In 1991, Nelson Mandela travelled to Cuba to thank Fidel Castro and the Cuban people for fighting Apartheid and colonialism in Africa. He said: “The decisive defeat of the aggressive apartheid forces (in Angola) destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the White oppressor.”… The Cuban intervention, which directly led to the independence of Namibia and South Africa, tragically came at a huge cost. Over 5,000 Cuban youths sacrificed their lives on the African soil, with another 5,000 missing or injured; no greater sacrifice can a people make for another.
To a number of us Nigerians, Plot 339, Diplomatic Drive, beside the United Nations Building, Abuja, is a familiar address. It is the Cuban Embassy in Nigeria. It was where we gathered on Friday, 18 October to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations between Nigeria and Cuba.
It is like no other embassy in Nigeria because there you have diplomats who do not just see all human beings as equals, but some have actually…