The Cubans in Angola (1975-1991): A cultural overview

The cultural sphere of the internationalist cooperation between Cuba and Angola (1975-1991) has been insofar unexplored by scholars. There are some reasons for that absence. First, the readings of the Cuban-Angolan dialogue were, until not long ago, constrained by a Euro/Western-centric investigative paradigm in Cold War Studies, which always viewed “satellite nations” like Cuba or Angola in relation to the US, the USSR or Europe. The impossibility of de-territorializing that dominant narrative of the Cold War hindered the study of intellectual and ideological relations between Latin-American, Caribbean and West-African countries during the period. Secondly, the lack of comparative approaches could also have been inhibited by the linguistic limitations of scholars, usually specialized in either Hispanic, French, or Portuguese-speaking cultures, rather than approaching them in the realms of translinguistic and transnational studies. By proposing a comparative study of the cultural production arising from the Cuban presence in Angola, between 1975 and 1991, it is my aim with this article to present a transnational relationship between both countries, asking how memories of that presence still inform culture and identity in today’s Cuba, and perhaps incipiently, in post-civil-war Angola. By re-thinking Angola from Cuban culture, “outside the box” of a common perspective in Cold War studies, following a South-South approach, I believe the study of these “peripheries” of the Cold War can contribute towards a new understanding of cultural identity and nation-building in countries that have been overlooked in the canonical narrative of power relationships in (and with) the West.