Cuba and Africa, 1959-1994

Delmas Tsafack, Pablo Rodríguez Ruiz, Michel Luntumbue, Héloïse Kiriakou, Christine Hatzky, Charlotte Grabli, João Felipe Gonçalves, Elina Djebbar, Bernardo J Capamba André, Emmanuel Alcaraz

Description

Essays on the non-military engagements between Cuba and African countries from the period of the Cold War to African independence.
Cuba was a key participant in the struggle for the independence of African countries during the Cold War and the definitive ousting of colonialism from the continent. Beyond the military interventions that played a decisive role in shaping African political history, there were many-sided engagements between the island and the continent. Cuba and Africa, 1959-1994 is the story of tens of thousands of individuals who crossed the Atlantic as doctors, scientists, soldiers, students and artists. Each chapter presents a case study – from Algeria to Angola, from Equatorial Guinea to the Congo – and shows how much of the encounter between Cuba and Africa took place in non-militaristic fields: humanitarian and medical, scientific and educational, cultural and artistic.

The historical experience and the legacies documented in this book speak to the major ideologies that shaped the colonial and postcolonial world, including internationalism, developmentalism and South–South cooperation.

Approaching African–Cuban relations from a multiplicity of angles, this collection will appeal to an equally wide range of readers, from scholars in black Atlantic studies to cultural theorists and general readers with an interest in contemporary African history.





Figures and Table

Foreword by Shamil Jeppie

Acknowledgements

Acronyms and Abbreviations

Timeline of Historical Events

Map of Africa, 1994

Introduction: Reconfiguring the Cuba-Africa Encounter – Kali Argyriadis, Giulia Bonacci and Adrien Delmas

PART I: Politics and Solidarity

Chapter 1 Cubans in Algiers. The Political Uses of Memory – Emmanuel Alcaraz

Chapter 2 Cuban policy and African Politics. Congo-Brazzaville and Angola, 1963-1977 – Héloïse Kiriakou & Bernardo J.C. André

Chapter 3 Motivations and Legacies of the Cuban Presence in Equatorial Guinea from 1969 to the Present – Delmas Tsafack

Chapter 4 Cuban internationalism in Africa. Civil Cooperation with Angola and its Aftermath – Christine Hatzky

PART II: Trajectories

Chapter 5 The Experience of a Multidisciplinary Research into Angola’s National Question: Anthropology in a War Context  – Pablo Rodríguez Ruiz

Chapter 6 Cuban-Congolese Families: From the Fizi-Baraka underground to Havana – Michel Luntumbue

PART III: Voices

Chapter 7 Atlantic Voices: Imagination and Sound Dialogue between Congolese and Cuban singers in the 1950s – Charlotte Grabli

Chapter 8 Cultural Diplomacy in the Cold War: Musical Dialogues between Cuba and West Africa, 1960-1970 – Elina Djebbari

PART IV: Reconstructing History, Reconnecting Roots

Chapter 9 The Construction of a Spiritual Filiation from Havana to Ilé-Ifé – Kali Argyriadis

Chapter 10 The Island, the Peninsula, and the Continent: Cuban American Engagements with Africa – João Felipe Gonçalves

Contributors

Index

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Histoire
• General officer
• Cultural studies
• Anthropology
• General

Informations

• Publié par: WITS University Press
• Date de parution: 01 novembre 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781776146352
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

CUBA AND AFRICA, 1959-1994
CUBA AND AFRICA, 1959-1994
WRITING AN ALTERNATIVE ATLANTIC HISTORY
EDITED BY GIULIA BONACCI, ADRIEN DELMAS AND KALI ARGYRIADIS
Published in South Africa by:
Wits University Press
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Johannesburg 2001
www.witspress.co.za
Compilation Editors 2020
Chapters Individual contributors 2020
Published edition Wits University Press 2020
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First published 2020
http://dx.doi.org.10.18772/22020116338
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This book was published with the support of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l Homme (FMSH) and the French Institute of South Africa-Research (IFAS-Recherche, Johannesburg). Under the authority of the French ministry of foreign affairs and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), IFAS promotes research in the humanities and social sciences about southern Africa and within this framework supports scientific cooperation.

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CONTENTS
FIGURES AND TABLE
FOREWORD BY SHAMIL JEPPIE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
TIMELINE OF HISTORICAL EVENTS
MAP OF AFRICA, 1994
INTRODUCTION Reconfiguring the Cuba-Africa Encounter - Kali Argyriadis, Giulia Bonacci and Adrien Delmas
PART I POLITICS AND SOLIDARITY
CHAPTER 1 Cubans in Algiers: The political uses of memory - Emmanuel Alcaraz
CHAPTER 2 Cuban Policy and African Politics: Congo-Brazzaville and Angola, 1963-1977 - H lo se Kiriakou and Bernardo J.C. Andr
CHAPTER 3 Motivation and Legacies of the Cuban Presence in Equatorial Guinea from 1969 to the Present - Delmas Tsafack
CHAPTER 4 Cuban Internationalism in Africa: Civil cooperation with Angola and its aftermath - Christine Hatzky
PART II TRAJECTORIES
CHAPTER 5 The Experience of Multidisciplinary Research into Angola s National Question: Anthropology in a war context - Pablo Rodr guez Ruiz
CHAPTER 6 Cuban-Congolese Families: From the Fizi-Baraka underground to Havana - Michel Luntumbue
PART III VOICES
CHAPTER 7 Atlantic Voices: Imagination and sound dialogue between Congolese and Cuban singers in the 1950s - Charlotte Grabli
CHAPTER 8 Cultural Diplomacy in the Cold War: Musical dialogues between Cuba and West Africa, 1960-1970 - Elina Djebbari
PART IV RECONSTRUCTING HISTORY, RECONNECTING ROOTS
CHAPTER 9 The Construction of a Spiritual Filiation from Havana to Ile-Ife - Kali Argyriadis
CHAPTER 10 The Island, the Peninsula, and the Continent: Cuban American engagements with Africa - Jo o Felipe Gon alves
CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX
FIGURES AND TABLE CHAPTER 2 Figure 2.1 : Civil Defence militiamen at a meeting of President Massamba-Débat in the ‘square of freedom’ in Brazzaville (1966). Source: National Museum of Congo in Brazzaville. Figure 2.2 : Official parade of the Civil Defence in Brazzaville (1966). The man with his arms crossed in the foreground is Ange Diawara, head of Civil Defence. Source: National Museum of Congo in Brazzaville. Figure 2.3 : MPLA headquarters in the ‘Angola Libre’ district in Brazzaville, which are still visible today. © Photographs by Héloïse Kiriakou, September 2013. Figure 2.4 : Location of the MPLA facilities in Brazzaville (1963–74). Map by Héloïse Kiriakou from a plan of the French military services (GR 10 T 646, note of 7 April 1969). CHAPTER 3 Table 3.1 : Level of qualification of permanent teachers at the National University of Equatorial Guinea for the academic year 2015–16. Source: National University of Equatorial Guinea, http://unge.education/main/?page_id=437 . Accessed May 2016. CHAPTER 5 Figure 5.1 : From left to right: Pablo Rodríguez Ruiz, a Cuban bodyguard and two Angolan soldiers. © Pablo Rodríguez Ruiz, south-east Angola, 1985. Figure 5.2 : Ethnographic research among the Nyaneka-Khumbi: meeting the residents of the village to present the project. © Pablo Rodríguez Ruiz, south-east Angola, 1985. Figure 5.3 : Pablo Rodríguez Ruiz in front of the hut built for him by villagers. © Pablo Rodríguez Ruiz, south-east Angola, 1985. CHAPTER 6 Figure 6.1 : From left to right: Joseph Yangala Shabani (aka Kassoulé) and his son Kazudi, Maman Marguerite Tumba Nkumu (Maman Margot) holding the hand of Ilho Longomo (son of Frédéric Ilho Longomo), Isabelle Nkumu, Henriette Nkumu, Rose Mwamini Kyondo Soumialot (Maman Rose) carrying in her arms Milili ‘Kabibi’ Nkumu (daughter of Séraphine Nkumu). In the forefront the other children are Safi Soumialot (daughter of Marcel Soumialot) and Nadine Nkumu (daughter of Isabelle Nkumu). © Amisi Soumialot, Havana, c.1980. Figure 6.2 : From left to right: Léopold Soumialot (son of Gaston Soumialot), Marcel Soumialot carrying Kazudi Yangala (son of Joseph Yangala), Rita Kitenge, spouse of Dr Kitenge, carrying his daughter Ricel Kitenge, Dr Marcel Kitenge and Safi Soumialot (daughter of Marcel Soumialot), Rose Mwamini Kyondo Soumialot (wife of Gaston Soumialot). In front of Maman Rose, Aracely (daughter of Marcel and Rita Kitenge). In the forefront, Carolina, the mother-in-law of Marcel Soumialot. Behind Carolina, Marcel Soumialot carrying his son Tenzi; on the right, Iliana, the former wife of Patricio Soumialot carrying their son Yosman. © Amisi Soumialot, Havana, 1985, two years after his return from his first military training in Libya. CHAPTER 7 Figure 7.1 : Advertisement for Week-End in Havana with Carmen Miranda and Cesar Romero, film by Walter Lang, 1941. Source: Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF, Paris), the French National Library. Figure 7.2 : Cumbanchando con Arsenio (SMC 1074), LP cover, 1960. Source: Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF, Paris), the French National Library. Figure 7.3 : Joseph Kabasele (in the centre) and his African Jazz playing imported instruments. Source: Photographer unknown, in Lonoh Malangi and Michel Bokelenge (eds), Hommage à Grand Kallé , Kinshasa, Lokole (coll. Témoignages), 1985: 60. CHAPTER 9 Figure 9.1 : Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara visiting the National Folklore Ensemble just before its first international tour in 1964. In the centre, Guevara; far left, Lázaro Ros; and far right, Rogelio Martínez Furé. Source: Archives of the Ministry of Culture, Cuba. Figure 9.2 : Rogelio Martínez Furé next to the Alafin of Oyo during the tour of the National Folklore Ensemble in Nigeria in 1989. Source: Private archives of Rogelio Martínez Furé. CHAPTER 10 Figure 10.1 : Cover of Miami’s Cuban Catholic magazine Ideal showing Tomás Regalado, a Cuban American journalist and later mayor of the City of Miami, with UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi. Source: https://villagranadillo.blogspot.com/2010/04/jonas-savimbi-un-rebelde-con-causa-por.html
FOREWORD
Shamil Jeppie University of Cape Town
In the early 2000s I had the fortune to travel regularly to wonderful places, like Timbuktu, for instance, on the banks of the Niger River in the north of the Republic of Mali. As it was rather isolated at this time, without any road connecting it to a large city and with only irregular flights in and out of the place, many of the locals knew in no time who had newly arrived in town. At that time, it was relatively safe to travel overland in those parts. Adventurous tourists arrived for a quick visit and ticked it off their wish lists. Whenever a fresh load of travellers arrived, kids would rush to the hotels to take the newcomers around. After sunset we would go for long strolls around the dimly lit town.
Since I was a fairly regular visitor to the town, my friends had to find new attractions to show me. On two separate occasions they took me and my fellow travellers to meet two recently arrived people – not tourists but residents – a man and a woman. They were from Cuba and were medical doctors serving at the local hospital, where they had a scheduled two-year stay. I had often wondered what the state hospital close to the Sankoré mosque might look like on the inside, but I never ventured there. The two doctors from the Caribbean island, however, knew all about it. Apart from Spanish the doctors probably spoke some French, but that was not going to take them very far with their patients. They would have had translators with them but they also picked up a smattering of the local Songhai language, at least so it seemed from the banter they were engaged in at the makeshift restaurant where we met. As the ancient radio on the counter played wonderful Malian music non-stop in the background, the doctors appeared totally at home speaking Spanish-accented French and Songhai – peppered with well-known Arabic phrases – with the locals in the rather ramshackle eating-drinking-meeting place.
They were only two of the far larger number of Cuban doctors in Mali and, indeed, in many other parts of the continent. Cuban relations with African countries did not rest on short-term economic interest or longer-term political gain. For traditional international relations experts, Cuban foreign policy was, and remains, hard to explain in terms of the standard rubrics they use. Instead, there was always a deep and genuine interest in the idea of Pan-African solidarity root