By Rubén G. Abelenda (*)
In these sad days, as the sixth anniversary of the departure of the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution approaches on November 25th, I heard an African friend say that he would have given more than 20 years of his life for Fidel Castro to be physically among us.
These words silenced several people who were participating in a dialogue in which we remembered the Commander-in-Chief of the Caribbean island, and in which we agreed, after a deathly silence, that humanity would be better with his always firm steps walking everywhere and his vision of the future.
It was Fidel who said for the first time that a better world is possible, when not a few years ago he warned that our species and the planet earth were in danger of disappearing due to wars, aggressions, blockades, the unbridled arms race, the extreme greed and damage to nature, among other evils, that have us on the brink of holocaust.
We are currently experiencing everything that the visionary of the largest of the Antilles predicted on the five continents, from armed conflicts and disasters caused by climate change, to diseases and pandemics such as Covid-19, which have caused so many deaths and are still causing.
The long light of the leader of the Cuban Revolution could show us the path to take to try to overcome so many adversities, and offer hope in the face of the uncertainty that currently torments the vast majority of human beings.
A giant like him, respected and admired in all corners of the planet, could surely help us out, with the accurate compass of his thoughts, from the rugged and dangerous tunnel through which we walk.
Six years after his death, his compatriots do not stop repeating a phrase from a beautiful song entitled Riding with Fidel that says: «Today I want to shout at you, my father, don’t let go of my hand, I still can’t walk well without you.»
And there is not a single day that Cubans remember Fidel, whom they consider their eternal guide, just as millions of people in all the nations of the world manifest, and especially in the most dispossessed of Africa and Latin America, to which offered his unconditional solidarity.
It is understandable, then, that we hear many men and women express, wherever we are, that they would give more than two decades of their lives for the historic leader of the oldest Caribbean island to be physically present.
And it is that Fidel is Fidel, and he will be forever in the hearts of the people, and no one will ever be able to erase his immense legacy.
(*) Ambassador of Cuba in The Gambia
"An Island on a Continent" 