"History will Absolve Me" (Fidel Castro)

I was in Kashmir watching Al-Jazeera news when a report told of Fidel Castro's ailing health. The exact details are not known but his empty chair at the National Assembly meeting last Friday (December 22) is a sign that he is seriously ill.

My heart and political consciousness is with Castro in these trying moments. He is a true revolutionary and not some fake materialist pandering to the sensibilities of the market and wider spiritual vacuums. Here in Puttaparti I am reminded that life without ardent struggle and principled politics is merely existentential wanking. What is the use of seeking spiritual life if you tread past the downtrodden while seeking to pray/meditate?

Mooi would disagree. His view of life is beyond the market and in the realm of spirit and karma. I see life in terms of its inevitable fragility. No-one lives forever and no-one is doomed to suffer because of karma. To view life and suffering as tied to karma is to be pessimistic about the power of political struggle.

Castro is an 80-year-old man and we must prepare ourselves for the inevitable course of life. What will live beyond his body is his political struggle to offer an alternate vision of life. Many self-exiled Cubans who spew their hate of Castro in Miami are probably quite happy to see him ailing. Their vision is narrow and stunted by the trappings of American commercialism. Castro and his revolution will always be bigger than the navel-gazing-exiled-shoppers who want Cuba to be America's ho' paradise again.

When Castro was sentenced to 15 years of prison in 1953 by the Batista regime he said: "I warn you, I am just beginning! If there is in your hearts a vestige of love for your country, love for humanity, love for justice, listen carefully... I know that the regime will try to suppress the truth by all possible means; I know that there will be a conspiracy to bury me in oblivion. But my voice will not be stifled – it will rise from my breast even when I feel most alone, and my heart will give it all the fire that callous cowards deny it... Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me."

This now famous speech has lived on to mark the political genius that is Castro. His revolution has inspired many more throughout the world.

As a Black South African I owe my loyalty to Castro and Cubans who fought for my freedom. If it were not for Cuban troops in Angola, and elsewhere in the motherland, apartheid may have lived even longer.

And I am not fearful for the future. The revolution will no-doubt continue to live under the leadership of Raul Castro and others.


As 2006 draws to an end I am compelled to salute Comrade Castro and shout the inevitable: Viva Castro! Your struggle is not in vain. The Revolution Continues.