Axis of Solidarity: Cuba and the Liberation Struggle in Southern Africa

This paper brings to life the unparalleled role that over 400,000 Cubans in Angola played in the liberation of southern Africa from the stranglehold of settler colonial rule. I draw on oral histories conducted in Cuba and a unique "archive of solidarity" that includes original posters produced by Cuba's Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa, and Latin America (OSPAAAL) and a vast array of mementos and ephemera that index Cuba-Africa solidarity. The first-hand experiences and perspectives of the Cuban men and women who served in Angola between 1975 and 1991 offer a new analytical lens through which to view the ideological, logistical, and emotional complexity that characterized the unique role that Cuba played in shaping Angola's post-independence political, military, social, and developmental history in particular, and southern Africa’s march towards freedom more broadly. They also offer a fresh perspective from which to consider how Cubans evaluated their own broad commitments to international solidarity movements, and the roles that race and the history of slavery in Cuba played in shaping their specific commitment to Angola and its people within the overlapping contexts of the Cold War and apartheid in neighboring South Africa.