The speaking tour provides an opportunity to hear firsthand about Cuba’s record of internationalist solidarity with liberation struggles in Africa, as well as learn about the Cuban Revolution today. Both speakers have been participants in these efforts.

Dreke and Morales, who on October 7 received notice that their visas had been granted, will begin their speaking engagements in the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore area the week of October 21. Meetings are planned in Baltimore at the University of Maryland--Baltimore County and at the College of Notre Dame.

In Washington, D.C. they will speak on October 23 at American University and on October 25 at Howard University, at a meeting hosted by a number of student groups and academic departments including the Howard University Student Association, NAACP, Amnesty International, and the political science department.

They have also been invited to speak at campus meetings in Atlanta; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Birmingham, Alabama, among other cities.

The series of speaking engagements is being hosted by the Africa-Cuba Speakers Committee headed by Professor Piero Gleijeses of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and author of the recently published book Conflicting Missions: Havana, Washington, and Africa 1959-1976.

Dreke, currently vice president of the Cuba-Africa Friendship Association, has for the past decade led work to construct housing, schools, roads, and other development projects in Africa. As a teenager he joined the popular struggle against the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship. After the 1959 victory of the Cuban Revolution Dreke held numerous responsibilities in the revolutionary armed forces and in the political leadership of the battle to transform Cuban society, including the uprooting of institutional racial discrimination inherited from the past.

Dreke was one of the commanders of the fight against the CIA-backed counterrevolutionary bands in the Escambray mountains of central Cuba in the early 1960s. In 1965, he served as second in command under Ernesto Che Guevara in the Congo, where more than 100 Cuban volunteers fought alongside fighters for national liberation who were followers of Patrice Lumumba, the assassinated independence leader. This experience laid the basis for Cuban internationalists to aid other liberation struggles in Africa, including the successful defense of Angola from invasions by South Africa’s apartheid regime.

Dreke returned to Africa in 1966–1968 to head Cuba’s military mission in Guinea-Bissau, then waging a struggle for independence from Portugal; there he fought alongside Amilcar Cabral. He also headed Cuba’s mission in the Republic of Guinea, and returned to Guinea-Bissau in 1986–89.

Víctor Dreke tells the story of some of these experiences in his book From the Escambray to the Congo: In the Whirlwind of the Cuban Revolution, published by Pathfinder.

Ana Morales, a doctor and a professor at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, headed the Cuban medical mission in Guinea-Bissau in 1985. She helped found the first medical school in Guinea-Bissau, donated by Cuba. She returned to the Republic of Guinea and Guinea-Bissau in 1995–1997 to direct medical facilities in both countries. She will be speaking on "Cuba’s Medical Missions in Africa, 1963 to Today."

In February Dreke and Morales carried out a speaking tour in Santa Clara, Trinidad, and other cities and towns of central Cuba, addressing audiences of workers, farmers, and young people on the history of Cuba’s revolutionary struggles and their lessons for the new generations in that country. Earlier, Dreke spoke at the Havana International Book Fair on the same topic. These events were covered in the Militant in the February 25, March 25, and April 29 issues.

For more information or to send a contribution to help defray travel expenses, contact the Africa-Cuba Speakers Committee; c/o Howard University NAACP, 2400 6th St. NW, Suite 118, Washington, D.C. 20059.  
 
 
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