To so many Africans, Fidel Castro is a hero. Heres why

[malaise]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/30/africa-fidel-castro-nelson-mandela-cuba
<snip>
If Africa is a country, then Fidel Castro is one of our national heroes. This may come as a surprise to many oblivious of Africa’s postcolonial history and Castro’s role in it – especially the fate of white regimes and former Portuguese colonies in southern Africa.

In the west, Castro’s legacy is usually dismissed as an authoritarian, and Cuba as a one-party state with few freedoms. Despite the many achievements of Cuba under Castro (high quality public healthcare, as well as life expectancy, child immunisation and literacy systems parallel to those of first-world nations, and even surpassing the US), at various times the country became renowned for economic crisis, media repression, exiling and imprisoning dissidents, and discriminating against gays and people with AIDS.

Those things were a betrayal of the revolution, and it is important to acknowledge that. But history has absolved Castro when it comes to Cuba’s foreign policy, especially its Africa policy.

A great irony about the reaction to Castro is that many of the same people demanding acknowledgement of his wrongs have never acknowledged that their governments were on the wrong side of history, or sponsored dictatorships in many developing countries.

After fronting the Cuban revolution against a corrupt, American-sponsored dictatorship in 1959, Cuba under Fidel worked hard to develop its own distinct foreign policy independent from that of its more powerful neighbour, the United States, or its supposed ally, the Soviet Union. Africa became central to that foreign policy. For me, and people of my generation, Fidel Castro entered our consciousness as a hero of our liberation. He wasn’t just fighting for an abstract cause. He was fighting for us.

[frazzled]

1. On the other hand

This was in my inbox today, from a weekly information update on goings-on in the art world:

Cuban Artist El Sexto Beaten and Arrested in Havana

Alexandra Martinez reports in the Miami New Times that the Cuban artist Danilo Maldonado Machado, also known as El Sexto, was arrested shortly after the announcement of former Cuban president Fidel Castro’s death on November 25.

The artist had attempted to travel from Cuba to Miami several times, as he is supposed to prepare a performance piece, titled “La Libertad Artistica,” for Art Basel Miami Beach and an exhibition of his works for the Danish Gallery Agerled at the Art Concept Miami fair. The artist had been cleared to travel by officials, but he was “marked” at the airport and not allowed to leave the country.

Hours before he was detained, Machado was shouting “abajo Fidel, abajo Raúl” (Down with Fidel, down with Raúl) in the streets. Around noon, state security forces made their way onto his property, obtained his key from the landlord, and dragged Machado from his home. He was on the phone with the New Times just prior to and during his arrest. There have been no official charges released, and there is no record of Machado’s detention.

A plainclothes officer told the artist’s mother that Machado had been taken to Villa Marista, a state security prison known for housing political prisoners. Later, she was informed he had been moved to the police station at Guanabacoa.

Machado received the Human Rights Foundation’s Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent in May 2015,

https://www.artforum.com/news/id=64999

Look, there's something we all have to learn: there is never pure good or pure bad in any of our politicians (or, I dare say, ourselves). Castro did a lot of good things, and did a lot of bad things too. Did it balance out? Not for me to say. I'm just saying that oversimplifying is ... well, oversimplifying.

[guillaumeb]

2. Recommended.

Colonialists can never forgive the rebellious slaves of those same colonial powers.

Ask the people of Haiti how much they paid, and for how long, to the French colonial oppressors for their sin of rebellion. A rebellion that, ironically enough, was contemporaneous with the French Revolution.

[malaise]

3. One that the Haitians won and yet they were forced to pay

and are still paying -but we must respect the Western states' revolutions.

Sorry folks - I think for me.

[guillaumeb]

4. Those were white revolutions. Thus good revolutions.

But Haiti represented rebellious black slaves, the ultimate nightmare in a slaveholding US and France.

And Castro represented expropriation of US company assets. The ultimate nightmare for a capitalist. And, as a side note, one that just occurred, Castro and Mohammed Mossadegh were contemporaries. Two threats to US hegemony. And the CIA killed one and tried but failed with the other.

[malaise]

5. Don't forget the Brits in the rest of the Caribbean

He did what all victors do -nothing more or less

[guillaumeb]

6. And the British in Canada. eom

[malaise]

7. And all of them in Africa

and Asia and South America, Central America - everywhere

[guillaumeb]

8. Leaving only Antarctica. Oh well, at least every continent has not been affected. eom