Can Harry Belafonte and Jay-Z join forces in the fight to defend the Cuban Revolution?
By Obi Egbuna Jr.
As Africa’s bravest daughters and sons proudly take their place amongst freedom loving people in saluting the Cuban people and Revolution, as they celebrate the 60th anniversary of the July 26th Movement led by Commandante Fidel Castro, launching their heroic armed struggle against the pro U.S. neo- colonialist dictatorial regime of Fulgencio Batista, the African community living inside U.S. borders are weighing the social and political ramifications of a war of words between world renowned artists Harry Belafonte and Shawn Carter better known as Jay-Z. On the surface, many will arrive at the conclusion that it is a cross generational conflict simply because Mr. Belafonte is old enough to be Jay-Z’s father. Others feel the dispute represents a clash between an iconic figure in the African protest artist movement and another artist who escaped from poverty and blue collar crime to mainstream hip-hop stardom which has resulted in opportunities to rub shoulders with Fortune 500 executives in corporate boardrooms.
The heated exchange of words between Mr. Belafonte and Mr. Carter stems from a comment made by Belafonte to reporters at a 2012 press conference in Switzerland that Carter and his wife Beyoncé Knowles are a couple with lots of influence but have decidely “turned their back on social responsibility”. A portion of the response by Mr. Carter from a song entitled Nickels and Dimes on his new Magna Carta Holy Grail album released on July 4th was, “I’m just trying to find common ground before Mr. Belafonte come and chop a nigga down”.
Before opportunist journalists and political pundits turn this into one gigantic soap opera and in the process offer no meaningful solution, we can only imagine the look on the faces of our former colonial masters if Harry Belafonte and Jay-Z, in the middle of calling a truce decide to start a campaign to lift the illegal immoral and racist U.S. blockade on Cuba. This would provide Mr. Belafonte with the chance to develop a relationship with Jay-Z similar to the one he was privileged to establish and maintain with the revolutionary giant Paul Robeson.
One of the blessings of living long enough to reach your twilight years is you are afforded the opportunity to have some very meaningful reflection, which enables you to gain insight on what the future holds for the human race. In Mr. Belafonte’s case he can share with Jay-Z that the same year Frank Sinatra invited him to participate in the inaugural gala of John F. Kennedy, he watched the CIA’s attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro during the Bay of Pigs invasion and it blew up in their face. When the invasion failed outright, Mr. Belafonte’s candidate of choice Kennedy responded by imposing the monstrous blockade that not only still exists today but has cost the Cuban people and government nearly 100 billion dollars.
Due to the efforts of Mr. Belafonte during JFK’s campaign in the 60′s and Jay-Z’s connection to President Obama, the Democratic Party still maintains its political stranglehold over the African community.
What could be categorized as an example of voter education, Mr. Belafonte can inform Jay-Z that the first political party African people started in this hemisphere was called Partido Independiente De Color (Independent Party of Color in English) in Cuba in 1908.
We are sure Mr. Belafonte is well aware that Jay-Z, like so many of our people, considers Barack Obama becoming President our most significant gain since the slave ship landed. At this point of the conversation, Mr. Belafonte can let Jay-Z know immediately after Commandante Fidel Castro and the July 26th movement rode thru the streets of Havana proclaiming a hard fought victory, it was none other than Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah who presided Ghana over the first African nation that overthrew its colonial master and was the first to publicly recognize the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.
When the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee became involved in the Freedom Rides, Mr. Belafonte helped provide financial support. This historical fact gives Mr. Belafonte the chance to tell Jay-Z that during his tenure as Chairman of SNCC, Kwame Ture went to Cuba in 1967 to participate in the OLAS (Organization of Latin American Solidarity) conference. The entire gathering listened with sheer amazement when a young Fidel Castro boldly proclaimed ”any crime committed against this leader will have serious repercussions throughout the world”.
Another important event to chronicle in the history of SNCC is Mr. Belafonte helped finance their visit to Guinee, Conakry when the leader of the Guinean Revolution Ahmed Seku Ture was still in power. Mr. Belafonte can tell Jay-Z that in May of 1972, Guinee became the first African country visited by Commandante Fidel Castro. The highlight of this historic visit was when Commandante Fidel received the Order of Fidelity Award, Guinee’s highest political honor.
Commandante Fidel showed his appreciation by calling Ahmed Seku Ture “one of the most extraordinary men of his era and this continent and the soul of his country a real apostle”. What makes that particular compliment unique is the only other man Commandante Fidel considers an apostle is the leader and architect of the first insurrection in Cuba Jose Marti.
Because Mr. Belafonte knows Jay-Z’s generation has three historical points of reference when it comes to political assassinations, (Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.), he can expand his horizons by sharing that the U.S. Government is responsible for 638 assassination attempts on the life of Commandante Fidel Castro. After Jay-Z has washed that down Mr. Belafonte can let him know the early attempts on Commandante Fidel’s life occurred while Kennedy appointed him Cultural Adviser to the Peace Corps. The annals of history reveal that every where U.S. Imperialism has committed a crime against humanity, the Peace Corps has been there for the purpose of diverting attention from their laundry list of atrocities. Another inroad Mr. Belafonte can use to educate Jay-Z about U.S.-Cuba relations is the movie Scarface starring Al Pacino. Due to the manner Tony Montana’s life as a drug kingpin is glamorized, many forget the intro of the film is an excerpt of Commandante Fidel’s speech addressing why over 100,00 Cubans were part of the Mariel Boat lift because in his words were unwilling to adapt to the spirit of the revolution. A grouping of these Cubans joined terrorist cells in Miami like Brothers to the Rescue and Alpha 66, and helped war criminals like Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch wreak havoc on their own kith and kin. This will help Mr. Belafonte show Jay-Z how the case of the Cuban 5 is connected to the cases of U.S. Prisoners of war like Mumia Abu Jamal, Russell “Maroon” Shoatz and Marshal Eddie Conway.
It would have been extremely productive if Mr. Belafonte praised Jay-Z and Beyoncé for traveling to Cuba to celebrate their 5th anniversary, even though it is clear the visit was not to challenge the political merit of U.S. travel restrictions. The attention centered around their vacation can be compared to the visits by Pope John Paul II and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter earlier this century.
In the song Open Letter on his new album, Jay-Z openly and honestly stated, “This Communist talk is so confusing”. Mr. Belafonte can share with him that at the same exact moment he was donating $1 million U.S. dollars to the American Red Cross to help Hurricane Katrina victims, and his label mate Kanye West accused President Bush of hating African people, the Cuban Government offered to send 1,500 doctors who are trained to treat patients after an environmental disaster to the Gulf region.
What made the offer rather unique was that the Cuban doctors offered to remain in the Gulf region until the public hospitals were once again functioning at an operational level. Those who understood the significance of this gesture were extremely adamant it was ignored by the Bush administration, but those hospitals were amongst the worst public facilities in the entire nation. The confusion Jay-Z discusses around Communism makes all the sense in the world, when only 15 years ago him and his high school classmate and colleague in the hip hop industry Christopher Wallace better known in hip hop circles as Biggie Smalls, were about to establish a group called the Commission, a name originally coined by the five mafia families in New York, as they were seeking to consolidate their efforts during the Mafia’s heyday. This was a few years before Jay-Z’s live and unplugged album in 2001 where he appears on the cover wearing a t-shirt with a picture of Che Guevara and, for a short period of time, he casually referred to himself as Jay Guevara.
A significant portion of hip-hop fans remember that on the same exact day Jay-Z released that album, another album was released by another internationally renowned hip-hop artist named Nas called Stillmatic who at the time was involved in a heated competition with Mr. Carter over who would be the face of New York hip-hop. What remained under the radar is Nas has a song called My Country dedicated to Patrice Lumumba and Che Guevara. This is not too long after rap artist and actor Common, who interviewed Mr. Belafonte for Ebony Magazine, did a song on his album Like Water For Chocolate in honor of Assata Shakur once the leader of the Black Liberation Army who lived in political exile in Cuba since escaping from prison. This explains why Jay-Z performs the remix of the Open Letter song with Common, who went to Cuba at the beginning of the 21st century with Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Fat Joe and Dead Prez, thanks to the efforts of the Malcolm X Grass Roots Movement in conjunction with the Black August campaign aimed at intensifying support for political prisoners and prisoners of war.
Our Sister Assata also has the distinction of being at the top of the U.S. Government’s terrorist list, which means the Homeland Security apparatus has openly marked her for death. It would come as no surprise if Jay-Z already knows Mr. Belafonte’s conversation with Commandante Fidel and Cuba’s Minister of Culture concerning hip-hop led to a special division within the ministry and Cuban hip-hop artists received a studio.
When Mr. Belafonte and Jay-Z have a sit down at some point, the health of South Africa’s first indigenous President Madiba Nelson Mandela will be infused into the discussion. Mr. Belafonte, who was involved in Mandela’s first U.S. tour after his release from prison, can remind Mr. Carter that in an interview with ABC Anchorman Ted Koepel, he was questioned about his trip to Cuba where he became the third African to receive the Jose Marti Award (Cuba’s highest honor).
The Madiba informed Mr. Koepel that off the continent of Africa, no country had done more to eradicate Apartheid than the revolutionary island of Cuba. It would extremely fruitful to Jay-Z if Mr. Belafonte does a comparative analysis of Cuba’s Africa policy to that of not only the United States but the Zionist State of Israel. As hundreds of thousands of Cuban’s, many of them Africans born and raised in Cuba due to colonialism and slavery, risked their lives in Angola during a 14 year armed standoff between the Government MPLA and the CIA trained mercenary group UNITA, Israeli Zionists openly recognized the Apartheid regime in South Africa and the Settler Colonial regimes in Zimbabwe, Namibia and Mozambique. The reason that Zimbabwe today has a 97% literacy rate is due to a training program for their teachers on the Island of Youth in Cuba that began in the early days of their independence. When Mr. Belafonte’s candidate of choice JFK met with Algeria’s President Ahmed Ben Bella in the early 60′s, the U.S. President attempted to persuade the young Arab revolutionary head of state to cancel his state visit to Cuba. Not only did Ben Bella make the trip, he prepared his speech of solidarity in Spanish. This was on the heels of Zionist Israel refusing to recognize Algeria and Tunisia’s sovereignty at the United Nations. When Commandante Fidel Castro met Malcolm X at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem during his first visit to the United Nations, he also had audience with Egypt’s revolutionary President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who a few years later not only would help save brother Malcolm’s life but is also born the same exact day as Dr. King January 15th only 11 years earlier.
The children of Africa will never forget how Zionist Israel bombed Egypt and Syria during the 6 day war in 1967. In loving memory of those Egyptians who lost their lives, we must expose the role of Zionist Israel in the U.S. led bombings of Libya in 1986 and 2011.
After that bridge is crossed, the next step in our anti Zionist work is forcing Israel to explain why they continiously stand shoulder to shoulder with U.S. Imperialism and a handful of politically insignificant nations and support the U.S. blockade on Cuba.
This history of Zionist Israel opposing self-determination of Africans everywhere from Harare (Zimbabwe’s Capital) to Havana (Cuba’s Capital) validated the assertion of our fallen comrade Kwame Ture who unapolgetically reminded us Zionism is a direct enemy of African people. One of the crowning achievements of Guinee’s foreign policy, under the leadership of Ahmed Seku Ture was helping draft the militant U.N. resolution 3379. Zionism is racism.
This provides Mr. Belafonte, who many consider an elder statesman in our cultural army, an opportunity to set the record straight on why historically he too has had pro-Zionist leanings. Those who have followed Mr. Belafonte’s career know he sang an Israeli song called HAVA NAGILA (Let Us Rejoice in English) which became a permanent part of his act. The manner Mr. Belafonte treated this song is almost identical to the manner the genius of soul Ray Charles approached singing America The Beautiful which became a staple of his act.
The origins of what to appears to be an innocent melody sung at Israeli weddings and Bar Mitvahs was originally written to celebrate the 1918 victory of Britain in Palestine and also the Balfour Declaration, which set the stage for the Zionists to seize control of Palestine in 1948.What makes this even more troubling is Mr. Belafonte has been quoted as saying “Life is not worthwhile without it most Jews in America learned the song from me”. In her powerful autobiography, Makeba My Story, our Sister Miriam Makeba shared that Mr. Belafonte canceled their tour in 1967, because she shared with him that some OAU delegates raised questions over why Mr. Belafonte and Mrs. Makeba were singing the Israeli song Erev Shel Shosha at the same time Israel was trying to wipe Egypt off the map. This part of their discussion could serve as a medium to discover if Mr. Belafonte played a role in persuading Dr. King to support Israel during the six day war; this could also perhaps lead to Jay-Z collaborating with Russell Simmons in discussing Israel’s Africa and Cuba policy with the Foundation of Ethnic Understanding who had the two of them address Anti-Semitism.
As this year marks the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Government’s assassination of Grenada’s Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, which coincides with the 40th anniversary of the assassination of the leader of the armed struggle in Guinee Bissau Amilcar Cabral, Mr. Belafonte can share with Jay-Z the connection both of these warriors have to Cuba.
When U.S. President Ronald Reagan was asked to justify the cowardly and barbaric invasion of Grenada, he referred to Grenada as a colony of the Soviet Union and an ally of Cuba. It was Kennedy who said what made Cuba most dangerous was not only its ability to maintain a revolutionary and socialist path but influence other neighboring countries to embrace this way of life. It was none other than Commandante Fidel Castro who marveled at how lucid Amilcar Cabral’s approach to revolution on the African continent was, which means Cabral reached a level of understanding that enables one to explain complex challenges and problems with the utmost simplicity.
As millions of Africans around the world are pressuring President Obama to pardon the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey of the trumped murder charges brought forward by J. Edgar Hoover, Mr. Belafonte can tell Jay-Z, the UNIA-ACL (Universal Negro Improvement Association – African Communities League) had 50 chapters in Cuba.
Because of Mr. Belafonte’s work to combat the HIV-AIDS pandemic on the African continent, which today is home to 21 million orphans who have lost both their mothers and fathers in this never ending fight, he can ask Jay-Z to join him in lobbying the African Union to act on the offer Cuba made to send 4,000 of their best HIV-AIDS doctors, researchers and specialist to go and remain on our mother continent until HIV-AIDS has been defeated. They both can play a crucial role in raising money for the supplies necessary for a project of this magnitude. At a moment when Democrats and Republicans are involved in their never-ending lovers quarrel over health care and the faltering economy, it would be empowering to see Mr. Belafonte and Jay-Z do a joint commercial promoting the 6 year scholarship program to the Latin American School of Medical Sciences in Havana, Cuba. Due to a lack of publicity, limited networking and barrages of anti-Cuba propaganda, the original 500 scholarships offered to Africans, Hispanics and Native Americans by Commandante Fidel personally after a discussion with the CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) have yet to be filled. It was the intent of Commandante Fidel to offer 500 scholarships annually in order to have the graduated return to the U.S. and practice in areas of the U.S. where health disparities are most prevalent.
This approach provides a refreshing alternative to redundant debates concerning the adventures of ObamaCare, which is nothing but the appeals of Congressional Black Caucus members Congressman John Conyers of Michigan and Congresswoman Donna Christiansen of the Virgin Islands reincarnated. The 60th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education case approaches at the same exact moment in history where HBCUs (Historical Black Colleges and Universities) are more vulnerable due to fiscal cuts and reduced loans than ever before. Our people’s fight for quality eduction would gain much needed momentum if Mr. Belafonte and Jay-Z encouraged all HBCUs and minority colleges and universities to establish and maintain cultural exchange programs with Cuba.
Mutulu Olugbala, whose stage name is M-1 and is one half of the internationally acclaimed hip-hop group Dead Prez, issued an extremely bold and visionary call to action to artists all over the world. This compilation album would focus on not only the U.S. blockade on Cuba but U.S.-EU sanctions on Zimbabwe. The African world, both on the continent and in the diaspora would celebrate if the “King of Calypso” and the self-proclaimed “King of New York Hip Hop” bury the hatchet by making a song as a contribution towards a project of this magnitude.
During U.S. President Barack Obama’s first campaign, he told the Gusanos (worms in Spanish) in Miami that in his lifetime the Cuban people have not known Democracy and Human rights, in the spirit of Harriet Tubman and the 300 slaves who escaped on the Underground Railroad, Mr. Belafonte and Jay-Z can tell their President that a revolutionary island 225 miles south of Florida has a system in place in which free health care and free education are the staple of their people’s revolution.
Obi Egbuna is the US Correspondent to the Herald (Zimbabwe’s National Newspaper) and a US based member of the Zimbabwe Cuba Friendship Association. Mr. Egbuna is a frequent contributor to Your World News.
