In December 2007, the Cuban-African Friendship Association celebrated its 30th anniversary and the perfect person to discuss its endeavors is its president, Rodolfo Puente Ferro, a physician and combatant in 1965-66 in the Patricio Lumumba column (led by Jorge Risquet Valdes, member of the Communist Party Central Committee) who was in what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo in support for Che.
Puente Feero was also the Cuban ambassador to Angola and for several years has coordinated the Africa desk of the Central Committee Foreign Affairs Department.
When the Cuban revolution arrived for the first time to Africa it found extraordinary leaders that had struggled for independence in their countries. It also found leaders and combatants who had fought for independence against the Portuguese and against the oppression of the Apartheid system in South Africa, said Puente Feero.
Their memory makes us think of leaders like Sekou Toure, Kwame Nkrumah, Modibo Keita, Ben Bella, Houari Boumedienne, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Julius Nyerere, Amílcal Cabral, Agostinho Neto, Eduard Montlane, Samora Machel, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Robert Mugabe, Sam Nujoma, Marian Nguabi, Patricio Lumumba and Lumumba’s heirs like Pierre Mulele and Thomas Muikide.
The independence of the majority of the African countries, the struggle for their sovereignties and the triumph of the Cuban revolution allowed for an exchange of hundreds of thousands of persons in both directions, added Puente Feero.
Could you give us some statistics on that exchange?
RPF: Up until September 2007, a total of 30,719 African professionals and technicians had graduated from Cuban educational institutions as well as the training of another 5,850. Currently 1,345 Africans are studying on scholarships in Cuba and at medical schools in several African cities 651 students are studying under Cuban professors. At the ophthalmological center in Mali, Cuban doctors have operated on 3,069 patients.
A total of 56,171 Cubans have worked in Africa as professors, teaches, engineers, sports trainers, skilled workers and other professions. The Cuban Yo Si Puedo (Yes I can) teaching method is being used to teach thousands of people in Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leona, Angola and Mozambique.
By way of the Integral Health Program being implemented in 21 countries since 1999 with 1,232 Cuban health workers, relieved every two years, the following work has been accomplished: 36,296,153 doctor’s visits; 5,176,369 health prevention conferences; 549,826 births attended; 1,626,864 surgeries; 5,749,145 children vaccinated and 857,522 lives saved.
As Commander and Chief Fidel Castro once said, 381,431 Cuban officers and soldiers have served over more than 30 years as volunteers on this continent, "bringing home only the remains of their fallen comrades and the honor of a duty met."
Tens of thousands of African students lived for several years in Cuba and got to know hundreds of thousands of Cuban families in all the regions of the county. Likewise the hundreds of thousands of Cubans that were in Africa made contact with millions of African families, boosting the cultural ties and knowledge about each others peoples.
This exchange over many years constitutes and assures historical and generational continuity that we should zealously preserve as patrimony of our people.
In numerous African countries there are monuments erected to the Cuban combatants that died their in the liberation struggles. Schools, streets and avenues are also given names of Cuban personalities and martyrs. The same type of remembrance occurs in Cuba where there is a remodeled park of African Martyrs.
Do you believe that the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale was the milestone in Cuban assistance and that there is no more to write about the Cuban collaboration in Africa?
RPF: Among the efforts recorded in history and in people’s memories, what took place at Cuito Cuanavale opened the door to Namibian independence and sped up the end of the repugnant regime of racial discrimination in South Africa. It also brought security to the populations of the southwest of the continent. The extraordinary effort won the sympathy of the African peoples and brought together over 63,000 troops from Angola, Cuba and Namibia.
Today there are still figures from the Apartheid regime defending or justifying the horrendous crimes at the massacre of Cassinga in Angola, where thousands of Namibian refugees, mostly women, children and elderly were killed.
Time weakens the memory or confuses historic facts that should be written and clarified for the new generations. In 2008, the 20th anniversary of the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, we should commemorate it in each of the African countries and the friendship groups should play an important role in their organization.
These facts should be part of the history books in schools. It’s up to our historians and writers to draft the content and to our educators to explain them using the necessary aids. It’s my duty to seriously propose that the idea be heard and taken into account by receptive ears.
Are you happy with the work of the Cuban-African Friendship Association?
RPF: During these years, the association, in coordination with diverse organizations and institutions has carried out a commendable effort in the cooperation, assistance, knowledge and fraternity with all the peoples and governments of Africa.
Within this activity the following organizations deserve recognition for their work: the Cuban Friendship Institute (ICAP), the Cuban Movement for Peace, the Organization of Friendship with the Peoples of Africa, Asia and Latin America (OSPAAL), the Center for Studies on Africa and the Middle East (CEAMO) and the Cuban Women’s Federation (FMC) among others.
This fraternity and unity has permitted the consolidation of relations with the African countries and their massive support to Cuba in the votes against the US blockade on Cuba at the United Nations and at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Likewise, on the African continent there are hundreds of friendship groups, associations of parents with children studying in Cuba and committees working for the release of the Cuban Five, imprisoned in the US. Thousands of politicians, professors, religious people, intellectuals, artists, poets, writers and former scholarship students participate in all those organizations.
I believe that despite the commendable effort you should never be satisfied with what’s been done so far when there is still a long road ahead because the friendship, cooperation and fraternity between the peoples never ends and the efforts are always there to be strengthened.