{"id":116632,"date":"2013-12-12T02:18:02","date_gmt":"2013-12-11T20:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=116632"},"modified":"2013-12-15T13:19:10","modified_gmt":"2013-12-15T07:49:10","slug":"the-secret-history-of-how-cuba-helped-end-apartheid-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/the-secret-history-of-how-cuba-helped-end-apartheid-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"How Cuba Helped End Apartheid in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Secret History of How Cuba Helped End Apartheid in South Africa<\/strong><\/p>\n

As the world focuses on Tuesday\u2019s historic handshake between President Obama and Cuban President Ra\u00fal Castro, we look back at the pivotal role Cuba played in ending apartheid and why Castro was one of only five world leaders invited to speak at Nelson Mandela\u2019s memorial. In the words of Mandela, the Cubans\u00a0‘destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor … [and] inspired the fighting masses of South Africa.’<\/a>Historian Piero Gleijeses argues that it was Cuba\u2019s victory in Angola in 1988 that forced Pretoria to set Namibia free and helped break the back of apartheid South Africa. We speak to Gleijeses about his new book, “Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria, and the Struggle for Southern Africa, 1976-1991,” and play archival footage of Mandela meeting Fidel Castro in Cuba.<\/p>\n

Read the full article here<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n