Vol. 74/No. 3      January 25, 2010

MARY-ALICE WATERS: How did the anti-imperialist struggle in Africa strengthen the Cuban Revolution?

CHOY: Well, it really strengthened us from an ideological standpoint. All of us who went had studied slavery, the exploitation of man by man, the exploitation of the countries in southern Africa. We had studied the evils that colonialism had wrought and was still creating. But we’d merely read about it in books.

In my own case—and I’m sure the same thing happened to other Cubans—I got there and could see with my own eyes what the colonial system really was. A complete differentiation between the whites, the Europeans—in this case the Portuguese—and the native population. We saw how these countries were exploited. We saw a country that was so rich, yet Angolans were living in what we saw as subhuman conditions. Because their country’s riches were being stolen. Because the colonialists had not preserved the forests or the land.

Sometimes we’d be traveling in vehicles, and people walking along the road would run when they heard us coming. We learned why. Under Portuguese rule, if the native inhabitants didn’t get out of the way, the colonialists would sometimes run them over. This went on for generations. So whenever they heard a vehicle coming, they’d run. And not just off to the shoulder of the road either. They ran because they’d been mistreated like this for years, for centuries.

The main lesson I learned from this mission was to fully appreciate colonialism’s cruelty toward the native population, and the naked theft of their natural resources. To see a country with great natural wealth like Angola, yet with a population facing needs of the most basic type!

That’s why I say that knowing the truth strengthened us from an ideological standpoint. The same thing happens whenever we see how a layer of the population in capitalist countries lacks the most basic necessities. The first time I went to Madrid, for instance, it was December. It’s cold there that time of year. In the Gran Vía, the main street of that large city, I saw people sleeping on the sidewalk near a heating vent, with bags and newspapers over them.

You read about things like that in books, and you believe they’re true. But until you see them for yourself, you can’t fully understand the reality Karl Marx wrote about. That, I believe, is one of the lessons we all learned from internationalist missions.

These are the same lessons our doctors have learned, our athletic trainers, and other specialists who go to many countries. This includes countries that have natural riches, yet suffer tremendous backwardness and have great contrasts. The resources aren’t used to help the masses of the people. And such backwardness isn’t only in Africa. It’s in the Americas too.

Bolivia, for example, has many tin mines. It has oil and natural gas. Nonetheless, it’s tremendously backward. Ecuador the same, even though it’s one of the principal exporters of oil. There are permanent social problems, because much of the population lives in virtually subhuman conditions. Until you see these realities, you don’t understand how deep the problem goes. You don’t understand what the people need. Direct contact with these problems strengthens our understanding. Those missions made this understanding concrete… .

CHUI: As Choy was saying, this experience helped all of us develop politically and ideologically. But the biggest impact was among the soldiers. In Angola and other countries of Africa, they could fully grasp the illiteracy, the misery, the lack of education, the lack of sanitary conditions and health care—conditions that people continue to live under.

Let me tell you a story. One time we slaughtered a pig, and I told one of the Cuban soldiers to give a piece of the leg to the Angolans. The Angolans said no, they didn’t want it. When we asked why, they said they wanted the viscera, the innards. That’s what the colonial masters always used to give them, and they had developed a taste for it. They really didn’t like anything else. They weren’t used to it.

Our internationalist combatants observed what people in these countries lack, things we don’t lack in Cuba. They learned, in general, a whole series of lessons, and acquired valuable experiences about the inequalities and injustices of today’s world.

There are many in the world who denigrate our stance of helping the peoples of other countries who are fighting imperialist oppression. But within Cuba it enabled us to consolidate the political and ideological development of the young people who went to fight and to assist other peoples, who understood the justice of their cause and were later proud of their mission. You couldn’t find a better example of this than the Five Heroes being held prisoner by the empire because of the internationalist mission they were carrying out to defend the people of Cuba against terrorist attacks. They are part of this generation, and three of them served in Angola.  
 
 
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