The theory that Cuba helped change the course of history on the African continent is the essential argument of the book Visions of Freedom, presented in Spanish at the headquarters of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) in Havana.
The subtitle: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the struggle for Southern Africa (1976-1991), indicates as to the historical context of the conflicts that led to the defeat of U.S. imperialism, which supported the South African invasion of Angola; the independence of Namibia; and the end of the racist apartheid regime.
Its author, Italian historian Piero Gleijeses, professor of U.S. foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University, devoted to tireless research, sought to uncover the historical truth on the basis of unpublished documents, with the aim of denouncing the imperialist invasions of Africa by successive administrations in Washington.
“The book recalls the solidarity links with African revolutionaries, dating back to the 60s, beginning with the voyage of the Cuban ship Bahía de Nipe to Algeria in December 1961, to take weapons and return with the sick, war wounded and orphaned children to be cured and educated in Cuba. This symbolizes the two faces of internationalism: military support for the independence movements and civil assistance in health, education and culture,” stated Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada, who served as President of the Cuban parliament for over 20 years.
Alarcón described Piero Gleijeses as wise, humble and modest, someone who works like a hero to decipher scattered data, including in several languages, and arrive at the historical truth in order that the reader draw their own conclusions on the role of each country in the international military conflicts which occurred in Africa in the twentieth century.
Jorge Risquet Valdés, one of the key Cuban figures of those heroic feats, speaking at the presentation, referred to the degree of reliability achieved by the author of the book, having read his previous works concerning the revolutionary processes in Guatemala in the 50s and in the Dominican Republic in later years.
“We entrusted him with many testimonial documents and provided the possibility of interviews with protagonists and leaders of that period, including the Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro himself, because I believed from the outset that he would write a classic, motivated by his intellectual honesty and his exceptional nature as a researcher,” he said.
In the prologue to the book, Risquet Valdés writes: “We know very well that together Cubans and Angolans won the war in southern Angola in 1988 and we forced South Africa to accept our conditions, the book Visions of Freedom demonstrates this irrefutable truth based on South African and U.S. documents, that is, the very voice of the enemy.”
According to Piero Gleijeses, Cuba’s victory in Angola was due to the quality of its fighters and the commitment of its leaders, although the island “paid a very heavy price, not only economically as a consequence of funding an army outside the country, but with the human cost of the lives cut short and the sacrifice of families who awaited their children.”
The author stated that Cuba's participation in the war in Angola did not respond to orders from the Soviet Union as certain texts by other writers suggest, but the express request of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) led by Agostinho Neto, after the South African invasion of October 14, 1975.
Piero stressed: “The impact of the Cuban intervention went beyond the borders of Angola, because it helped to achieve independence for Namibia and made clear that the oppressive power of white elitism could be eliminated (in South Africa).”
