BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
Today’s guest of The Ethiopian Herald, Jorge Lefebre Nicolás is the Cuban Ambassador to Ethiopia. After studying diplomacy in his country, Nicolás was deployed as a diplomat in nine African countries. As a result of this, he says that he adores the African continent as a whole.
Ethiopia and Cuba started diplomatic relations during the reign of Emperor Hailesellassie. But the diplomatic ties attained very high scale during the Derg regime which adhered to the socialist ideology which Cuba also followed. The relation that was precipitated by the ideology was not limited on political affairs. Rather the two countries joined hands to collaborate in education, health, culture and fighting foreign enemies.
After the downfall of the Derg, the two countries have also continued their ties and still enjoy warm friendship that is cemented by people to people friendship.
In the short stay we had with Ambassador Nicolás, The Ethiopian Herald raised a range of issues, and he forwarded various messages to our esteemed readers as follows: Have a nice read.
I presume that you have heard about one of the historical places that linked the two countries — Karamara, a place where Cuban soldiers stood to fight alongside Ethiopians and paid sacrifices. How do you think the place should be kept to serve as an important historical place that represents both countries?
So far, I have not had the opportunity to visit the Karamara war front. So far, I have never visited it. Since I will be here as an ambassador for about four years, I will have to plan to visit the place where a lot of Cuban soldiers stood to fight alongside Ethiopians and paid the ultimate sacrifice.
But the Battle of Karamara is not strange to us. So every year, we commemorate the anniversary of the battle. Here in Ethiopia, all those Ethiopians who studied in Cuba as children are now mature people. They have a friendship association called the Ethio-Cuban Friendship Association, which is very important and powerful in terms of activities and feelings for Cuba. And every year, on March 5, they organize a memorial program at the monument to the victory. So they organized a huge memorial to commemorate the anniversary of that battle and the victory.
And also to send a message not to forget what happened there and how the two countries (and a third one was Yemen) —gathered together to defend the national integrity of Ethiopia. And at the same time, that shows the appreciation of Ethiopia for Cuba. So Karamara is an important part of our history. You commemorate that here, but also in Cuba, we celebrate the victory of Karamara.
So more than erecting a monument in Karamara, it’s more important when the history is kept alive in the minds of the young generations. Imagine the Battle at Adwa; there is no a big monument that remembers their sacrifice, but everybody knows the sacrifice they made at that moment. A country cannot forget its past, its history, or its heroes. And for us, Karamara is part of that concept. All the people who died there were Ethiopian heroes or Cuban heroes as well.
In the past two years, Ethiopia has passed through a challenging time because of external pressure that exploited the domestic problem as a pretext. How do you see the struggle Ethiopians at home and abroad made to withstand those external pressures? What do you think the people and government of Ethiopia should do in the future to resist such pressure?
So we experienced similar pressures. We were in similar circumstances for 60–62 years now. And we have created our own resources to, first and foremost, resist those sanctions. And second, to overcome the sanctions, continue doing whatever you have to do, no matter what the sanctions are. The sanctions make the people very strong and enable to develop resilience. So the resilience of the people allows us to face those and not to put our heads in front of the superpower and not to put ourselves on our knees to say, ‘OK, we will accept whatever you say.’ No, it’s resistance and resilience. These are the two important concepts, the two important words in front of those sanctions.
So we know that for many years, the United States has imposed a blockade on Cuba to make the Cubans change their system. But we have been there. We are still there. And we will be there for many years. So sanctions are not effective at all. You have the decision to face it and the resilience to support it. You made the sacrifice, but at the end, you are also proud of your victory. You say no one has ever been able to overcome our will to be independent and to proceed or continue our way. And I think the government of Ethiopia is doing whatever they can, whatever they can in diplomatic relationships, to overcome those sanctions. So there is resilience among the people; I have seen it there.
Sanctions are there, but still, people are struggling to go over those sanctions and to succeed in life. And the government is doing all they can to try to send a message to the world that the situation in Ethiopia is not what the press, the media, or some superpower tells, and that the history is different. And you are struggling, you are negotiating, and you are solving your own problems through your own efforts. And that deserves credit. And I think it’s good.
The situation has improved a lot, as we have been talking before, how in the last year the situation was complicated in Ethiopia, but now that a peace agreement has been signed, that shows a message to the world, how you have been in a conflict and you have come out of those conflicts by your own efforts. That sends a message to the whole world: you can avoid the war. And also, if you are in a war, you can get out of it through dialogue, negotiation, and peace. So I think to some extent that what Ethiopia has done in that peace agreement is a very positive message to the whole world—not only to Africans, but to the whole world.
Last time you paid a courtesy visit to the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Can you say something about the talks made so far to develop inter-parliamentary ties between the two countries?
The Speaker of the House [Taggese Chaffo] is a very good and admirable person, and he has a very outstanding personality here in Ethiopia. So as a diplomat, I must meet him, I must talk to him, and I must present my respect to the House of Peoples Representatives of Ethiopia through him. And when I went there to see him, I wanted to show my respect to the whole parliament of Ethiopia, all deputies, and through the deputies, to the people of Ethiopia. And it’s true; we had a very interesting conversation about the possibility that Cuba and Ethiopia have to develop further ties in parliamentary affairs.
So in the past, we had a group of friends in the parliament, but now there’s a new parliament, so we wanted to renovate that group of friendship among the parliament. And also, we have elected a new parliament just recently, this month, and we want to strengthen our relations, the relations between the parliaments of two countries. So that is the beginning of our journey in the legislature. So you will see many things: many meetings or gatherings, exchanges between Cuba and the Ethiopian parliament
So we have many things to talk about and many things to discuss. You have a lot of experience here in Ethiopia. I mean, as a country, you have an economy that is similar to Cuba in the way that we intend to develop our own resources, our culture, and so on. And we think that we have many things to learn from Ethiopia, and we have other things that we can do together with Ethiopia, so that we can do it through the parliament. So you will see future Cuban parliamentarians coming here to discuss how you solve problems, how you organize your society, and how you deal with the people. And also, you will see many Ethiopian parliamentarians going to Cuba to exchange with the population, with the government, and with the authorities. In Cuba, we have experience that we can apply to both countries.
Ethiopia and Cuba have had strong relations in terms of education, as many Ethiopians have studied in Cuba. You mentioned it previously, and they have felt your country is their second home. How do you see the role of Ethiopians who studied in Cuba in further promoting people-to-people relations between the two countries? How is cooperation in the health sector?
Well, the Ethiopians went to Cuba as children, so they were orphans from that war that we are talking about. They graduated there in Cuba as engineers, doctors, architects, and many more. So, they are professionals. So, they reached the number of around 5,000 Ethiopians. So, for us, they are back in Ethiopia. They are here, they are working, they have a life here in Ethiopia, and they contribute to Ethiopia’s priorities in the economy.
But for us, they are the most important group of people that we have in Ethiopia. They consider Cuba a second home, and we consider them our as younger brothers. Sometimes we consider them Cubans. Anytime they ask me here, as the press before has asked me here, how many Cubans are living in Ethiopia? I said, “Okay, Cuban original, only 25. But Cubans, our community reached 5,000 Ethiopians, and because we consider all the Ethiopians that we call them, we also consider all of them Cubans.
And it’s true, they have a love for Cuba, they have an expression, and they don’t get tired of expressing their admiration or their happy moments. They live in Cuba. They owe Cuba what they are now. And they are not afraid to tell that, to tell their story, to tell it to the press. So they have created this organization, the friends’ organization, which is very powerful. It’s very powerful. They have members in all societies and in all fields of Ethiopian society.
I know some guy who studied in Cuba. Everyone knows them. And at the same time, they come to this embassy as their own home. They pass by because they have that habit in Cuba. You know, for the Cuban population, you don’t need to send a message or call your friend by phone, telling them, I’m going to pass. No! You just passed by, and you knocked on the door. You say, I am here; let’s have a coffee together. And then I continue. They do the same here.
So every day there are some Ethiopians, who pass by, see the flag, and say, “Oh, the embassy is now here. So we have a chat, we drink coffee together, and they continue. That is the way. So any necessity that we have here in Ethiopia, any things that we need, we call one of them. Some of them are always ready to help us. And this is beyond that. They have a love for Cuba, and they support Cuba politically. All our endeavors, all our challenges, all our priorities—they are shoulder to shoulder, side by side, with Cuba. That is a fact. So that is undeniable. But at the same time, they offer their help to the family, to the people, and to all the Cubans that arrive here. They also organize Cuban activities here, such as Cuban nights and Cuban food.
In their houses, they have two or three days during the week when they cook Cuban food. Because they are trying to teach their children or their grandchildren to eat Cuban food, to dance to Cuban music, and sometimes to drink what Cubans drink.. And it’s true that, in the past, we have had very good, very deep cooperation in health. There are Cuban doctors in almost all regions of Ethiopia. But it happens that Ethiopia has also, with the passing of the year, improved their educational level and their universities, and now Ethiopia is able to graduate its own doctors and nurses.So the necessity is less, but there are still a group of health professionals in some fields.
You also have the support of the Ethiopians who studied in Cuba; they have some other specialties in health. And we have a group of doctors working here in Jimma, St. Paul Hospital, and we also have some room in agriculture to establish some kind of cooperation. You have a very good coffee industry. And in Cuba, we are coffee lovers. So we mostly learn from Ethiopia. We have, in some areas, the same climate, the same conditions, and we can benefit from the way or the traditions that you apply to that industry.
But at the same time, we have a lot of experience in the sugar cane industry. We have a huge farm of sugarcane. I know that you are trying to develop the production of sugar here in some parts of Ethiopia. In that, we are also trying to establish some kind of cooperation to benefit. Mainly to benefit from the experience that we have applied in our country to solve problems that are the same in both countries. You have some regions here where there is drought. So we have learned how to transport the water from one place to another, how to save the water, how to apply some amount of water to agriculture, and how to build a small reservoir, a very small dam, to help the agriculture in some places. So we can establish that kind of exchange.
Could you tell me about the Ethiopian-Cuban Friendship Association? What role can it play in terms of strengthening bilateral relations?
Their role is very important to further enhance Cuban and Ethiopian relations. They are a group of people who studied in Cuba. They have a general knowledge of Cuba. They work here for some government organizations. So they can help translate the Cuban experience to the places where they work. They applied many of the things that they learned in Cuba. But mainly, they are an important link between Cuba and Ethiopia.
As I told you before, wherever you go, you find somebody who speaks Spanish and proudly says that I studied in Cuba. So for us, that is a better [way of promotion] than going to the newspaper and publish this interview; perhaps some amount of people will know me by this interview, will know about Cuba by this interview; only the readers of this piece know about Cuba by this interview. But through them, everybody in Ethiopia knows about Cuba. So when you talk to somebody on the street, they say, I have a friend who studied in Cuba, so I know that. People recognize the flag. I mean, the Cuban flag, wherever I go with the car.
I have a friend who studied in Cuba; he has that flag. So this is an important link between our two countries. I would like to tell you something. There was one government official here who told me that there was one time in the past that Ethiopia was forced by external pressure to adopt a position against Cuba. But the Ethiopian-Cuban-Friendship Association came to the foreign minister, and they demanded to remove that position. They said, “No, you can never be against Cuba; Cuba is our friend, and they took it back. They said the minister went to Cuba to say, “Sorry, we made a mistake.” I like your people. I liked your people through this education. They transport me to their families’ houses, and so on. And I have learned how the Ethiopians live and struggle day by day to keep their family together, these are difficult times. These are difficult times. But you always see the Ethiopians with a smile on their faces.
Thank you very much for your time.
You’re most welcome!
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 13 MAY 2023
