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How Far We Slaves Have Come by Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro
Kwela Books
196 pages
R146 at takealot.com
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Kwela Books has released a timely new series of works that collects speeches, writings, rare interviews and letters by iconic South African and Cuban political figures.
The series includes Learning From Robben Island, a compilation of prison writings by struggle hero Govan Mbeki that distil his practical lessons about political organisations, as well as Che Guevara Talks To Young People, a short anthology of the revolutionary’s insights and analyses aimed at students and young people.
This book, How Far We Slaves Have Come, is a collection of speeches made on the first occasion Nelson Mandela and Fidel Castro spoke together on the same platform, in 1991, at the 38th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution.
Though I didn’t find the speeches particularly profound – they are mostly celebratory and congratulatory, and show the men’s admiration for each other – they place Mandela in an extremely interesting time and place in history.
The relationship between Cuba and South Africa – a communist regime and a burgeoning new democracy – has always been a fascinating one.
Castro was a man who made it his mission to aid any group struggling for liberation anywhere, even outside of Cuba.
In 1975, South Africa sent troops to Angola to stop that country from gaining its independence from Portugal.
The apartheid government was scared of being surrounded by countries that had been decolonised and the effect that would have on the mind-set of oppressed black South Africans.
Castro promptly sent Cuban troops to assist the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola against South African and US troops.
This act would solidify the ANC’s friendship with Cuba for years to come.
Today, our country still has an enchanted relationship with the Caribbean country and its political ethos. After all, where do you think all those berets at political rallies come from?
It’s a relationship that scares neoliberal capitalists as much as it lends steam to revolutionary communists like those of the Economic Freedom Fighters.
This book – slim and easy to read in one sitting – is a wonderful slice of time that captures the zeitgeist of when Mandela stood next to Castro in celebration and respect, and makes one wonder what would have happened if our country had charted a more communist course, instead of the capitalist system we have today.
