Paul T. Shipale (with inputs by Folito Nghitongovali Diawara Gaspar)
“The greatest tribute to history is not remembering those who fought for our freedom, but living by the principles for which they fought.”
More than six decades after the great wave of African liberation movements began to dismantle colonial rule, a difficult but necessary question confronts the continent’s leaders, particularly those who continue to govern under the banner of liberation:
Have Africa’s liberation movements forgotten Fidel Castro not merely the man, but the ideals he brought to Africa?
This question is not about replacing African heroes with foreign figures. Africa’s freedom was won first and foremost by Africans whose courage, sacrifice, and determination cannot be diminished. Men and women from every corner of the continent carried the burden of liberation, often at the cost of their own lives.
Yet history also tells another story, one that is too often overlooked.
When African liberation movements faced some of the world’s most powerful military and political forces, one small Caribbean nation crossed an ocean to stand beside them.
Its leader was Fidel Castro.
The real question today is not whether Fidel Castro deserves recognition.
The real question is whether Africa has forgotten the meaning of the solidarity he demonstrated.
Liberation was never won alone
The struggle against colonialism was never an isolated national project.
It was an international movement built upon solidarity.
Tanzania became a sanctuary for freedom fighters.
Zambia accepted enormous risks by hosting liberation movements despite repeated military incursions.
Angola opened its territory to Liberation movements such as SWAPO and the ANC, knowing it would become a battlefield.
Ordinary Africans shared food, shelter, intelligence, and hope with those fighting for independence.
Then there was Cuba.
Separated from Africa by the Atlantic Ocean, Cuba had neither colonial ambitions nor territorial claims.
Instead, it sent soldiers, doctors, teachers, engineers, and technical specialists.
Thousands volunteered to fight for countries they had never seen.
Many never returned home.
Unlike colonial armies that arrived to conquer, exploit, and occupy, Cubans came to defend liberation movements that sought to govern themselves.
This remains one of the most extraordinary acts of international solidarity in modern history.
Angola where southern Africa’s future was decided
Nowhere was Fidel Castro’s contribution more significant than in Angola.
When Portugal withdrew in 1975, Angola did not inherit peace.
It became the centre of one of the Cold War’s most complex conflicts, involving rival liberation movements, foreign intervention, and the apartheid regime of South Africa.
Recognizing that the fall of Angola would have consequences far beyond its borders, Fidel Castro launched Operation Carlota.
Tens of thousands of Cuban soldiers were deployed to support the MPLA government.
Their intervention prevented the capture of Luanda and fundamentally altered the strategic balance in Southern Africa.
For over fifteen years, Cuban forces fought alongside Angolan soldiers.
More than two thousand Cubans lost their lives.
They died not defending Cuba’s borders, but defending Africa’s right to determine its own future.
Namibia’s independence was also forged in Angola
Among all African nations, Namibia perhaps owes one of the greatest historical debts to that international solidarity.
For decades, SWAPO fought against South Africa’s illegal occupation of Namibia.
Its operational bases were largely located inside Angola.
Had South Africa succeeded in defeating the Angolan government and dominating southern Angola, SWAPO’s ability to sustain its armed struggle would have been severely weakened.
The consequences for Namibia’s independence could have been devastating.
The Cuban military presence helped prevent precisely that outcome.
By defending Angola, Cuba was also helping preserve Namibia’s path to freedom.
The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale became a defining moment.
While historians continue to debate the battle’s tactical outcome, its strategic consequences are undeniable.
It accelerated negotiations that led to the withdrawal of Cuban troops, the withdrawal of South African forces, the implementation of United Nations Resolution 435 and Namibia’s independence on 21 March 1990, including the negotiated settlement that led to South Africa’s majority rule in 1994.
Namibia’s liberation belongs to the courage of the Namibian people.
But history demands honesty.
The road to Windhoek also passed through Cuito Cuanavale.
Beyond the battlefield
Fidel Castro understood something many governments still struggle to understand.
Military victory alone does not create genuine freedom.
True liberation requires educated citizens, healthy communities, scientific knowledge, technical skills and national confidence.
That is why Cuba invested heavily in sending doctors, teachers, engineers, and educators throughout Africa.
Thousands of African students studied in Cuban universities.
Entire communities gained access to healthcare through Cuban medical missions.
This was not simply foreign policy.
It reflected a philosophy that solidarity was not charity but It was duty.
The forgotten meaning of solidarity
Perhaps the greatest tragedy is not that Fidel Castro has been forgotten.
It is that the spirit of solidarity has been forgotten.
During the liberation struggle, African countries accepted enormous sacrifices for one another.
Today, too many governments compete rather than cooperate.
Too often, African states look first to external powers before looking to neighbouring African countries.
We speak passionately about Pan-Africanism while importing food that could be grown on our own continent.
We celebrate independence while exporting raw materials and importing finished products.
We praise our liberation heroes while millions of our young people remain unemployed, including the children of those whose blood waters our freedom.
We commemorate freedom while remaining economically dependent.
This contradiction should disturb every liberation movement still in power.
What would Fidel Castro ask Africa today?
If Fidel Castro were alive today, would he ask Africa to send more soldiers?
Probably not.
He would likely ask Africa to produce more doctors than politicians.
More engineers than bureaucrats.
More scientists than slogans.
More teachers than campaign posters.
More factories than conferences.
More research centres than offices and Mansions for retired Presidents.
Today’s struggle is no longer against colonial armies but it is against poverty, corruption, ignorance, disease, technological dependence, food insecurity, economic inequality or climate vulnerability.
These are the new frontlines of African liberation.
The second liberation
Political independence was only the first chapter.
Africa now faces the challenge of a second liberation.
A liberation from poverty despite abundant resources.
A liberation from corruption, including rewarding family members through an entire network in one single ministry, as this only weakens public institutions.
A liberation from dependence on imported technologies.
A liberation from youth unemployment and the undignified life of the veterans of the liberation struggle while old loyalties are handsomely rewarded.
A liberation from educational systems that produce certificates but not innovation.
A liberation from economies built upon exporting raw materials while importing prosperity.
If the first liberation reclaimed political sovereignty, the second must achieve economic, scientific, technological, and institutional sovereignty.
That struggle continues.
Lessons Africa must learn from Fidel Castro
History should not be reduced to hero worship.
Nor should it become selective memory.
Instead, it should become a source of practical wisdom.
1. Invest in people before resources
Cuba demonstrated that educated citizens are more valuable than natural resources.
Africa possesses vast reserves of oil, diamonds, gold, cobalt, lithium, fertile land, and strategic minerals.
Yet none of these guarantee development without investment in human capital.
Schools, universities, technical institutes, scientific research, and public health should become Africa’s greatest national priorities.
2. Leadership is service
One of Fidel Castro’s enduring political messages was that leadership exists to advance the interests of the nation rather than the comfort of those in power and their families.
Africa must rediscover leadership defined by discipline, accountability, sacrifice, and public service.
Liberation movements cannot continue measuring success by electoral victories while millions remain excluded from economic opportunity.
3. Build self reliance
Despite decades of sanctions and external pressure, Cuba invested heavily in domestic scientific, educational, and medical capacity.
Africa should pursue the same principle by strengthening local manufacturing, pharmaceutical production, agricultural transformation, technological innovation, and industrial development.
No continent can claim true sovereignty while depending on others for its food, medicines, knowledge, and technology.
4. Education is the foundation of freedom
Liberation is incomplete when education merely prepares young people to seek employment.
Education should prepare them to create employment, solve national problems, build industries, and transform society.
Knowledge remains Africa’s most renewable resource. Not the old Bantu education teaching us about the wife of Jan van Riebeeck born Maria de la Queillerie. We need the history about Africa and the interconnections between the different clans and where they came from.
5. Health is national security
The COVID-19 pandemic reminded the world that health systems are strategic national assets.
Africa should invest in universal healthcare, medical research, pharmaceutical production, and disease prevention.
A healthy population is a productive population.
6. Make Pan-Africanism practical
Pan-Africanism must move beyond speeches.
It should be measured by:
• joint African universities;
• continental scientific research;
• shared medical programmes;
• regional manufacturing networks;
• integrated infrastructure;
• technology partnerships;
• coordinated disaster response;
• student exchanges;
• and industrial cooperation.
Solidarity is meaningful only when it improves lives.
A challenge to Africa’s liberation movements
This article is not a call to glorify Fidel Castro uncritically.
Like every historical leader, his legacy contains complexities that deserve honest examination.
But complexity should never become an excuse for historical amnesia.
Liberation movements must ask themselves difficult questions.
Do today’s young Namibians fully understand why Cuban soldiers died in Angola?
Do young Angolans and Namibians appreciate how international solidarity helped preserve their country’s sovereignty and independence?
Do South Africans understand why Nelson Mandela described Cuito Cuanavale as a turning point in the struggle against apartheid?
More importantly, have today’s liberation parties remained faithful to the ideals of international solidarity, sacrifice, and service that once united Africa’s freedom movements?
History should not merely be celebrated.
It should be implemented.
Conclusion: The greatest monument to Fidel Castro
If a small Caribbean island could send its sons and daughters across an ocean to defend Africa’s freedom, what prevents fifty four independent African states from uniting to defeat poverty, hunger, disease, corruption, and economic dependency?
Why do we still seek solutions abroad for problems we could solve together?
Why does African solidarity often end where national politics begin?
Perhaps the greatest monument Africa could build in honour of Fidel Castro is not another statue, another boulevard, or another annual speech.
It would be an Africa where no child dies from a preventable disease because healthcare is inaccessible.
An Africa where every young person receives an education that equips them to innovate rather than merely survive.
An Africa that feeds itself, manufactures its own products, develops its own technologies, and finances its own future.
An Africa where solidarity is measured not by political rhetoric but by shared progress.
Fidel Castro believed that the freedom of one people was inseparable from the freedom of all humanity.
The challenge before Africa today is no longer whether we remember that principle.
It is whether we are finally prepared to live by it.
Because the greatest lesson Fidel Castro left Africa was never about war but it was about solidarity. Never about the thirst for power but about service. Never about revenge and division but reconciliation and unity.
And perhaps the greatest question facing our generation is this:
Will Africa continue celebrating the victories of yesterday, or will it rediscover the courage to fight together for the liberation that still lies ahead?
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of our employers or this newspaper. They represent our personal views as citizens and Pan-Africanists.
