Fidel Castro became Cuba's president in 1958 after a successful coup d'etat. The reign of Fulgencio Batista, who was Cuba's dictator at that time came to an abrupt end. Undoubtedly, Fidel Castro and his cohorts became the people's heroes and sheroes. However, not everybody in Cuba was ready to welcome Castro as the great redeemer of the people. See, Fulgencio Batista had close political ties with the United States of America. Havana, the capital of Cuba, was home to many American owned businesses like casinos, brothels and hotels. Most of these businesses were in the hands of the American mafia. The mafia needed these businesses to white wash their monies, and Batista was more than willing to assist them in this. Batista got paid, and the American mafia got paid. It seems that everybody was getting paid except for the people of Cuba, who were left out to suffer. The American mafia were more or less controlling Cuba's politics, and socio-economy to detriment of Cuba's people.
Therefore, you could imagine the level of euphoria amongst the Cubans, when Fulgencio Batista finally gave up power to the people and fled the country. The departure of Batista signaled the end of the mafia's stronghold on Cuba's socio-economy. Also, the mafia witnessed the sudden death of their businesses. Their presence on this tiny island was longer appreciated. All of a sudden, Fidel Castro became the mafia's number one enemy. In fact, several assassination attempts were made on Castro's life by the mafia, but to no avail. Matters for Castro deteriorated for the worse, when he announced to the whole world that he was a social communist. The United States, which thought that Castro was going to turn Cuba into a democratic country after the coup became enraged. All sorts of undercover plans were then put in motion by the United States government to assassinate Castro. Moreover, Cuba was placed under a strict economic embargo. This action was intended to cripple Cuba's economy so that the Cubans might turn on Castro. It didn't work.
All in all the Cubans stood by Fidel Castro-they didn't let him down. Those Cubans, who wanted to leave the country did leave eventually. The majority, however, decided to stay to build their country come rain or shine. Fidel Castro retired quite recently. He would be 84 years of age this coming August. Cuba's economy, which was dealt a heavy blow by the enemies of Cuba is up on the rise again. 1 Cuban peso was 1 US Dollar, when I was busy writing this article. Indeed, the road has not been that easy for Castro and the Cuban people. It is tough and it was tough, but they never gave up. We Ghanaians were given Dr Kwame Nkrumah. An extraordinary figure, whose life's mission came to an end in 1966. The record of Nkrumah's political achievements speak volumes for and by themselves. Nobody ever said that the direction, which Dr Nkrumah and his cohorts wanted to take the country was going to be easy.
Again, nobody said that the direction was not going to be met with resistance. The direction, nonetheless, would've ushered in a golden era of industrialization for Ghana had we remained committed, but no. We all abandoned Nkrumah in the middle of the road as opposed to walking with him to the end. See, Ghanaians were full of Nkrumah's appraisal, when things were going good in the country. What many of us forgot is that sometimes in order for things to get better, they need to get worse. There is no country here on earth, which has never been tested. Ghana became Africa's first, when the country left its colonial home for self rule. Of course, self rule is all about knowing how to deal with whatever life throws at you without fear. Simply because; there would always be unforeseeable challenges in life. Nkrumah shouldn't be blamed for the economic hardships, which befell the country is the '60s. If anything, we should've found solutions to these problems together as a people as opposed to the coup d'etat, which broke Dr kwame Nkrumah's dear heart.
