The end of Portuguese colonial rule in Angola fifty years ago was also the beginning of a Cuban military mission that had a major impact on the country’s history, beating back a South African invasion and denying Pretoria the opportunity to bring its local allies to power. It also left its mark on the region as a whole: Nelson Mandela credited the Cuban victory over the South African army in 1988 with hastening the fall of apartheid.
When Cuba’s armed forces became openly involved in Angola in November 1975, there was a widespread assumption that Cuba was a Soviet “proxy.” Those who knew Cuba well argued that it was not that simple. They questioned whether it could really be described as a client state, and whether Moscow was really interested in becoming embroiled (indirectly) in the internal conflicts of Southern Africa.
In due course, further research shifted attention away from an interpretation that owed much to the hegemonic Cold War perspective. It slowly became clear that Cuba’s involvement had come at the request of Angola’s new People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) government, to which Portugal had hastily handed control of the country.
The MPLA was now threatened by rival forces that had the backing of South Africa and the United States. The MPLA requested help from Havana based on its own close links with Cuba and the record of Cuban support for the anti-colonial struggle.
From 1961 on, Cuba followed a strategy of actively supporting armed revolution and anti-colonial struggles in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The seminal Havana Tricontinental Conference of 1966 expressed this line of ideological solidarity with Third World radicals.
Nelson Mandela credited the Cuban victory over the South African army in 1988 with hastening the fall of apartheid.
That policy also included support for postcolonial states against external threats, for example through military aid to defend Syria against Israel in 1973. The MPLA request…
Auteur: Antoni Kapcia
