Castro’s indelible imprint on Africa
in bi-annual AU summits. Plans made at the Global African Diaspora Summit, organised by the AU in Johannesburg in 2012, have also not seen any significant follow-through.
Some diaspora intellectuals blame the post-colonial leadership of selling out to Western interests in exchange for aid from Europe and the US. They’d much prefer Malema’s style of politics, which blames colonialism and slavery for the dire situation that many Africans find themselves in, distancing themselves from the official views of their governments.
At a conference in Johannesburg on November 28, just a few days after Castro’s death, Sir Hilary Beckles – vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies, which comprises campuses across the Caribbean, including Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago – said it was the strong links between Africa and its diaspora that motivated the assistance by Caribbean nations to Africa. He said Cuba’s support to the liberation movements in southern Africa was a collective effort shared by other Caribbean countries like Haiti and Barbados.
Beckles said Caribbean nations felt betrayed by the African leadership. A turning point came in 2001 when African states refused to join their call for reparations during the United Nations (UN) World Conference Against Racism in Durban.
“The European Union and the West didn’t want reparations for historical injustice to be put on the agenda, which led to a major confrontation,” he said.
In the end, African countries sided with the Western nations because of “bread-and-butter politics”.
Beckles said the wound that had opened up then has still not healed.
Beckles stressed that the quarrel is mostly with African leaders and the establishment. Malema is a hero among the more radical youth in the Caribbean, he said.
Participants at the conference concurred that new movements like #BlackLivesMatter in the US and elsewhere give the relationship between Africa and its diaspora a new meaning.
The concept of “decolonising knowledge” – which was the theme of the Johannesburg conference – was taken up as a slogan by the #FeesMustFall movement among South African students this year.
Kenyan activist Brenda Wambui said: “Africanisation is an exercise in memory, giving us a larger sense of ourselves.”
Castro’s death and the tributes to him show that deep-seated ties between Africa and the Caribbean nations are still relevant today.
Africa and its diaspora are forging new links, albeit not in official meetings and UN summits. These links and the “exercise in memory” are also being used as an effective tool by politicians such as Malema.