#african rebels

[deadassdiaspore]

[deadassdiaspore]

1.On this day in 1975, Cuba began Operation Carlota, its most important military internationalist mission in Africa. It was a major undertaking that contributed to the defeat of the apartheid military regime in South Africa & the independence of Angola & Namibia. More of the story:

2.Across Africa, Cuba provided military instructors & doctors, helping rebels gain their independence from Europeans. After the Portuguese dictatorship fell in 1974 & Portugal prepared to grant Angola independence on Nov. 11, 1975, three local movements fought to take power.

3.The largest rebel group with most popular support was the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). They were providing critical training & safe haven to other national liberation forces like the ANC (South Africa), SWAPO (Namibia), and FRELIMO (Mozambique).

4.In early November, the Apartheid South African Army was advancing 45 miles per day toward the capital Luanda. South Africa’s invasion endangered not only Angola’s revolution, but the struggle for liberation throughout the continent.

5.The racists wanted to install a puppet regime led by CIA collaborator Jonas Savimbi who would be ok with white rule in South The MPLA leaders, then understood that only an urgent appeal for international solidarity would enable them to fight of this invasion & secure independence.

6.The Angolans had one unlikely country they could turn to: Cuba. They had already provided military instructors to assist the MPLA. The answer came less than 48 hours later on Nov. 5. Yes. Fidel Castro & the Communist Party of Cuba reached its decision without thinking twice.

7.On another Nov 5 in 1843, a slave called Black Carlota, working on the Triunvirato plantation in the Matanzas region, took up her machete in a slave rebellion in which she lost her life. It was in homage to her that the solidarity action in Angola bore her name: Operation Carlota.

8.On Nov. 7, the first 82 soldiers, carrying light artillery, left to Angola. Over the coming weeks more than 10,000 Cuban troops would land in Angola. More than a decade later, at the end of apartheid, there would be as many as 36,000 troops fighting against the apartheid forces.

9.By the end of 1975, Cuban troops had routed the apartheid army & prevented their takeover of the country. The world owes Cuba and these internationalist soldiers a huge debt.

10.Cuban negotiator, Jorge Risquet and the defence of Cuito Cunavale.

SOURCE: Manolo De Los Santos@ manolo_realengo

[muitaime]

Socialism, the New Ideology By Kenyan Opposition Leaders.

Socialism, the New Ideology By Kenyan Opposition Leaders.

Socialism states that you owe me something simply because I exist. Capitalism, by contrast, results in a sort of reality-forced altruism: I may not want to help you, I may dislike you, but if I don’t give you a product or service you want, I will starve. Voluntary exchange is more moral than forced redistribution. If socialism is understood as a system in which workers and communities (rather…

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[roundears]

[newstfionline]

God among the rebels

Joel News International, Feb. 12, 2012 Ahmed and Mechela, two disciple making trainers, were bumping over a West African desert road in their Land Cruiser when the check engine light came on and the vehicle rolled to a stop. As they had no tools or spare parts needed for repair, they decided to walk three kilometers to a nearby village where a Christian colleague, Waseem, lived.

That evening Waseem invited the two men to join him for a 'discovery Bible study' in a nearby home. Ahmed and Mechela readily agreed, picturing a short walk to a peaceful round hut with a thatched roof, owned by a quiet family in the village. But instead, Waseem took his friends on a several hours long, arduous trek to a distant hut. Huddled inside was a group of some thirty men, dressed in desert camouflage and all heavily armed.

Ahmed recognized the men as a group of rebels, whom most Africans know as dangerous brigands. Had he known in advance that these men would be here, he would never have agreed to come. But Waseem simply beamed his smile, then sat down next to the rebel leader as he opened his Bible.

"You have heard that it was said," the rebel leader read, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also." Then the leader asked: "What did Isa say here, in your own words?"

For the next hour, the thirty men discussed the words of Jesus, considering the commands that were so radically opposed to their own traditions. Ahmed and Mechela sat silently in a corner, gazing with amazement as many of the men, including the leader himself, wept openly over their sinful condition.

The rebel leader blinked through his tears at Ahmed, then started to laugh. "You don't have to be afraid, my friends," he said, gesturing toward the fearful countenances of the two church planters. "You are in the safest place in the region!" In a serious tone, he continued: "Our friend Waseem has been reading God's Word to us, and it has changed our lives. We used to steal and kill, but now we are children of God!" Several of the group had already returned to their homes to share the Word of God with their families.

Ahmed and Mechela remained with the band for several days, until the spare parts for their car arrived, and in spending time with these men, whom they had once feared, their understanding of God's Word was transformed. "These men were my brothers," Ahmed explained later. "What I learned was that people don't need to fight such men to disarm them; the Word of God can easily disarm and compel them to obey."

Source: Ahmed and Mechela, interviewed by Jerry Trousdale for his book 'Miraculous Movements'

[skrimshanker]

Sven Torfinn. The Sudanese flag hangs from the ruins of a hut in the destroyed village of Terbeba, which was razed by Janjaweed Arab militants. A soldier from the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA), one of two rebel groups fighting against the government and Janjaweed, surveys the scene.