April 23, 2012----I just received an email……

April 23, 2012----I just received an email……

I just received an email from Google Alerts. Google Alerts is a thingy whereby you list names or phrases of people or companies or events or whatever and then Google “alerts” you anytime it detects a new entry on the web regarding any one of the names on your list. Well, in addition to my own name (naturally, wouldn’t you?) Another name I listed was Lizo Mazwei, a medical doctor in the old apartheid South Africa who had spent years in the homeland of Transkei, and then later (when I met him) was on the faculty of the University of Transkei (name subsequently changed to Walter Sisulu School of Medicine), first as the Chairman of the Department of Surgery and then as the Dean of the Medical School. I have a lot of stories that include Lizo Mazwei, but I’ll stick to the one about this recent Google Alert.

From this Alert, I was linked to a story in a South African publication that announced the recipients of the Mkiva Humanitarian Awards by the Walter Sisulu University. There were four recipients this year: my friend Lizo Mazwei, for his work with a human needs organization, a Mr. Mpofu, who is Zimbabwe’s Mining Development Minister, Mr. (or Ms?) Sooliman, founder of a charitable organization, Mr (or Ms?) Ngema who is a playwright, actor, and singer, and finally, Fidel Castro, former president of Cuba.

Well, that sort of stopped me in my tracks. I had to go back in time and remember that during the apartheid days when the African National Congress, of which Nelson Mandela was a prominent leader and was jailed (for 27 years) and the organization banned in South Africa, the Cuban government (read Fidel Castro) gave money and materials to the ANC guerrillas . Then after apartheid was banished, the ANC came to power and Nelson Mandela elected president, the Cuban government (read Fidel Castro) sent hundreds of Cuban doctors to South Africa to help staff the woefully neglected black medical schools in the former homelands. Others went to community hospitals and clinics in the country-side of the former homelands. I met a number of these Cuban doctors during my several trips to Mthatha and the former University of Transkei medical school. They were all well-trained doctors and doing a yeoman's job of propping up the inadequate medical system they found themselves in.  They had little to say about Castro or Cuba, except to ask me why the US (JUST 90 MILES AWAY, they would say) did not recognize Cuba's government.

So to a certain segment (a large segment) of black South Africans, Fidel Castro is a hero, a compadre, a champion of health care for all, and someone who put his money where his mouth is. A far cry from the public image Fidel Castro has in this country, where we pay more attention to the difficult life of his people under his leadership (but where there IS free universal health care.) The world, she is complicated.