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Tag: Fidel Castro

  • The essential Fidel Castro

    Many thanks to Kayode Komolafe (Thisday back page of Wednesday November 30) for his informed pan-African tribute to the late Comrade Fidel Castro Ruz, entitled “History Will Absolve Castro”. He commendably “absolved” (as it were!) the late iconic Cuban Revolutionary leader of some posthumous ideological smear such as that of America’s President elect, Donald Trump’s dictated slander – that Fidel was “a brutal dictator”! Few hours after his death, the Western media was in frenzy with predictable posthumously distorted historiography of Fidel as “a rebel and strong man” who with iron hands muzzled the people of Cuban island. The received image of Fidel in Africa, (no thanks to CNN!) was that of a defiant anti-American strongman who survived countless assassination attempts by God-knows-who. Nobel Prize winner for Literature Wole Soyinka still agonizes on how common sense is increasingly uncommon here. Kayode Komolafe has however shown that “uncommon” and real sense grounded in history and pan-Africanism still abounds in this continent. He  objectively encourages us to see Castro beyond the Cold War prism as he beams a search light at a robust legacy of a revolution which had long achieved Millennium Development Goals well before UN adopted  them in 1990; a revolution that “has produced an educated people”, crashed to the barest minimum by global standard infant mortality, HIV infection rate and turned an island of 11 million people into a global capital of human solidarity with its positive impact in de-colonized Angola,  Namibia and liberated South Africa and recently Ebola-stricken Liberia and Sierra Leone. He reminded of what is not fashionable by news agencies to report today: that about 36,000 soldiers of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR) fought in the war to liberate some parts of colonized Africa, out of which 4,300 died!

    The remains of Fidel Castro, former Prime Minister (1959 to 1976) and President (1976 to 2008) of the Republic of Cuba have been laid to rest in the Cuban city of Santiago, nine days after his death at 90. As far back as 1975 Fidel Castro declared “We are a Latin-African nation….African blood flows through our veins”. Paradoxically very few global leaders lived and governed like a philosopher king like the legendary Fidel Castro. Articles and Reflections by Fidel after he stepped down from power in 2008 covered wide range of topics from politics to medicine, international diplomacy to climate change, Arab Springs to global peace.

    One essential non-ideological leadership quality of Fidel is power of knowledge and education. As far back as 1986, Fidel Castro in a rare interview granted to two Americans – Dr. Jeffrey Elliot and Congressman Marvin Dymally – discussed a wide ranging number of issues, including US allegations of Cuba-Columbia narcotics connection, leadership and leaders, the Third World debt problem, apartheid, the arms race and Cuba’s relations with the United States and the then USSR. The three-day interview later passed for a book titled; “Nothing can change the course of history.”  The handy book shows the then 59-year old Castro as a most knowledgeable statesman of global events and issues in his country, the Third World and the world at large.  It throws more light on Castro’s personality and his vision of the world. A striking feature of Castro’s personality is his exceptional mastery of data and basic information to buttress logical analyses.  He could forget telephone numbers, “unless there’s a special motivation.”  “However, if you give me a figure on economics, I hear it or read it once and I don’t forget.  If you give me a figure on public health, on education, on economic programmes, or even scientific data, I don’t forget”.

    Castro one said that he has read Darwin down to Alex Harley’s Roots.  He described “Roots” as “a wonderful reconstruction of the human tragedy that was slavery.”  He read the communist manifesto and classic works of Marx, Engels and Lenin down to Churchill’s memoirs and anything published on Cuba that “I can lay hands on.”  He told his interviewers: “I can grab a book and forget you.”  Another essential feature of Fidel’ leadership legacy is his globally acknowledged selflessness and disinterestedness which by Nigerian “leadership” standard qualifies Fidel for canonization into sainthood.  According to Fidel, “Material goods do not motivate me.  Money does not motivate me at all.  The lust for glory, fame, prestige does not motivate me.  I really think ideas motivate me”, said Castro, echoing Cuba poet, Jose Martins words: “All the glory of the world fits into a kernel of corn.” It is commendable for President Raul Castro to honour Fidel’s dying wish “that no statues be erected in his honour and no streets be named after him”. According to Raul Castro; “The leader of the revolution rejected any manifestation of a cult of personality”. Are Nigerian leaders accumulating mansions willing to learn from Fidel that all that do impact on humanity is vanity!

    Another remarkable quality of Fidel is his objective non-doctrinaire assessment of historic and sacred figures. For Castro, Jesus Christ and the Prophet Mohammed (Pbh) are the world’s greatest leaders because “… each of them had a doctrine, founded a doctrine and was followed by multitudes…they were religious leaders but leaders nonetheless.” His assessment of leadership qualities are also based on the requirements of different historical possibilities.  “If George Washington had been born 50 years after independence, he might have been unknown and the same hold true if he’d lived 50 years before it.” Fidel sees Indira Gandhi, Argentine-born Che Guevera and scores of French revolutionaries, America’s Roosevelt, Lincoln and Jesse Jackson as great leaders.  But Castro would not answer in the affirmative that he is a “leader”, remarking that it is an “old theory that associates historical events with individuals, and more so in the Third World where Western stereotype has equated “leader” with a “chieftain”.

    “I am amazed that in West, where you suppose that there are cultured societies and that people think, there’s such a strong tendency to associate historical events with individuals and to magnify the role of individuals.  I can see it myself: Castro’s Cuba, Castro did this, Castro undid that.  Almost everything in this country is attributed to Castro, Castro’s doing, Castro’s perversities.  That type of mentality abounds in the West, unfortunately, it’s quite widespread.  It seems to me to be erroneous approach to historical and political events.”

    Castro does not conceal his faith in human beings saying the potential capacity of human mind is infinite.  “It is said that people use only five to six per cent of their mental capacity.  Nobody can imagine the kind of computer a man has in his head.”  If there are “leaders” at all in Cuba, according to Fidel, they are doctors, manual and intellectual workers, school teachers and students, all armed militia and “the legion of anonymous heroes who constitute the people.” A great orator in his own right, Castro disagrees that he is a “masterful communicator” and humorously adds: “I have a great competitor and that’s Reagan”.  Castro addressed the UN General Assembly for 41/2 hours in September 1960 and often spoke for hours on end at rallies attended by millions of Cubans.  “I have a stage fright” says Castro, who scorns written speeches, which he describes as always colder and often the fruits of abstract inspiration.”  “When you’re in direct contact with the public nothing is artificial, nothing is abstract, you get better ideas, words are more persuasive, more convincing.” The world not just Africa would miss Fidel’s love for humanity. Fidel is dead! Long live Fidel !!

     

    • Aremu mni, is NEC member Nigeria Labour Congress.
  • Fidel Castro: The burden of a name

    Fidel Castro: The burden of a name

    It is not only those who attended Castro’s funeral last Sunday that are mourning him. There are lots of other mourners all over the globe. One of them is yours truly. My obsession with Fidel Castro’s persona dates back to 1972. That was my second year as a student at Saint John’s Grammar School, Ile-Ife, present day Osun State. Saint John’s was founded in 1962 by the late Reverend Father Fabian Cloutier. He was a Christian missionary of the Roman Catholic faith who came all the way from Canada to Nigeria for pastoral duties and settled in Ile-Ife where he lived until he retired and relocated to Canada. He died few years ago.
    As somebody who had served at the altar right from my primary school through secondary school, it was a little bit absurd to adopt Fidel Castro as a nickname then, especially in that religious environment. And for the last 44 years, that name has stuck to me like indelible indigo ink on a white cloth. Many of my school mates at all the schools I attended since 1972 don’t know me by any other name other than Castro. That is the name that still rings bell all over the place.
    In those days in school, some of us were voracious readers. There were books on Josef Stalin, Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx which I stumbled upon, read and digested. I also read a lot of books written by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Books like Path to Nigeria’s Freedom, Thoughts on Nigeria’s Constitution and so on. All these and many other issues at that time kindled my interest in the life and times of Castro. I was so fascinated that he could stand up to a world power like the United States of America, a country he held at bay for at least 50 years.
    I remember those days in secondary school when I single-handedly carried out my own rebellion against the authorities over what I perceived as injustice against the students by writing articles and pasting them on the school’s notice board. A few times I was called out on the assembly ground in the morning and given some strokes of the cane for writing “seditious articles”. But the floggings which happened a good number of times, did not dampen my resolve, rather, they emboldened me more.
    When the authorities saw that I was recalcitrant, one English teacher, Mrs. Adepetu, a tall, beautiful damsel from the Omisore dynasty of Ife, was appointed to moderate my scripts. This notwithstanding, I still found a way around it and got my opinions across to the students. At a point, the school, especially the principal, Fr. Cloutier, a man I had served at the altar in the church for several years, got nauseated about me and requested me to go home and bring my parents to the school. I felt that was an insult. In the first instance, the person who was responsible for my education was late Sir Adesoji Aderemi, my benefactor, who gave me a scholarship. Therefore, the implication of that order was that I should go and produce the Ooni of Ife, a directive that was akin to a taboo. I did not budge. After a lot of rigmarole, one of my ‘uncles,’ Prince Adejare Aderemi, followed me to the school and the matter ended there.
    My popularity soared. But I paid dearly. In my last year in the school, although I was the Chapel Prefect, at the valedictory service which usually preceded the awards of prizes to the school prefects, my name was conspicuously omitted. I did not bother to find out what went wrong. I just took it as the price I needed to pay for sticking out my neck to challenge some glaring cases of injustice in the school.
    Fr. Cloutier never forgot my activities in the school till he died. I could remember when a send-forth was organised in his honour when he was leaving Nigeria finally for Canada. We met at the venue while he was standing with Mr. Mike Oyebanjo Paul, the proprietor of Mopson Pharmaceutical Company based in Lagos and one of my seniors whom I never met in the school. When Fr. Cloutier learnt that I was in the media, the first thing he asked me was: “How many times have you been detained as a journalist?” Before I said anything, he turned to Mr. Paul and said: “This boy was like you when he was here.” And we all broke into laughter.
    I can go on and on to narrate my experiences as Castro in all the schools I attended and places that I have worked, but what trills me most is when my last daughter and the baby of the house, Stephanie, calls me Castro. Although it has to do with some mischief especially when she wants to get something from me and she thinks I could refuse her; she disarms me whenever she calls me Castro. The way it sounds in her mouth sends a nice, sweet and scintillating signal that touches the core of my affection for her.
    I was less than two months old when the Cuban strong man led his group of revolutionaries and seized Cuba in January 1959 and threw out Fulgencio Batista, the then Cuban dictator. As the country’s new leader, Castro implemented communist domestic policies and initiated military and economic relations with the Soviet Union. This angered the United States. The strained relations culminated in the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Under Castro, improvements were made in health care and education, while he maintained a tight control over the country.
    Castro also participated actively in communist revolutions in many countries around the world. But with the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union in 1991 and the attendant negative impact on Cuba’s economy, he was left with no option than to relax some restrictions he had earlier put in place. Faced with his failing health, Castro officially handed over power to Raúl Castro, his brother, in 2008. Nevertheless, he still wielded some political influence in Cuba and abroad until he died on November 25, at the age of 90.
    His death may reignite many important and still-unresolved debates on his particular place in history, and about the revolutionary ideas he epitomised. For many of my generation and those who admire him, Castro will retain a special place in our collective psyche, no matter what others might say. His legacies will outlive him. That a dirty-poor, third-world country managed to create very credible medical and education systems are a few of them. As iconic film director, Michael Moore, took delight in pointing out, Cuba’s medical system is in many ways better than that of the US itself. This is not bad for a country that has laboured under American economic sanctions for more than half a century. It is remarkable.
    It’s not hard to see why the US loathed Castro and mounted what at times, amounted to a comical series of efforts to assassinate or overthrow him throughout his eventful life. The abortive CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, which ended in a catastrophic humiliation for the US only reinforced Castro’s position and aura among his own people and his foreign admirers like me. Try as the US did, they could not dislodge him. Rather, throughout his life, Castro maintained a reputation as the most enduring affront to American hegemony in the region the US considers its own.
    Castro came, saw and conquered. He conquered backwardness deprivation and poverty thereby placing Cuba strategically on the map of the world. It is only hoped that those he left behind will sustain his legacy and even surpass his giant achievements. Like Daniel Ortega, President of Nicaragua, whose own revolution Castro supported in the 1970s said in Havana recently: “Castro lives on in all of us.”
    Adieu, my hero; my idol!

  • Fidel Castro (1926 – 2016)

    Fidel Castro (1926 – 2016)

    •A world-historical legend departs

    He was larger than life. His death replayed the large moments that defined his years. His canvas was broad and he painted his own vision of the social ideal with such energy and enthusiasm that earned him a place among the world-historical greats.

    Fidel Castro’s departure on November 25 in Santiago de Cuba Province, Cuba, at the age of 90, was the stuff of global news. He was a globally significant political player till the end, even after he transferred his leadership responsibilities to Vice-President Raul Castro in 2006, following incapacitating ill-health.

    It is remarkable that he was able to remain the pivot of governance in Cuba for 47 years as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976, and as President from 1976 to 2006. It was in 2008 that he formally relinquished the presidency to Raul Castro.

    He wore his revolutionary badge on his sleeve, unapologetically and consistently. His life-long devotion to left-wing revolutionary ideas started while he was a law student at the University of Havana. Moving from theory to praxis, he participated in rebellions against conservative governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia.

    It was perhaps a logical extension of his revolutionary agenda that Castro turned his focus on his country and in 1953 unsuccessfully plotted the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista. He spent a year in prison after which he travelled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, the 26th of July Movement. This band of revolutionaries played a central role in the Cuban Revolution that toppled Batista in 1959.

    This revolutionary change made Castro Cuba’s Prime Minister. From that historic moment until his passing, Castro’s life was a continuous struggle for his personal survival and the survival of Cuba against the champions of imperialism and capitalism. In particular, the United States was in the forefront of opposition to Castro’s dominance and he survived countless assassination attempts and counter-revolution challenges, including the notable Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. His resistance led to the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 when Castro allowed the Soviet Union, an ideological ally, to install nuclear weapons on Cuban soil to the discomfiture of the United States.

    Informed by a Marxist-Leninist ideology, Castro ran a one-party, socialist state and introduced policies that emphasised central economic planning as well as mass-oriented healthcare and education programmes. In this context, he was a populariser of populism. He spread the expertise of Cuban medical workers as far and as wide as possible, leading to what was known as Cuba’s medical internationalism. Ironically, he was accused of dictatorship based on his iron grip on Cuba; but there is no doubt that he was much loved by many of his compatriots.

    He had admirers in other lands also, as he exported his revolutionary ideas to places like Chile, Nicaragua and Grenada, where he backed the establishment of Marxist governments. He aided allies in the Yom Kippur War, Ogaden War and Angolan Civil War by sending Cuban troops. Castro’s international stature was further cemented by his leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1979 to 1983.

    It is noteworthy that the so-called collapse of socialism, which was symbolised by the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, was not necessarily a turning point for Castro. He remained ideologically anti-capitalist and embraced anti-globalisation ideas. One of his defining quotes: “They talk about the failure of socialism but where is the success of capitalism in Africa, Asia and Latin America?”

    It may be said that Castro’s revolution did not fail, despite the limitations of the socialist dream. He demonstrated the power of defiance in the pursuit of the greatest happiness of the greatest number, which may well demand anti-capitalism.

  • Fidel Castro: Last of the titans

    Fidel Castro: Last of the titans

    Castro was an enigma and undoubtedly one of the most iconic figures of the 20th century. Fidel Castro was an internationalist; charismatic, fierce, daring, and the indisputable leader of the Cuban revolution. He was not born poor and did not belong to the peasantry on the fringe of the society, a confirmation that socialism and liberation struggle is not the pastime for the hoi-polloi trying to gain relevance in the society as is often perceived in our clime. He was a convinced socialist and an unrepentant Marxist Leninist to the very end. He stood for his country in the face of the brutal campaign by the American establishment who wanted to maintain Cuba as a holiday resort of picnic for the American upper class who sees the Latin American countries as banana republics to owe and cherish as play things.
    He rallied the support of the masses and built a country that survived a vicious economic sanctions and isolation as a pariah state defying every prediction of collapse. He did not die until the cracks in the American liberal democracy and capitalism began to show signs of disintegration with the coming into power of the Republican Donald Trump. Cuba is said to have almost 100 percent literacy rate with, arguably the best health care delivery system globally, exporting qualified medical personnel and experts to other parts of the world.
    Cuba is still standing when the imperialists have succeeded in destroying great civilizations like Libya, Egypt, and Syria etc in the name of promoting the Western model of democracy and human rights. Castro survived American state-sponsored assassination plots who perceived him as a fascist and a dictator. He survived because he had the people, the real people behind him. Castro is a truly venerated personality of the 20th Century and belongs to the pantheon of all time greats.
    His life and time is a great lesson to the world that there is always an alternative to any system that serves the people in equal measures. He demonstrated that capitalism and free market economy was just a smokescreen by a few powerful individuals and corporate organizations who wield state power to manipulate and impoverish the majority. Castro did not believe in joining the bandwagon but held tenaciously to the honour of territorial integrity of the Cuban state in spite of the atrocious propaganda and smear campaigns of the Western media to destroy the value of the Cuban people and any efforts and contribution that the Revolution achieved.
    He left a life lesson that with commitment and conviction to a course, a nation can achieve greatness not by choosing the soft-head approach and the easy way out as we do in our own part of the world. Cuba survived merely on sugar cane and later on development in Medicine and health-care delivery that became a brand to them. But here we are, with abundance of resources but we do not have leaders that are able to harness it to shoot us to prominence in the comity of nations. We cringe for aids and hand-outs from donor nations who patronize us and impose values that are alien to us. We look for needless loans that would mortgage the future of our children and it does not bother us and we conclude that the whole world is doing it.
    We create more bureaucracies that increase the wage burden of the state because we cannot think out of the box thereby postponing the dooms’ day. Nigeria truly needs leadership that would carry the entire nation along to build a new consciousness with creative mentality not clueless leaders that are lacking in deep philosophical reflection. Indeed, Nigerians have the misfortune of electing and selecting freakish freebooters to represent us at all levels of government.
    How on earth would the National Assembly be contemplating a Bill on the Peace Corps of Nigeria as a priority so as to create jobs that do not create value but services that we have agencies that are saddled with the same or similar responsibility at this material time when the wage burden of both federal and states are becoming unbearable? How can the Nigerian government be thinking of laying pipes to carry crude from Niger Republic to a refinery in Kaduna or any part of Nigeria for that matter through a very hostile territory that the state does not have the capacity to protect? Common! That is a typical soft-head approach of people with low mentality; it makes no common or economic sense now or on the long run.
    We have not increased the capacity of the agencies that we have in existence like the Police, Federal Road Safety Commission, Civil Defence and other ubiquitous agencies of the state with similar functions. Nigeria needs a “Castronia” prescription of self reliance in the face of the collapsing world order of neo-liberalism and capitalist ethos of democracy.
    As you proudly walk to join the masters in the pantheon, carry with you the revolutionary flowers of all those who stand up to power; you defied the greatest power on earth, the Americans, and call them the bluff. Adieu the last of the titans. You came, you saw, and you conquered and the world would remain in awe of your enigma.

    •Kebonkwu Esq writes from Wuse Zone 5, Abuja

  • Fidel: Man, model, and legend

    Fidel: Man, model, and legend

    On October 25, 1983, President Ronald Reagan launched a U.S. military invasion of the small Caribbean island of Grenada, with token forces from some client states in the region.

    The immediate provocation, it seemed, was a military coup that installed a Marxist as prime minister.  There was also this lingering provocation:  the ongoing construction of a large airport on the island to boost tourism, the mainstay of the country’s economy.

    The Reagan administration claimed the airport was designed to serve as a Communist beachhead into the region and to the Americas. It did not matter that the airport was designed by Canadians, and funded in part by Libya, Algeria, and the UK.

    The presence of dozens of Cuban construction crews on the project site was conclusive evidence, Reagan said, of a Soviet- Cuban military build-up that the United States could not countenance.  The island’s Marxist government, Reagan further claimed, posed a threat to an estimated 1,ooo Americans on the island, most of them students at a medical school.

    It was of no consequences that no such threat was ever established.

    The invasion ran its desultory course within a week, leaving some 64 Cuban construction workers stranded. The Reagan administration dangled before them every blandishment if only they would denounce Cuban President Fidel Castro and defect to the United States.

    Their families and dependents would be spirited out of Cuba to join them in the United States in a life of comfort beyond their wildest imagining.  All they needed to do was to denounce Castro and defect.  Uncle Sam would take care of the rest.

    Not one among the 64 fell for the offer.

    This incident contrasted sharply with images of all sorts and conditions of men, women and children fleeing from the horrors of life in Cuba in dinghies and all manner of contraptions and risking everything in quest of freedom and a better life 93 treacherous miles across from the Florida Straits – images that had become a staple of television news.

    Hundreds, perhaps thousands, perished in the quest.  And yet the exodus continued.

    Back in Granada, the Cuban construction workers, all 64 of them, had spurned an offer that hundreds of thousands of their compatriots would have accepted on the threshold.  What  was going on?

    It may well be that accepting Reagan’s offer carried much greater risk than setting out from Cuba on the treacherous passage to Florida.  Still, I found it intriguing that not one among the Cuban workers stranded in Grenada accepted it.

    The occasion for these reminiscences is the death last Friday of Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, architect and leader of the Cuban revolution, From the moment he entered Havana in January 1959 at the head of a column of  his comrades-in-arms to finish off the corrupt dictator Fulgencio Battista and his regime, cheered on by thousands of admirers, until he transferred power to his brother Rául on account of his failing health in 2006, he dominated Cuba by the sheer force of his personality and by his symbolism.

    His enjoyed a global stature that seemed improbable for the leader of a Third World nation with a population of just 11 million

    That stature stemmed from many factors:  His personal charisma, emblematised by his military bearing, his regulation combat fatigues, and the lush beard and sideburns that framed his strong, masculine visage.

    Among my generation, Castro conferred revolutionary credentials of sorts on beards.  Full disclosure:  I myself kept one for more than a decade. I shaved it off on the eve of my nuptial in 1975.  Everyone said I looked much better without it, and I could not muster the confidence to re-grow it, except for the six months in 1996 that I was homeless.  But I digress.

    Castro’s global stature also stemmed from surviving not a few attempts by the CIA to assassinate him, from taking personal charge to rout, at the Bay of Pigs, an army of Cuban exiles and volunteers trained and equipped by the United States, to overrun Cuba and oust  him.

    It derived from his defying and outliving nine American presidents and weathering the blockade they instituted or tightened against Cuba, with the aim of grounding its economy           and thereby stirring up a mass revolt against the island’s communist government ,

    It has to be said that it also derived from his simple lifestyle, devoid of ostentation and vainglory. He was never tainted by allegations of corruption.

    In the face of the blockade and other hostile acts directed at Cuba chiefly by the United States, Cuba under Fidel Castro’s leadership, sought to build a new society to supplant the one that always had to reckon with the economic calculations of the United Fruit Company even as the country catered to the fancies and fantasies of American playboys.

    Within one generation, Cuba wiped out illiteracy.  Today, it has one of the highest literacy rates in the world.  It built a health care infrastructure that makes up in efficiency and effectiveness what it lacks in sophistication.   Education and health care, regarded as fundamental rights, are provided free.

    While many countries grapple with an acute shortage of doctors, Cuba produces far more doctors than it needs, and sends the rest to needy countries. It is instructive that throughout his long illness, Castro never sought medical treatment abroad.  Some doctors were brought   in from Spain to examine him, and that was that.

    He established a sports programme that produced and continues to produce world-class athletes.

    But for the decisive intervention of the Cuban military, in Cutie Cuanavale, and in Cunene Province to the south, apartheid South Africa’s forces would have overrun Angola.  Namibia’s march to independence would have been halted, and apartheid in all its debauchery would have lived on much longer.

    A large segment of the Cuban population took great pride in the gains of the revolution.  Was it these gains, then, and the pride that flowed from them that made the 64 Cuban military engineers trapped in Grenada spurn Reagan’s invitation to denounce Castro and defect to the United States, there to enjoy life on a scale Cuba could never provide?  Were they in effect saying that there is much more to life than material comforts?

    Let no one romanticise the Cuban revolution, however.  It led to crippling deprivations.  It upended, as all revolutions do, careers and projects and ambitions.  It led to an abridgement of fundamental rights.  It brought in its wake a massive flight of capital and talent.  It created a fundamental leveling, above which there is scant opportunity to rise.

    But it taught the world the meaning of self-reliance.  Even in the midst of deprivations, even after subsidies vanished with the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was no mass starvation in Cuba, no begging in the streets, no prostitution, no epidemics.

    Amidst the decrepit buildings and on the streets that make Havana look like a junkyard for American automobiles from the 1950s, life goes on at a rhythm that says to the over-curious visitor:  If you are looking for the unhappiest place on earth, go elsewhere.

    In death as in life, Castro remains a polarising figure.  Millions of Cubans and across the world venerated him almost to the point of deification.  Millions in Cuba and less so across the world loathed him to the point of execration.

    I am reminded of the latter phenomenon by this headline from the 1970s, spread across the front page of one of the Miami newspapers:

     

    Too, Too, Too, Too, Too, Too, Too Bad.

    Castro Narrowly Escapes Drowning.

    But there is no denying that Castro was a singular personage, and that history will count him among the greatest figures of the 20th century.

  • Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro dies at 90

    Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro dies at 90

    • Obama, Putin, Buhari, others mourn

    Fidel Castro, the Cuban revolutionary leader who built a communist state on the doorstep of the United States, is dead.

    Castro, who for five decades defied U.S. efforts to topple him, died on Friday at the age of 90, state-run Cuban Television said.

    Castro had been in poor health since an intestinal ailment nearly killed him in 2006 and he formally ceded power to his younger brother Raul Castro two years later.

    It was Raul Castro who announced his brother died on Friday evening.

    Castro took power in a 1959 revolution and ruled Cuba for 49 years with a mix of charisma and iron will, creating a one-party state and becoming a central figure in the Cold War.

    He was demonized by the United States and its allies but admired by many leftists around the world, especially socialist revolutionaries in Latin America and Africa.

    Castro transformed Cuba from a playground for rich Americans into a symbol of resistance to Washington.

    He fended off a CIA-backed invasion at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 as well as countless assassination attempts.

    His alliance with Moscow helped trigger the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, a 13-day showdown with the United States that brought the world the closest it has been to nuclear war.

    He swept away capitalism and won support for bringing schools and hospitals to the poor.

    He also created legions of enemies and critics, concentrated among Cuban exiles in Miami who fled his rule and saw him as a ruthless tyrant.

    A state funeral for Fidel Castro has been fixed for Sunday December 4, in Santiago de Cuba, according to state media report.

    But the cremation of the remains of Castro will be carried out according to his wishes, and has been fixed for Saturday, Cuba President Raul Castro, announced early yesterday.

    According to the official states media, the government also declared nine days of mourning in honour of the fallen hero.

    U.S. President Barack Obama, in his tributes, said history will record Castro’s massive impact on global affairs.

    According to him: “History will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and the world around him,” Obama said in his condolence message.”

    He added that during his presidency, he tried to change the adversarial relations between the two countries.

    “During my presidency, we worked hard to put the past behind us, pursuing the future in which the relationship between our two countries is defined not by our differences.

    “However, it was defined by the many things that we share as neighbours and friends – bonds of family, culture, commerce, and common humanity.

    “This engagements includes the contributions of Cuban Americans, who have done so much for our country and who care deeply about their loved ones in Cuba,” he said.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin, described Castro as a “symbol of an era” while former Russian leader Gorbachev according reports from Kremlin hailed him for “strengthening” Cuba.

    Narenda Modi, India prime minister, said Fidel Castro was one of the most iconic personalities of the 20th century.

    Mexico’s President, Enrique Pene Nieto called Castro a friend of Mexico, who had promoted bilateral relationships based on respect, dialogue and solidarity.

    Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuela’s president sent a solidarity and love message to Cuban people on the loss of the country’s longtime leader.

    China’s president Xi Jinping says, Castro “will live forever” especially in the minds of those who loved and cherished him.

    President Muhammadu Buhari offered his deepest condolences to the Cuban President, Raul Castro and the people of Cuba.

    Buhari, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina noted that Castro, against all odds, stirred uncommon development in sports, education and healthcare sectors to the benefit of other nations.

    He expressed delight that Castro lived to see the improved ties between his country and the United States.

  • Buhari condoles Cubans over Fidel Castro’s death

    Buhari condoles Cubans over Fidel Castro’s death

    President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed sadness over the death of Cuba’s longest-serving president and revolutionary icon, former President Fidel Castro, aged 90.

    President Buhari, on behalf of the Federal Government, offered deepest condolences to Cuban President Raul Castro, and the people of Cuba on the passing early Saturday of the legendary leader, who served his people for almost half a century.

    The President, in a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, assured the country of the sympathy and solidarity of all Nigerians it mourns the exit of this remarkable leader who against all odds stirred uncommon development in sports, education and healthcare sectors of his nation, even to the benefit of other nations.

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    Buhari was delighted that Fidel Castro lived to see improved ties with the United States.

    As a great friend to Africa, countries in the Global South and the Non-Aligned Movement, President Buhari believed that Castro’s place in history is assured, given his sustained successful commitment and towering role in the liberation and anti-colonialism struggles in Africa.

    He said that his prayers and thoughts are with Castro’s family, friends and many admirers as they go through this period of national mourning and exit of a truly admired selfless global leader.

  • Fidel Castro’s funeral set for Dec. 4

    Fidel Castro’s funeral set for Dec. 4

    The state funeral for Fidel Castro who died at the age of 90, has been fixed for Sunday December 4, in Santiago de Cuba, according to state media report.

    But the cremation of the remains of Castro will be carried out according to his wishes, and  has been fixed for Saturday, Cuba President  Raul Castro, announced early Saturday.

    According official states media, the government has also declared nine days of mourning  in honour of the fallen hero.

    The death of Cuba strongman, Castro, has triggered both celebration and mourning, as critics welcomed his demise while supporters grieved for the polarising strongman who dominated Cuba for decades.

    In Maimi, celebrations spilled out over the death of Castro and the state government decrees a nine days of mourning. During the period, all activities and public performances will be halted, and Cuba’s flag will be flown at half-mast in public and at military establishments.

    According to reports , the country’s radio and television channels will broadcast informative, patriotic and historical programming.

    Castro reigned in Havana for nearly five decades with an iron hand, defying a U.S. economic embargo intended to dislodge his regime.

    But he lived long enough to see a historic reunion Between Cuba and the U.S.  The two nations re-established diplomatic relations in July 2015.

    Meanwhile messages by world leaders have been pouring in celebration of Castro who ruled Cuba for 47 years.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin, praised  him, describing Castro as a “symbol of an era”, while former Russian leader Gorbachev according reports from Kremlin hailed him for ”strengthening” Cuba.

    Narenda Modi, India prime minister said Fidel Castro was one of the most iconic personalities of the 20th century , says India mourns the loss of a great friend.

    Mexico’s President, Enrique Pene Nieto called Castro a friend of Mexico, who had promoted bilateral relaionships based on respect, dialogue and solidatity.

    Also, Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuela’s president has sent a solidarity and love message to Cuban people on the loss of the country’s longtime leader.

    Maduro has remained a close ally of Cuba, in his twitter message, he called on all the revolutionaries of the world to continue his legacy  under the flag of independence , socialism and homeland.

    In his message, China’s president Xi Jinping says, Castro “will live for ever” especially in the minds of those who loved and cherished him. (NAN)

  • Cuba’s former President, Fidel Castro dies at 90

    Cuba’s former President, Fidel Castro dies at 90

    Former Cuban president and leader of the communist revolution, Fidel Castro is dead.

    He died at 90 on Friday according to a statement by his brother, President Raul Castro.

    Reports say he had for years suffered an unspecified intestinal illness which already forced him to hand over power to his brother in July 2006.

    The exact nature of the illness was never confirmed by either Castro or the Cuban government, although media reports mentioned diverticulosis.

    “I was dead,” Castro said of the 2006 bout of the illness in an interview four years later. “I no longer aspired to living.”

    In the years that followed, he appeared to have recovered and was seen in public several times, visibly frail but in good spirits. However, in the months before his death he had gone more and more silent and he was last seen in public in late March, after more than a year away from public life.

    The secrecy surrounding Castro’s health forever prompted speculation.

    Castro was only known to have suffered two previous incidents of physical problems, and both happened in public. In June 2001 he had a

    fainting spell as he addressed a mass audience in Havana.

    On October 2004 he slipped at the end of a rally in the Cuban town of Santa Clara, injuring his arm and leg. He subsequently was seen in

    public in a wheelchair for the first time ever.

    The news of Castro’s 2006 health trouble was divulged in late July that year through a document that was handwritten and allegedly

    signed by Fidel Castro himself.

    The Cuban leader claimed that his health problems had arisen from stress from his visit to Argentina barely two weeks earlier, where he

    delivered a three-hour speech to a crowd of 50,000, and subsequent commitments in his own country.

    “This caused me an acute intestinal crisis with sustained bleeding which forced me to undergo complicated surgery,” the Cuban president

    allegedly wrote. He added that after the operation he would need “several weeks of rest.”

    However, weeks gave way to months and years. Castro’s temporary exit from the Cuban Presidency became permanent in February 2008,

    while he formally stepped down from the leadership of the Cuban Communist Party in April 2011.

    Over the years, the fit, ever-active revolutionary gave way to an elderly man in good spirits but frail health, as one might expect for a late octogenarian, but Cuban authorities never kept the public up to date with his physical troubles. (dpa/NAN)

  • Fidel Castro makes first public appearance in nine months

    Cuban revolutionary icon, Fidel Castro, has appeared in public for the first time in nine months, chatting with school children and criticizing Barack Obama’s recent visit.

    Castro, 89, was seen on state TV seated as he spoke to children about a late fellow revolutionary leader, Vilma Espin.

    The last time Castro appeared in public was nine months ago, when state TV showed him with civilians who work with the armed forces and the interior ministry.

    Castro, leader of the Cuban revolution of 1959, yielded power to his brother, Raul, in 2006 on health grounds.

    His latest appearance comes as the ruling communist party prepares a convention on April 16 which is designed to set Cuba’s economic and political path for the next five years.

    During Thursday’s public appearance, Castro spoke highly of Cuba’s free public education system.