Liberation war veterans mourn Castro

04 Dec, 2016 - 00:12 0 Views
Liberation war veterans mourn Castro

The Sunday News

fidel-castro-and-joshua-nkomo

Dr Milton Chemhuru
The death of Comrade Fidel Castro Ruz, the former President of the Republic of Cuba, is nostalgic to some of us who were once under colonialism. Fidel was a revolutionary and is in the league of contemporary great revolutionaries who ever graced this earth.

Fidel (this is what he wanted people to call him), played one of the major roles in the liberation of Zimbabwe. When our war of liberation was at its climax in 1976 to 1980, Cuba assisted the then Patriotic Front in supplying weapons of war, military vehicles, military uniform, sugar, medical supplies and medical doctors. In addition Cuba opened military training bases for our guerrilla training in the new independent Angola.

After independence we had Cuba assisting Zimbabwe by training doctors, pharmacists, engineers, teachers etc. When we look back to the history of the liberation of Zimbabwe (again for those who know the history of our war of liberation), we remember the famous battles of Hwange, Sipolilo in late 60s that the guerrillas who fought these battles were trained in Cuba by the Fidel government. I happened to be the first Zimbabwean Cuban-trained doctor from 1980-87. I was at Havana University.

During that time I learnt a lot about who Fidel was and what he had done for his country Cuba and its people.

Fidel himself was a simple man, always in military fatigues and on his right hip was always his pistol. I do not remember any white house for Fidel. My understanding that time was that Fidel had no particular house for himself but stayed in the barracks.

Fidel could visit places like schools, university campus anytime of the day and could interview or get into conversation with any person of his choice. I understood Fidel like the late President Julius Nyerere of Tanzania or Prime Minister Mahathir Magandii of India had no property at all. He was a man of principle. “Principles are not negotiable”, Fidel used to say.

Fidel could address the nation from an open space for six hours non-stop and without reading from anything but from memory.

He did not repeat his words. Every time he addressed the nation I would come out with a new concept and experience. I enjoyed his speeches and expressions. One of the unique things about Fidel was that he never wanted to stand under a shed when addressing the nation even when it rained he would continue talking in the open air space.

My general assessment of his popularity among his people during my eight-year stay in Cuba was that his people loved him.

There were reasons for that love. One of the reasons was that every child had free education up to the university or college level.

The rate of unemployment in Cuba that time was very, very low during my stay in Cuba. I never met a street kid or street beggar in Cuba during my time there.

In the field of health, it was unbelievable that maternal and child mortality rates were one of the lowest in the world and could be compared with those of developed countries like UK or USA.

The rate of malnutrition was insignificant or none existing at all. The rates of infectious diseases like diarrhoea were very low. Cuba had eradicated malaria for instance.

To date the rates for HIV and TB infections are very low. Cuba has reduced the rate of PMTCT to zero percent. This is very commendable. All that summaries and tells us that the Cuban health system is still intact.

As medical students during our day to day duties the only diseases we could get for practical learning purposes were non communicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes, asthma, obesity, cancers etc. Cuba produced specialist doctors who would be sent to other countries for instance Latin American and African for assistance.

International assistance.

Besides the Zimbabweans students in Cuba, we had also other international students from as far as Afghanistan, North Korea, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique, other African countries not mentioned here, Mongolia, Palastia etc. In military assistance for their liberation, Cuba assisted countries like independent Angola, Namibia, Nicaragua, Ethiopia etc. Poor as Cuba was but Fidel sacrificed to help other people to be free.

Dr Milton Chemhuru

(MD Havana University Cuba. MPH University of Zimbabwe)

Liberation war name: Dr Mbeya/ Albert Ntonga. Senior military instructor both Zipra and Zipa (Brigadier)

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