The death of former Cuban president Fidel Castro has closed a complicated chapter. Reaction to his passing was, as you’d expect, mixed: condemned as a tyrant by his own daughter (who fled to the US), he was also lauded, even worshipped, as a saint-like liberator by many developing nations. For Cubans, there’s no dispute that his human rights record was abysmal: executions were rife while thousands were jailed for daring to call for similar freedoms we take for granted in SA — like basic freedom of expression. Africans have a more romantic notion of Castro. Certainly, as a symbol, there’s no debate he was instrumental in the demise of apartheid and colonialism.
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