The Western hegemonists despise Cuba just as much as they loathe what I first described, fifteen years ago, as “the Cuba of Africa.” The similarities between these two small, independent, revolutionary socialist countries are so striking that the analogy is easy to make.
First, Cuba came to power through armed struggle against imperialism, successfully driving out the Western-installed comprador class. It remains the only country in Latin America to have established a people’s government through such struggle—through the “barrel of a gun.”
The “Cuba of Africa” also achieved its independence in the same way: through armed struggle for national liberation, militarily defeating the occupying colonial army, driving it out, and liberating itself via the barrel of a gun. As with Cuba, it is the only country on the African continent to have secured its independence this way.
No “negotiations” with their oppressors, no Western-sanctioned “elections,” no deals—period. The people of both countries literally destroyed their enemies and sent them packing with their tails between their legs.
In the transition from imperialist domination to independence, both Cuba and the “Cuba of Africa” rejected Western neo-colonialist economic control by refusing to fall into the debt trap laid by the Western banksters—today known as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB). Cuba was the only country in Latin America to do this.
The “Cuba of Africa” was one of only three in Africa to follow this path—though the other two, Libya (rich from oil exports) and Botswana (wealthy from diamond exports), had little need for outside funding. By contrast, “the Cuba of Africa” inherited nothing at independence—literally less than nothing. The economy was in ruins after a thirty-year liberation war, marked by genocidal policies enacted by the colonial occupiers.
Cuba and the “Cuba of Africa” are both socialist, whether they describe themselves as such or not. Both nationalised all land and prohibit its private sale—an unmistakable hallmark of a socialist society.
Both countries provide universal, free education, including higher education.
Both work diligently to ensure free medical care for their citizens.
Both reject so-called “Western democracy,” refusing to be governed by bought, stolen, or rigged elections dominated by Western capital and economic sabotage.
Both have endured brutal Western economic sanctions for many years.
Both have been battered by Western-instigated climate disasters: Cuba, by an increasing number of powerful hurricanes due to global warming; and the “Cuba of Africa,” by repeated multi-year droughts—climate catastrophes devastating to a country reliant on rain-fed agriculture.
Both nations continue to struggle to provide for their people despite overwhelming obstacles. Yet both countries “never kneel down”—the national motto of “the Cuba of Africa.” As the saying goes: “We only kneel down to pray… and to shoot.”
Western powers despise both Cuba and “the Cuba of Africa” because they refuse to be controlled and exploited by Western financial regimes. They stand as role models for other nations—especially across Latin America and Africa—whose exploitation is critical to the banksters’ continued extraction of super-profits used to pacify their own populations.
This Saturday, 24 May, Eritrea—the “Cuba of Africa”—marks 34 years of independence, with a nationwide outpouring of pride encapsulated in the phrase: “Victory to the Masses – Awet N’Hafash!”
