VICTOR DREKE: CUBAN REVOLUTIONARY DEDICATED TO AFRICAN FREEDOM

Cuban commander Víctor Dreke may be one of the greatest African freedom fighters you may not have heard of. He began to chart his revolutionary path as a teenager, joining the struggle as a 15-year-old student. The white supremacist and neo-colonial regime of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista (1901-73) pushed him to rebel. At 18, he fought as a soldier, struggling in central Cuba’s Escambray Mountains against Batista's reactionary forces. Dreke was a part of the Cuban revolution from the first day that it triumphed, and he continued to defend it amidst imperialist and counterrevolutionary attacks. This elder was already a commander when the United States tried and failed to put an end to the revolution through the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack.

But, Dreke did not only fight for Cuba. He dedicated a significant portion of his life to the struggle to liberate the African continent. He was second-in-command of Cuban forces after Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara (1928-67) when they went to Congo to assist pro-Lumumba fighters. He was a comrade and combatant alongside anti-colonial revolutionary Amilcar Cabral (1924-73) and the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). He met many Pan-Africanist leaders, such as Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah (1909-72). 

Today, at the age of 87, he is the president of the Cuba-Africa Friendship Association, which works to strengthen Cuban-African relations and continue the fight for Africa's emancipation.

African Stream's Inemesit Richardson interviewed Dreke during a recent visit to Cuba.