Castro one of world’s worst dictators

While he helped liberation movements, he was a dictator, writes

from Hillbrow.

Gram Chigura

‘We learn from history that man will never learn from history,” said Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. One subject that is not given much priority in schools is history.

And yet without it, we are like a tree without roots.

Without beating about the bush, I wish to clarify the issue of the late Cuban president Fidel Castro, who is being glorified for being a revolutionary.

Yes, he helped liberation movements to oust colonial regimes in Africa.

Closer to home, he sent troops to take on the mighty South African defence forces that had invaded Angola as punishment for harbouring ANC training bases there.

Yes, we should be grateful for that. But that should not close our eyes to the reality of what kind of man Fidel Castro was.

It was more for ideological supremacy or dominance than just the ousting of colonial regimes.

The Russians, Chinese, Koreans and all red-emblemed states contributed more for the containment of capitalism than for the decolonisation of the continent.

We cannot just seek to beatify Castro into sainthood without praying for him to be forgiven for the sins he committed against humanity.

Castro was one of the worst dictators the world has seen.

For one person to be president for over 50 years just shows how repressive he was.