RACE & RACISM
10.3 OFFICIAL CUBAN STANDPOINT
blood thousands of Congolese in the name of the white race', 'just as they suffered under the German heel [Nazism] because their blood was not sufficiently Aryan' (ibid., 329-30). In this instance, likewise, Guevara directly associates European colonialism (Belgian and British) and North American capitalism-imperialism, with racist oppression in Africa. He regards the racist ideology imposed on Africa in a similar light as the racist dogma which underpinned Nazi rule in Germany. Though not mentioning him by name, in the speech Guevara in this speech proceeds to recall a standpoint advanced by Marti in earlier times. However, in reviving one of Marti's most cherished ideas, Guevara endeavours to imbue it with a distinctive class perspective:
Perhaps many of those soldiers, who were turned into sub-humans by imperialist machinery, believe in good faith that they are defending the rights of a superior race. In this Assembly, however, those peoples whose skins are darkened by a different sun, colored [sic] by different pigments, constitute the majority. And they fully and clearly understand that the difference between men does not lie in the color [sic] of their skin, but in the forms of ownership of the means of production, in the relations of production (ibid., 330, emphasis added).
Concluding his standpoint on this issue, Guevara goes on to express Cuba's support for various oppressed and poor nations, both in Africa and beyond the continent's borders. This is an instance that portrays his awareness of global human struggles and above all, his allegiance to universal solidarity, topics which receive in-depth attention in chapter 14:
The Cuban delegation extends greetings to the peoples of Southern Rhodesia and South-West Africa, oppressed by white colonialist minorities; to the peoples of Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Swaziland, French Somaliland, the Arabs of Palestine, Aden and the Protectorates, Oman; and to all peoples in conflict with imperialism and colonialism. We reaffirm our support to them (ibid.).
Stubbs 1993, 6). As Robaina (199011993) substantiates, 'One of the first problems the Revolution took on board was racial discrimination' (Robania 199011993, 102). Hence, during March 1959 Fidel Castro announced what has become known as the Proclamation Against Discrimination, which declares among other rulings,
1) The Cuban government had no need to formally establish a right that belongs to all
(2) No man or woman possessed 'superior value' to other men or women, and (3) Nobody stemmed from a 'pure' or 'superior race' (ibid).
Following from this Castro demarcates the yardstick by which Cubans would be appraised in the new society:
Virtue, personal merit, heroism, generosity, should be the measure of men, not skin colour' (cited in Sarduy and Stubbs 1993,6).
From these declarations it is apparent that the revolutionary regime sought to propagate and inculcate the idea that all citizens are fundamentally equal, that 'skin colour' should not constitute a factor either in the consideration or appraisal of citizens.
Fernandez Robaina argues that education played a decisive role in the revolutionary regime's endeavour to broach the island's historic racial question.
In this regard, Castro sought to adopt the idea held by many for decades, that only through education could racial discrimination and prejudice be purged. As a consequence, in the early stages of the revolution education was put forward as a means of helping eliminate the harms of the neo-colonial republic, among which discrimination and prejUdice were deemed as highly significant (F ernandez Robaina 1990/1993, 102). Fernandez Robaina contends furthermore that the new position of the revolutionary government was distinct in that in the past the racial issue was addressed without thorough investigation. As he points out, in the past there were 'only philantrophic ideas, without relating the two phenomena with their economic origins and the imposition and penetration of ideological currents of the dominant class among the popular sectors of the population' (ibid.). As a direct result perceptions of discrimination and
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prejudice cut across not only class, but similarly colour. As Castro endeavoured to point out,
. . . in all fairness, I must say that it is not only the aristocracy who practices discrimination. There are very humble people who also hold the same prejudices as any wealthy person, and this is what is most absurd and sad . .. and should compel people to meditate on the problem (Castro cited in Fernandez Robaina 199011993, 102).
On a further occaSIOn, Castro censured racial discrimination and racial prejudice, calling them 'anti-nation', arguing 'what the eternal enemies of Cuba ... want is for us, to be divided into a thousand pieces' (ibid.). Pedro Serviat, a prominent Cuban intellectual, strengthened this pronouncement, arguing as Guevara and Fernandez Robaina does - that it is, in effect, commercial manipulation that has a vested interest in maintaining human discrimination and categorisation. These mechanisms he considers exist merely to sow competition and division among citizens (Serviat 198611993, 89-90).
In his March 1959 address Castro also pronounced what would become one of the fundamental pillars of the new Cuban nation. As can be observed both here and in the citations above, the influence of Jose Marti is quite evident:
Are we to be a small people and on top of that divided? .... Are we ... now to be divided into white and black? To what end if not to weaken the nation, to weaken Cuba? Are we to be weak and also divided by colour? Why do we not tackle this problem radically and with love, not in a spirit of division and hate? Why not educate and destroy the prejudice of centuries, the prejudice handed down to us from such an odious institution as slavery? The problem here is not a change of government but changing the essence of what colonial politics have been until today. We have to uproot the last colonial vestiges, conscious of making that phrase of Alarti a reality: he said it before, we have to repeat it now, that a Cuban is more than white, more than black, and we are Cuban (Castro cited in Fernandez Robaina 199011993, 103-4, emphasis added).
In line with Guevara and Castro's anti-racist standpoints, Raul Castro, brother of Fidel and leader of Cuba's military forces, issued this pronouncement during a commemorative gathering in Havana in 1959:
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What should we do about the men and women of black skin. for whom Maceo 6 fought, suffering the same anguish of inequality that he suffered in his admirable body and spirit? We know what we must do. Because we take the commitment of Jose Marti 'and Antonio Maceo as our own. On this night of tribute, I wish to remember those great heroes of yesteryear, as we embark upon this new revolution, the phase which is ours to live ... (Raul Castro cited in Serviat 198611993, 88).