Egyptian-born Filmmaker Jihan El Tahri‘s film of post-1959 Cuba’s illustruous African connection, “Cuba: An African Odyssey” is being screened on August 7 at the Brecht Forum in Manhattan. The film charts the government of Fidel Castro’s support for African revolutionary movements specifically. More information on the film here. For details on the event, here. [BTW, if you can't make it and speak Spanish, someone posted the whole film online. here]. I’ll finally get to see it.
I’d love to see that. I admire Castro a great deal, for all his faults. But his faults regarding African revolutionary movements, are mammoth. Calling them faults is too generous. His decisions which led to the deaths of many thousands. In Angola, Cuban troops undoubtedly helped defend the country from SADF troops, but Cuban troops also ran concentration camps and killed many many people. I recently interviewed a group of old men who told me about the Cuban tanks that ran through their musseque/township in the late 1970s. They killed many. It wasn’t a dreamy story of lovely liberators all running for freedom together. It was dirty, nasty and often went very wrong. I think I should write a blog about this… and stop taking up your comments space!