Scan barcode
Reviews
How Far We Slaves Have Come!: South Africa and Cuba in Today's World by Fidel Castro, Nelson Mandela
woolfen's review
4.0
4 Stars.
Two small speeches, from Mandela and Castro. The small contextual information either side was quite interesting, around Cuba's intervention in Angola against the Pretorian South African army in 1975.
Both speeches were very interesting and compelling, with moving histories of personal and national struggle. Ultimately I found Castro's to be more rousing/ moving and whilst both were politically motivated, Castro's turned into a general oratory on the strengths of socialism.
"We will never renounce a single one of our prerogatives! ...
the blood of South Africans is our blood! Humanity's blood is our blood! ...
We who come from way back, who were conquered, who were exploited, and who were enslaved throughout history, what marvelous ideas we can defend today; what just ideas we can uphold! And we can think in Latin American and even world terms!
How far we slaves have come!"
Two small speeches, from Mandela and Castro. The small contextual information either side was quite interesting, around Cuba's intervention in Angola against the Pretorian South African army in 1975.
Both speeches were very interesting and compelling, with moving histories of personal and national struggle. Ultimately I found Castro's to be more rousing/ moving and whilst both were politically motivated, Castro's turned into a general oratory on the strengths of socialism.
"We will never renounce a single one of our prerogatives! ...
the blood of South Africans is our blood! Humanity's blood is our blood! ...
We who come from way back, who were conquered, who were exploited, and who were enslaved throughout history, what marvelous ideas we can defend today; what just ideas we can uphold! And we can think in Latin American and even world terms!
How far we slaves have come!"
rodions_hatchet's review
4.25
After reading this one feels sad that Cuba's internationalism and instrumental role in weakening the apartheid army isn't mentioned even once in Nelson Mandela's Long Walk to Freedom. These speeches, from Mandela's visit to Cuba on July 25-27, 1991 where he was awarded the José Martà medal, contain Mandela's unapolagetic praise to Cuba's military assistance in Angola, their political and economic assistance in Namibia's independence, and their unwavering support of the South African peoples' struggle against apartheid. These 2 speeches clearly lay out the connection between Cuba and South Africa, they are given in a time of great revolutionary potential and they make one wonder what unfulfilled possabilities history has consumed.
More...