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Over the last two weeks we saw thousands of people in Cuba paying their emotional farewells to Fidel Castro. Just 530 km away in Little Havana, Miami there were equally passionate scenes, only these Cuban-American exiles were celebrating his death. It is clear that Castro invoked deep feelings in life and death, not only in Cuba, but globally and also here in South Africa.
There has been a particularly emotional attachment between the ANC and Cuba for decades. Many ANC comrades studied or received military training on the island whilst others underwent medical treatment in Havana.
During the post-1994 period I went on numerous parliamentary study trips, but the most emotive visit was definitely the one to Cuba in 1997, led by Pravin Gordhan. As a long standing member of the South African Communist Party, arriving in Cuba was a deeply emotional experience for him – as it was for many ANC members and frankly the few days we spent there were mind-blowing. To see socialism at work was fascinating and in some respects very liberating. Landing at Havana Airport was like stepping into another world. There were no advertising boards, no shops – in fact no sign of any commercial activities whatsoever and the cars were all original 1950s American models (one has to wonder what happened to all the old cars in the rest of the world!).
