The role of Cuba in the end of Portuguese colonialism in Africa remains an emerging field of study, suffering from a lack of sources, particularly Cuban military and diplomatic records. Piero Gleijeses’ pioneering work remains a key reference. Michael R. Hall, Margaret Randall, Eric Covey, Christabelle Peters, Christine Hatzky, Raquel Ribeiro, Catarina Laranjeiro, Fernando Camacho Padilla and Alexsandro Silva have expanded the literature, focusing primarily on the Cuban contribution to Guinean independence and the Angolan civil war.
Edited by Mary-Alice Waters and Martín Koppel, The Fall of the Last Colonial Empire in Africa: Cuba and the independence war in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde is a welcome addition to the existing body of literature on the subject. The book’s main goal is to present the personal account of Víctor Dreke, a member of the Cuban armed forces who served as an internationalist combatant alongside the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cabo Verde (PAIGC) in 1967–1968, directed Cuban volunteers who trained militias in the Republic of Guinea (Conakry) and was an adviser to the post-colonial armed forces of Guinea-Bissau between 1986 and 1989.
The book contains biographical details about Víctor Dreke, an introduction by Mary-Alice Waters, background information about Guinea-Bissau, Cabo Verde and Amílcar Cabral written by Martín Koppel, interviews with Dreke and stories of other Cuban internationalists. It also provides readers with excerpts of speeches, quotations from books, maps, pictures, as well as a timeline focusing on the Portuguese colonies, the independence of African countries and Cuban internationalism.
The topics examined are wide-ranging, including Cuba’s motivations for intervening in Africa; the support to the PAIGC struggle against Portuguese colonialism; Amílcar Cabral’s leadership of the liberation movement in Guinea and Cabo Verde; the parallels between the experiences of the PAIGC and the Cuban revolution; the training of guerrillas to fight in Cabo Verde and the Cuban military mission in Guinea-Conakry. The overarching theme, however, is Víctor Dreke’s work as an internationalist combatant with the PAIGC in 1967–1968. The book traces his journey from heading the Military Unit 1546, which provided military training to Cuban volunteers for internationalist missions, to travelling to military fronts in Guinea, where Cubans fought alongside PAIGC guerrilla fighters.
The book makes a case that the Cuban artillery instructors, doctors, drivers and mechanics who trained and helped the PAIGC fighters played a pivotal role in the struggle for the independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde. In the same vein, Dreke conveys the idea of comradeship between the PAIGC militants and the Cubans, depicting Cuba’s solidarity as altruistic and respectful of the liberation movement’s decision-making authority. These interpretations also take centre stage in the testimonies collected from other Cubans who worked with the PAIGC. Indeed, while discussing the roles played by Dreke and themselves in Guinea, Alfonso Pérez Morales, Eduardo Torres Ferrer, René Hernández Gattorno, Oscar Oramas and Gustavo Chui Beltrán also argue that Cuban support was instrumental for the PAIGC.
One of the book’s strengths is the interesting details about Commander Raúl Díaz Argüelles’s deployment in 1972 to support the PAIGC leadership, as well as the information on how Cuban internationalism changed with the establishment of the 10th Directorate of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, which was responsible for directing military missions abroad. However, from an academic perspective, the book has a number of limitations. For example, it presents an almost romantic vision of Cuban internationalism without fully explaining the relationship between Cuba’s foreign policy, internal challenges and support for the PAIGC. The book’s portrayal of the PAIGC’s struggle somewhat recreates the liberation movement’s narrative regarding state-building programs in the liberated areas and women’s emancipation, without questioning the differences between the narrative and reality. It also contains many inaccurate information, such as the idea that the PAIGC forged unity between the different Guinean ethnic groups.
These limitations highlight the need to confront the insights offered by the personal accounts of Cuban internationalists with primary sources, particularly those from the PAIGC and the government of Guinea-Conakry. Only well-documented studies can provide a more comprehensive understanding of Cuban internationalism towards Guinea and Cabo Verde, exploring how the PAIGC sought support from non-state actors and countries such as Cuba, how internationalism was used as a foreign policy instrument to raise Cuba’s profile and how it was employed internally to mobilise support for the Cuban regime.
