How Far We Slaves Have Come

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Nelson Mandela. How Far We Slaves Have Come

Preface

Key dates

We will ensure that the poor and rightless will rule the land of their birth

We will never return to the slave barracks

Resolution of the Cuban Council of State

Notes

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NELSON MANDELA & FIDEL CASTRO

How Far We Slaves Have Come

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By puncturing once and for all the myth of the white supremacists’ invincibility, the outcome at Cuito Cuanavale gave another impulse to the battle against apartheid inside South Africa. The self-assurance of South Africa’s capitalist rulers took heavy blows, and tactical divisions among them deepened. On 2 February 1990, the government of Prime Minister FW de Klerk announced the unbanning of the African National Congress and several other anti-apartheid organisations. Nine days later, on 11 February, Nelson Mandela triumphantly walked out of Victor Verster Prison near Cape Town, free for the first time in twenty-seven and a half years.

In his speech to the Matanzas rally, Mandela paid tribute to the unparalleled contribution that Cuba’s internationalist volunteers made to the African peoples’ struggle for independence, freedom, and social justice. “The crushing defeat of the racist army at Cuito Cuanavale was a victory for the whole of Africa!” Mandela said. “The defeat of the apartheid army was an inspiration to the struggling people inside South Africa! Without the defeat of Cuito Cuanavale our organisations would not have been unbanned! The defeat of the racist army at Cuito Cuanavale has made it possible for me to be here today! . . . Cuito Cuanavale has been a turning point in the struggle to free the continent and our country from the scourge of apartheid!”

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