Dear Ambassador Marcos Rodriquez Costa
Along the silent valley of rainforest Malampuzha, Palakkad, Communist state of Kerala, India, where the sun greets the Arabic sea and stars the blue mountain skies, heart deeper reflections, necessity of revolutionary struggles, who do I talk my great conversation, breathing no word, I shall be repudiating posterity, immense tasks posed to our generation by history.
I write the forethought epistle, harvesting from medieval wisdom, that a generation which forgets history, cannot make history. Five hundred and thirty four years, since the arrival of the European coloniser, Christopher Columbus, on the shore of the Caribbean archipelago, Island of Cuba, the empire is still waging a relentless acts of aggression, trammelling the peaceful nation, not to live by her dreams but fear.
The recent attempts by US sponsored mercenaries, carrying deadly weapons to incite insurrection against socialist Cuba, to obliterate her sovereignty and right to independence, prompting memories of historic battle of Playa Giron, empire abstraction, geopolitical power relations in the Caribbean peninsula. I salute tenacious inspiring men and women of our homeland, birth of a new generation of revolutionaries, defending with their own blood, indestructible foundations of our socialist revolution, living dreams of future humanity.
The universal Ambassador of the Antilles, Apostle Jose Marti, writing a letter to his friend, Rafael Mendive , expressing his deep emotions, torture of the soul, the evil heart empire, colonial dispossession and oppression, says: “I have suffered a lot, but I am convinced that I have known how to suffer, I have come to understand, that the only strength and only truth in life is love, patriotism is nothing else than love, friendship is nothing else than love.”
His return from imposed exile in Spain, addressing dozen people at the event to inaugurate a new high school in Havana, making a clarion call for the bravest, exercise the right to carry the flag, of the homeland into the battle, calling for the unity of all the Cuban and people of our America, fight for the freedom and dignity of the motherland. Constructing our America, a new society of ideas, love for the freedom of the people, building a better future.
During the years of his second exile in the USA, historic speech at Steck hall, making a call to all the Cuban revolutionaries, to unite and reject rivalries, dividing revolutionaries and hindering victories, vowing that Cubans are not resigning to living without a homeland, calling for the children of the first war of independence, to fearlessly repeat the feats of those courageous men, who nourished themselves with roots, that great rights cannot be bought with tears, but with blood.
Vividly cautioning a bleak future for the land of the Americas, if her people, abandon the brave who struggle for their efforts, the danger of disloyalty to the cause. “To abandon those who die, and then enjoy the well being of their death, is not the work of worthy men.”
In a letter to General Maximo Gomez, the Haitian internationalist, who travelled to assist Cuban patriotic forces in the war against Spanish colonialism, bolstering the Cuban independence movement, joining great revolutionary legends of the homeland, such as Antonio Maceo and Mariana Grajales, when he said:
“There is another greater danger, arguably greater than all other dangers, in Cuba, there has always been a group of counter revolutionary men, proud enough to abhor Spanish rule, but timid enough not to risk their personal well-being by fighting it.
“For this class of men, aided by all who would like to enjoy the benefits for freedom, without paying a bloody price, vehemently favouring annexation of Cuba, to the United States.”
In a response to an article published in the “Manufacturer”, a Philadelphian newspaper in 1889, proposing for a possible scenario, of the United States purchasing or annexing Cuba, Apostle Jose Marti, rejected the proposal with contempt, declaring that no Cuban worthy of the name, will humiliate himself to the point of being received as a moral plague, amongst people who deny his capacity, insult his virtue and despise his character, declaring that those who fought in the little war, do not want Cuba, to be annexed by the United States.
Succinctly declaring that “Cubans do not believe in excessive individualism nor worship of wealth, or immoderate appetite for power acquisition, or triumph contrary to goodness and justice. Cuban people are not destitute of vagabonds or immoral pygmies, they have suffered impatiently under the tyranny, fought like men, and sometimes like giants to be free, we deserve in our time of misfortune, the respect of those who have not helped us.”
Later in the year 1889, he wrote another two letters to one of his friends, Gonzalo de Quesada, fearful about the possibility of the United States, annexing the Island of Cuba, in the first letter he says: “I do not know the position of this greedy neighbour “. On the second he says:
“On our land Gonzalo, there is another plan darker than what we have known, so far, is the iniquitous enterprises of forcing the Island, of throwing it into war, in order to have the pretext to intervene and with the credit of the mediator and guarantor, to seize it. There is not worse cowardice in the annals of free peoples.”
Throughout his life, Jose Marti, has been worried by endless conspiracies by the empire, to capture the soul of the Cuban nation and denying her people, future of abundance and possibilities. He was equally, concerned by some of the Latin American leaders, to sell the heart and the soul of the Americas, to the evil hand of the oppressors
Today we are living his times, the empire is still determined to annex Cuba, to use every reason it will create, suitable for the subtle intentions, purchasing Cuba, denying its people the right of freedom of expression. His “Nuestra America” is a sacred call upon our shoulders, solidarity of the people of the world, working together for a future of peace and prosperity.
I am walking on the valley of Malampuzha, anguished by fathom pages of history, deafening silence of leaders of the world, from the Americas to the African, from Asiatic region to Europe, revolutionary and mass democratic movement, diaspora, civil society, religious and business fraternity, deafening silence at the wake of the genocidal blockade by the empire, holocaust looming the horizons, modern age highest form barbarism, time has come, not to keep quite anymore, but for the world leaders, to stand true to the tasks of history, the bravest are those able to say and do worthy, for the noble cause of the freedom of humanity.
With the Cuban flag high on the horizons of the African continent, immediately after the victory of the battle of Playa Giron, when mercenaries sponsored by the United States, attempted to submerge the newly born revolutionary Cuba, when the heroic nation defended their motherland, Commander in Chief, Fidel Castro, took the very same weapons confiscated from mercenaries, giving some of the African liberation movements. A revolution which is the best school of the world, humane acts of solidarity and internationalism.
The warship Bahia de Nipe, docked in Casablanca, carrying dozens war artilleries, rifles, mortars, machine guns, and ammunition, carrying some medical supplies and few medical professionals, supporting the Algerian liberation movement, against French colonial aggression. The warship, returned home, carrying wounded soldiers of the Algerian liberation front and war orphans, giving unequivocal solidarity to the noble cause, of the struggles of the African people for liberation.
When Fidel Castro took his first tour to the African continent in 1972, visiting Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Algeria and Ethiopia, when asked about the safety of the revolution in his seven months absence home, he reaffirmed “I am making this trip without worries, the Cuban revolution is like a rock of an immovable granite”, demonstrating unyielding solidarity of the Cuban revolution to the people of Africa and the world. In the dire situation of unprecedented aggression by the empire, violating the sovereignty of the independent state of Cuba, unity of the revolution, rock of an immovable granite.
The Cuban revolution, is the only revolution in the history of the struggle of human society, to have paid back debt to humanity, to have healed the wounds of the African people, wounds inflicted by atrocities committed by the European colonialism, exterminating millions of the indigenous people of the Americas, and millions of the African people as slaves through the Atlantic passage.
Thousands of your compatriots, have volunteered their lives in the battles, taking forefront trenches in the wars of liberation of the African people, their blood have cleansed the pains of atrocities, slavery and untold forms of human abuse, they were there in Ethopia, Algeria, Somali, Guinea Conakry, Guinea Bissau, Egypt, Congo, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, showering our mother continent with their blood, for our freedom and dignity.
They have volunteered their professionals for the reconstruction and development of the continent, medical doctors, engineers, teachers, professors, they have been there, during times of wars, famine, catastrophic disease and other natural disasters such earthquakes and floods, they are still there today to serve the people of our continent, a nation with bounds of love, a revolution dosed in love, we are who we are , dedication and unyielding commitment, noble cause of our struggles, liberation of mankind.
I am deeply concerned by the deafening silence of African leaders and the diaspora, their silence have even bothered the waves of the Atlantic, the glimpse of the stars on the horizons of the Caribbean no more brighter, the orbit of the universe slower than the slave ships, I make a call for the African leaders, for the African Union, to equal the task posed by history to our generation, the moral obligation to support the Cuban people at the time of need.
I am making a call, to the African leaders, to convene an extraordinary meeting of the African Union Assembly in Havana, by so doing making history, showing acts of solidarity to the heroic nation, history calls unto them, to descend into the highway of solidarity the Atlantic ocean, following the footprints of our forebears, whose monumental footprints, ocean waves cannot erase, echoes of the drums of freedom, we are who we are, because of their selflessness and enduring leadership.
I am making a call to our African sisters and brothers, to make history, giving humane and material support to the poor nation, less bless the continent with a movement of solidarity, giving what the empire does not know, patriotism, love and comradeship. Less fortify our solidarity movement, calling for the end of the genocidal blockade and respect of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Cuban nation.
We are continent shaped by the heroism of this small island of the Caribbean, a homeland which has become the mirror of the universe, torchbearer of the struggles for the freedom of humanity, envelope of heroism and resilience, hope and courage, we cannot built too many walls, we have to build many fronts of bridges of solidarity, for we are the embodiment of unprecedented virtues of internationalism, bringing to the peaceful nation of Cuba the inevitable, impetus of revolutionary struggles, triumphs of humanity freedom.
To you my brother and dear Comrade, to all sons and daughters of our mother homeland, descendants of Antonio Maceo and Aponte, Mariana Grajales and Carlota, the rare nation of humanity history, architects of the enduring change of human civilisation, you have not just shaped the present but the future, a nation born out of difficulties, a nation which cannot be defeated by the siren songs of the empire.
You are living mortals of our age, history example of bravery and patriotism, courage by stone truth, answering questions of history, than those who know but giving wrong answers. Never relinquish your souls to heartbeat, knowing well that freedom never dies, on the blue horizons of the Caribbean Sea, refusing to obey adversity, giving humanity the inevitable, the future of freedom and equality.
I am sure my dear Comrade, it may seems to be far-fetched, but in our life time, humanity shall achieve, heroic people of Cuba, shall be counted by generations of mankind, to have stood true to noble ideas, aspirations of freedom and equality, highest forms of human development. The empire may fight ideas with weapons, but not knowing, that you can kill a man, but not his ideas.
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Ambassador Phatse Justice Piitso is a member of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party, writing this article in his personal capacity.