outside South Africa.
Tens of thousands of people died as a direct or indirect result of the South
African government’s aggressive intent towards its neighbours. The lives and
livelihoods of hundreds of thousands others were disrupted by the systematic
targeting of infrastructure in some of the poorest nations in Africa.”
Between 1981 and 1988, an estimated 1.5 million people were (directly or
indirectly) killed, including 825 000 children. This was the result of Pretoria
sponsored insurgencies (namely, UNITA in Angola and Renamo in Mozambique) and
direct military actions by the South African armed forces. South Africa
launched numerous bombing raids, armed incursions and assassinations against
surrounding countries. One notorious example was the 4 May 1978 massacre in a
camp for Namibian refugees, located in the town of Kassinga, Southwestern
Angola, where a South African air and paratrooper attack killed hundreds of
people and, also, took hundreds of prisoners.
Perhaps, the late Julius Nyerere, summed up the situation best when in 1986, as
President of Tanzania, he observed: “When is war not war? Apparently when it is
waged by the stronger against the weaker as a pre-emptive strike.’ When is
terrorism not terrorism? Apparently when it is committed by a more powerful
government against those at home and abroad who are weaker than itself and whom
it regards as a potential threat or even as insufficiently supportive of its
own objectives. Those are the only conclusions one can draw in the light of the
current widespread condemnation of aggression and terrorism, side by side with
the ability of certain nations to attack others with impunity, and to organise
murder, kidnapping and massive destruction with the support of some permanent
members of the United Nations Security Council. [Apartheid] South Africa is
such a country.”
The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale
In 1987-1988, a decisive series of battles occurred around the South-eastern
Angolan town of Cuito Cuanavale. When it occurred, these battles were the
largest military engagements in Africa since the North African battles of the
Second World War. Arrayed on one side were the armed forces of Cuba, Angola and
the South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO), on the other, the South
African Defence Forces, military units of UNITA – (the South African proxy
organization) and the South African Territorial Forces of Namibia (then still
illegally occupied by Pretoria).
Cuito Cuanavale was a critical turning point in the struggle against apartheid.
From November 1987 to March 1988, the South African armed forces repeatedly
tried and failed to capture Cuito Cuanavale. In Southern Africa, the battle has
attained legendary status. It is considered THE debacle of apartheid: a defeat
of the South African armed forces that altered the balance of power in the
region and heralded the demise of racist rule in South Africa!
Cuito Cuanavale decisively thwarted Pretoria’s objective of establishing
regional hegemony (a strategy which was vital to defending and preserving
apartheid), directly led to the independence of Namibia and accelerated the
dismantling of apartheid. The battle is often referred to as the African
Stalingrad of apartheid. Cuba’s contribution was crucial as it provided the
essential reinforcements, material and planning.
In July 1987, the FAPLA, the Angolan armed forces, launched an offensive
against UNITA, the apartheid state’s surrogate. The Cubans objected to this
military operation because it would create the opportunity for a South African
invasion, which is what transpired. The South Africans invaded, stopped and
threw back the Angolan forces. After terrible human and material losses, the
Angolans were forced into a headlong retreat to the town and strategic military
base of Cuito Cuanavale.
As the fighting became centred on Cuito Cuanavale, the Angolan Armed forces
were placed in an extremely precarious situation, with its most elite
formations facing annihilation. Indeed, Angola faced an existential threat. If
Cuito Cuanavale fell to South Africa then the rest of the country would be at
the mercy of the invaders. Angolan General Antonio dos Santos underscored the
overarching significance of the town’s defence stating that if they [the
apartheid South African forces] won at Cuito Cuanavale, the road would be open
to the north of Angola.”
Determined to transform its initial military success into a fatal blow against
an independent Angola, Pretoria committed its best troops and most
sophisticated military hardware to the capture of Cuito Cuanavale. As the
situation of the besieged Angolan troops became critical, Havana was asked by
the Angolan government to intervene. On 15 November 1987 Cuba decided to
reinforce its forces by sending fresh detachments, arms and equipment,
including tanks, artillery, anti-aircraft weapons and aircraft. Eventually
Cuban troop strength would rise to more than 50 000. It must be emphasised that
for a small country such as Cuba the deployment of 50 000 troops would be the
equivalent of the U.S. deploying more than a million soldiers, or Canada more
than one hundred thousand.
The Cuban commitment was immense. Fidel Castro stated that the Cuban Revolution
had “put its own existence at stake, it risked a huge battle against one of the
strongest powers located in the area of the Third World, against one of the
richest powers, with significant industrial and technological development,
armed to the teeth, at such a great distance from our small country and with
our own resources, our own arms. We even ran the risk of weakening our
defences, and we did so. We used our ships and ours alone, and we used our
equipment to change the relationship of forces, which made success possible in
that battle. We put everything at stake in that action…”
The Cuban government viewed preventing the fall of Cuito Cuanavale as
imperative. A South African victory would have meant not only the capture of
the town and the destruction of the best Angolan military formations, but,
quite possibly, the end of Angola’s existence as an independent country. The
Cuban revolutionary leadership also decided to go further than the defence of
Cuito Cuanavale. They decided to deploy the necessary forces and employ a plan
that would both put an end once and for all to apartheid South Africa’s
aggression against Angola and deliver a decisive blow against the racist state.
The successful defence of Cuito Cuanavale would be the prelude to a grand and
far reaching strategy that would transform the balance of power in the region.
South Africa’s efforts to seize Cuito Cuanavale were stymied by the Cubans and
Angolans. With the South Africans preoccupied at Cuito Cuanavale, the Cubans
achieved a strategic coup by carrying-out an outflanking manoeuvre. To the west
of Cuito Cuanavale and along the Angolan/Namibian border, Havana deployed 40
000 Cuban troops, supported by 30 000 Angolan and 3 000 SWAPO troops. Pretoria
had become so focused on seizing Cuito Cuanavale that they had left themselves
exposed to a major military counterstroke.
The Cubans, together with Angolan and SWAPO forces advanced toward Namibia.
This advance exposed the insecurity and vulnerability of the South African
troops in northern Namibia. Such was this vulnerability that a senior South
African officer said, “Had the Cubans attacked [Namibia] they would have
over-run the place. We could not have stopped them.” This was further
compounded by South African debacles at the end of June 1988 at Calueque and
Tchipia, where the South Africans suffered serious defeats, which were
described by a South African newspaper as “a crushing humiliation.” Cuba also
achieved air supremacy. Facing the new powerful force assembled in southern
Angola and having lost control of the skies, the South Africans withdrew from
Angola.
This defeat on the ground forced South Africa to the negotiating table,
resulting in Namibian independence and dramatically hastening the end of
apartheid. The regional balance of power had been fundamentally transformed.
The respected scholar Victoria Brittan observed that Cuito Cuanavale became “a
symbol across the continent that apartheid and its army were no longer
invincible.” In a July 1991 speech delivered in Havana, Nelson Mandela
underscored Cuito Cuanavale’s and Cuba’s vital role:
“The Cuban people hold a special place in the hearts of the people of Africa.
The Cuban internationalists have made a contribution to African independence,
freedom and justice unparalleled for its principled and selfless character. We
in Africa are used to being victims of countries wanting to carve up our
territory or subvert our sovereignty. It is unparalleled in African history to
have another people rise to the defence of one of us. The defeat of the
apartheid army was an inspiration to the struggling people in South Africa!
Without the defeat of Cuito Cuanavale our organisations would not have been
unbanned! The defeat of the racist army at Cuito Cuanavale has made it possible
for me to be here today! Cuito Cuanavale was a milestone in the history of the
struggle for southern African liberation!”
In 1994, Mandela further declared:
“If today all South Africans enjoy the rights of democracy; if they are able at
last to address the grinding poverty of a system that denied them even the most
basic amenities of life, it is also because of Cuba’s selfless support for the
struggle to free all of South Africa’s people and the countries of our region
from the inhumane and destructive system of apartheid. For that, we thank the
Cuban people from the bottom of our heart.”
The 1987-88 military reversal in Angola constituted a mortal blow to the
apartheid regime. The battle of Cuito Cuanavale ended its dream (nightmare for
the region’s peoples) of establishing hegemony over all of Southern Africa as a
means by which to extend the life of the racist regime.
Paying Humanity’s Debt
As a direct witness and participant in Africa's anti-colonial and national
liberation struggles, the late Jorge Risquet always elaborated on the profound
ties that bound Cuba and Africa together. This unbreakable historic connection
formed the poignant base for the Cuban Revolution’s solidarity with Africa. In
a 2012 speech honouring the great Pan-Africanist, Kwame Nkrumah, Risquet
pointed out:
“This was the understanding with which Cuban fighters came to ancestral Africa
to fight side by side with the people against colonialism and the oppressive
apartheid regime. For 26 years, 381,000 Cuban soldiers and officers fought
alongside African populations — between April 24, 1965, when Ernesto Che
Guevara and his men crossed Lake Tanganyika, and May 25, 1991, when the
remaining 500 Cuban fighters returned home triumphant…Twenty-four hundred Cuban
internationalist fighters lost their lives on African soil. Today we no longer
send soldiers. Now, we send doctors, teachers, builders, specialists in various
fields.”
While circumstances may have changed, Cuba's solidarity with Africa continues.
Cuba made a critical contribution to the fight against the Ebola epidemic in
the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The Cuban
medical mission was by far the largest sent by any country. Standing
side-by-side with the peoples of West Africa, Cuban doctors and nurses went to
West Africa and joined the struggle against Ebola. As Jorge Lefebre Nicolas,
Cuba’s ambassador to Liberia, declared: “We cannot see our brothers from Africa
in difficult times and remain there with our arms folded.” At the 16 September
2014 meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Cuban representative
Abelardo Moreno declared: “Humanity has a debt to African people. We cannot let
them down.” Even the Wall Street Journal declared, “Few have heeded the call,
but one country has responded in strength: Cuba.”
Cuba is often described as the only foreign country to have gone to Africa and
gone away with nothing but the coffins of its sons and daughters who died in
the struggles to liberate Africa. Cuba’s role in Angola illustrates the
division between those who fight for the cause of freedom, liberation and
justice, to repel invaders and colonialists, and those who fight against just
causes, those who wage war to occupy, colonise and oppress.
The island’s internationalist missions in Africa are a profound challenge to
those who argue that relations among the world's nations and peoples are – and
can only be – determined by self-interest, and the pursuit of power and wealth.
Cuba provides the example that it is possible to build relations based on
genuine solidarity and social love: demonstrating the alternatives which permit
people to realize their deepest aspirations, and that another better world is
possible.
· Isaac Saney teaches history at Dalhousie University and Saint Mary's
University, Halifax, Canada, He is co-chair and National Spokesperson of the
Canadian Network On Cuba. He is currently putting the final touches on the book
manuscript, Africa's Children Return! Cuba, the War in Angola and the End of
Apartheid.
Umsebenzi Online is an online voice of the South African working class
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