Cuba is not at the forefront of one’s mind when thinking about countries that have had the greatest influence around the world. However, it cannot be denied that Cuba has had a detrimental effect on certain continents like Africa.
Cuba was a deeply socialist country, especially in the time of Fidel Castro, and would stand behind any country that accepted socialism and opposed imperialists. Cuba supported many nations in Africa when national liberation movements started to happen. Castro had succeeded in converting Angola towards a socialist regime, and he took care to make sure it stayed that way. Between 1981 and 1987, South Africans continued to try and take over Angola through other liberation movements going on at the time, like UNITA and FLNA, both backed by the United States. In November 1987, Castro finally pushed the South Africans out of Angola. However, South Africa had one last major attack in 1988, it was on a small Angola town called Cuito Cuanavale, but once again the Cubans helped push all of the South Africans out of Angola, through their armoured and motorised units. Through this victory, Cuba insisted on UN-supervised elections in Namibia, which South Africa agreed to, leading to the independence of Namibia in 1990. However, during the Cold War the international order was to shift to a Western liberal democracy, so Cuba’s influence in Africa diminished.
More recently, Cuba has been a key player in fighting Ebola, particularly in Africa. It offered more than 460 Cuban doctors and nurses to help treat and help those affected by Ebola. Cuba has a program that allows doctors who have recently graduated from medical school, to volunteer for medical missions, like Ebola outbreaks. There tend to be a one to two-year commitment, but along with training how to deal with said diseases, they also learn about the region’s history and culture. Even though Cuba does this nowadays, it goes back decades. Around 1960, 50 Cubans went to war-torn Algeria. Though this is not only related to Africa, in 1998, Cuba founded the Latin America Medical School, which aims to teach lower income people medicine, so that they can go back to their home countries and help. They give out scholarships and more than 23,000 students from 83 countries have graduated and gone back to their own countries to work as health workers. This shows how large a role Cuba has played in helping Africa (and other countries) get through huge medical problems, when some Western countries only wanted to hand money to the problem, which would not have helped anyone. There has not been much written on how Cuba has influenced the world, but it’s importance in advancing medical training and liberation is undeniable.
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