Documentary Description
The previously untold story of Cuba's support for African
revolutions. This documentary unravels the story of the so-called Cold
War, through the prism of its least known arena: Africa. Against
colonialism, capitalism, and communism, the newly independent nations
attempted for the first time to gain real control of their own
countries. From Che Guevara's military campaign to avenge Lumumba in the
Congo, up to the fall of apartheid in South Africa, 300,000 Cubans
fought alongside African revolutionaries.
Patrice Lumumba was an African anti-colonial leader, and the
first legally elected Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of
Congo, after he assisted it achieve independence from Belgium in June
1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup.
He was subsequently imprisoned and assassinated. President Colonel
Mobutu, the key figure in the coup, supported by the Congo's former
colonial power, Belgium, and the CIA, became the Congo's ruler. Cuba
shared Africa's revolutionary quest for independence.
Fidel Castro decided that Cuba could not stand idly by, so he
sent Che Guevara to Africa to assess how they could aid local liberation
movements. In 1965, Guevara went to the Congo in an attempt to spark a
revolution against the pro-Western regime, which had emerged after the
assassination of Lumumba. The problem was, Guevara was without formal
military training, and was up against the Congolese, who were aided by
US Army Special Forces. So he returned to Cuba and recruited 120
soldiers, taking them back to the Congo. Still, Guevara's army was no
match, and they eventually withdrew in August, 1965.
From the tragicomic epic of Che Guevara in Congo, to the triumph
at the battle of Cuito Carnavale in Angola, Cuba: An African Odyssey
attempts to understand the world today through the saga of these
internationalists who won every battle, but finally lost the war.
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