In Defence of Rex and Cuba

THE LETTER PUBLISHED in the February 15 DAILY NATION, under the headline To Rex Who Spoke Against Cuban Racism, should be a warning to public figures about the ease with which opportunistic propagandists can use a person's good name and reputation to promote ends that that person would never support.
The letter, which was signed by several domestic Cuban opponents of the Revolutionary Government of Cuba, portrays our Rex Nettleford as a man who dedicated his life and abilities to identifying and denouncing racism in contemporary Cuba, and to "highlighting the lot of those who are fighting for civil rights in Cuba".

This is a portrait of Rex Nettleford that virtually none of us in the Caribbean can recognise! Indeed, Rex Nettleford himself - were he still alive - would also not be able to recognise this portrait of himself. No doubt, the purpose of the letter is to use Nettleford's good name and reputation as a weapon against the government of Cuba, and to further ends that are dear to the signatories of the letter.

Readers of the letter are being led to believe that Rex Nettleford had devoted himself to identifying Cuba as a purveyor of acute forms of racism. Clearly, the deceased Nettleford is simply being used! After all, it is common knowledge that the early Castro-led regime took immediate steps to outlaw anti-black institutional racism in Cuba, and that the current leadership openly acknowledges the need to combat the remnants of "subjective" racism that still exists amongst some elements of the white Cuban population.

But, to some extent, perhaps Rex has to share some of the blame for this facile and reactionary exploitation of his name and reputation. You see, in November last year, Nettleford joined with three other Jamaican academics in addressing a letter to President Raul Castro of Cuba in support of one Dr Darsi Ferrer Ramirez - a domestic opponent of the Cuban government who had been arrested a few months earlier. It is clear from the Jamaicans' letter that they had been informed that Dr Ferrer was "participating in the organisation of a peaceful demonstration in defence of the human rights of Afro-Cubans when he was arrested," and that they had therefore issued their letter in good faith.

What needs to be noted, however, is that this letter was written within the context of a concerted international effort by certain opponents of the Cuban government to generate a number of such letters. Indeed, a very similar letter was penned by an equally eminent and well meaning group of African American public figures!

However, one of those African American luminaries - Makani Themba-Nixon - had the foresight to withdraw her signature, after realising that her good name and intentions were likely to be exploited in precisely the same way that Rex Nettleford's have been.

In respectfully requesting the withdrawal of her signature, Ms Themba-Nixon wrote as follows: "I just don't want any public statement that we sign to become fodder for attacking a nation and a revolution that has contributed so much to the world. . . Certainly, we should have thought this through more carefully when we signed on. . . Unfortunately, this effort is being used by enemies of all of us to attempt to undermine a government whose efforts have proven critical to the uplift of Black people, despite its shortcomings."

May we allow the great Rex Nettleford to be true to himself in death as he was true to himself in life. And may this great African-Caribbean intellectual and warrior rest in peace!