América Latina: ¿clase media de las naciones?

the spearhead of the revolution - and Okello was not a plausible Marxist. Yet the revolution did take a Marxist orientatÍ'on soon alter it occurroo an<l Okello was ouste<l before long. The legation that Abdul Rahman Babu, the Zanzibari Marxist, had' established inCuba 'weH . before the revolution, and the training of Zanzibari militiamen that probably took place on the Caribbean istand, must have affectcd tile shape of things to come in Zanzibar. Indeed, the very faet that Cuba .was an ishnd made it a plausible para<ligm for revolutionaries from Zanzibar. . . The ad itself of overthrowing the Sultan's regime had probably had no connectien with Cuba. Therewas a widely publidzedreport thatCuban militiamen were ameng the Zanúbari revolutionaries. . But Michael tofchie's theory about the source of the confusión 15 per_ suasive. It 1s probable that the Cuban rumour. was due to thepresence of severa! trade union leaders who had joined· the Zanzibari revolu. tionaries ear1y on the first <lay of the new year.tofchie pointsont that: 11 HMany merobers of the group had adopte<l the Cuban style of dress and rappearance, and even employed the. Cuban cry 'Venceremos' (We Shall Conquer) as a political symbol. Their Cuban type of uniform . set them off c1eady froro the (AfroShirazi Youth League)members and was probably the base of the re.port tbat the revolutionaryarmy containe<!. Cuban soldiers." ,Yet even if the overthrowof the Sultan's regime had nothing to do with the Cuban revolution, the d¡rection of change following· the royal ouster of Zanzibar might well llave been inspired by the mo– mentous precedent in the. Caribbean more than five years earlier. 12 In sorne cases later on Cubans :aHowed themse1ves' to· be hired as the equivalent of the Swiss Guard for the Pope. - soldiers to help maintain the viability of partieúlar African palaces. Regimes in Africa which have used Cubans over the years hinre ranged from the Govern. ment of Sierra I.eone to the Governinent of the Republic of the Con. g~ (Brazzaville). Now il. is the Government of Ethiopiá. . Bu! the most dramatic euban intervention in Afrkan affairs (ame in 1976 in the (ourse of the final stages of the Angolan civil war.· The eubans atrived in Angala on the side of the Popular Movetnent for the Liberationof Angola (MPLA). As against the rival movement of the National Frent for the Li. beration 'Of Angola (FNI.A) and the National Union Jot the Total 11 Michael Lofcliie, Zanzibar Background to ~evolution (Prineeton: University Press, 1965), p. 276. Consult also Mazrui, "The Caribbean rmp:wt on African Nationalism", op. ·cit. '. . 12 This part of the paper has borrowed from :M:azrui, "Africa and the Third· World". cOn Heroes 8nd Uhru7W(lrship .(London: J...pngman, 1967), PP: ~24~229. . . 80