Fidel Castro: The Great Hero of African Liberation
Fidel Castro, the Lion of Cuba Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz retired as the President and Commander-in-Chief of Cuba on Monday February 18, 2008, after 49 years in power. Fidel Castro is the most lionized foreign leader in Africa and highly esteemed as one of the heroes of the liberation struggles in South African nations. Fidel Castro sent Cuban troops to Angola on November 4, 1975, to join the forces of the marxist MPLA-ruled government in the war against the racist South African-backed UNITA rebels. One of the survivors, Claude Grace Uushona can still remember how she survived the massacre in the refugee camp in Cassinga, in southern Angola and was rescued and brought to Cuba when she was only 16. "It was a camp for women and children refugees located 250 km from the border with Namibia. On May 4, 1978, South African forces bombed us with military helicopters and planes," she recalled. Cuban and Angolan troops helped the guerrilla freedom fighters of the Southwest African Pe...