Ethiopia and Cuba’s diplomatic relations started 49 years ago and kept on growing overcoming many difficulties. The very reason for the strong relations between the two countries that are located far away from each other is that the Cubans devotedly stood by the side of Ethiopia and sent an army to help Ethiopians fend off foreign aggression.
Even after the wounding of the war, Ethiopia and Cuba cemented their cooperation in the fields of health, education … etc. Accordingly, many thousands of Ethiopians, including those who were orphaned by the war were allowed to study various fields of education in Cuba. These students have formed a large Ethio-Cuban Community that is now the backbone of the strong diplomatic and people-to-people relations that thrived for almost half a century and is still nascent.
Cuban Ambassador to Ethiopia, Jorge Lefebre Nicolás has been working as Ambassador here for the last two years and half. Unfortunately, he is cutting short his stay here in Ethiopia due to a new assignment from his government. In his exclusive interview with The Ethiopian Herald, he reflected his warm impression of the people-to-people relations, and economic and political cooperation between the two countries. Enjoy reading!
How was your stay as Ambassador of Cuba to Ethiopia in the last couple of years?
When I received the news of my designation to Ethiopia I was very happy. Because Ethiopia and Cuba share a long history of relationship; the next year 2025 according to my calendar, is going to be 50 years of diplomatic relationship. Ethiopia is a very beloved country in Cuba for the fact that many Cubans who participated here in Ethiopia in the war of defending Ethiopia against external invasion died in that military operation. There were doctors and teachers. A lot of people also travel to Cuba have children and study. And they were back in Ethiopia as Engineers, doctors, professionals.
I was expected to be here for 4 years, but I have to go back and go to another destination. But in these 2 years, I have found here an admiration and love for my country that is hard to find in other places. Here in Ethiopia when you walk on the street many people can identify the Cuban flag. When they see the flag on the car they say Cuba, and the second word is Fidel.
At this age, they have not passed through history. They don’t know the close relationship that we enjoyed at that time but they can identify Cuba. And some others go beyond that and call Che Guevera because the leaders are very well recognized here in Ethiopia. And I have found that love for my country and I have enjoyed my short stay here in Ethiopia.
Ethiopia has been for me like what many people say “my second home, my second country”; but it’s a cliché; I will say Ethiopia is very dear to me. It’s a country where I and my wife have friends who love the Cubans in the same way we love Ethiopia.
Could you tell us how Ethio-Cuban people-to-people relations progressed through time and where it has reached now?
In 1976, we sent soldiers to Ethiopia to help the Ethiopian government at that time to fend off an external occupation. We fought shoulder to shoulder alongside the people and we were able to know the bravery of Ethiopian soldiers. That was the first Contact of people to people. After that, the war was over, but we sent contingents of doctors, and teachers to the universities, and schools.
Cuba also took care of war-orphaned Ethiopians. They travelled to Cuba under the program created by Fidel Castro to give education to those children. Many of them spent 10 to 15 years in Cuba. Now they are back. They are working in Ethiopia as professionals. We used to call them Ethio-Cubans. They are our people here. So we consider them our own because Ethiopians are very friendly. They easily blend with Cubans and also speak very good Spanish. This confuses many people whether they are Ethiopians or Cubans.
How do Ethiopians and Cubans live in each other’s country?
There are around 30 Ethiopians who study in Cuba every year. There are 3 or 4 that add to this free scholarship there. And there is an Ethiopian community that studied in Cuba and they stay there and they have their own family. They are interacting with the people while keeping their Ethiopian roots.
Unfortunately, we don’t have a Cuban community here. Some Cuban mixed families got married to Ethiopians in Cuba and they came here to work. They are living here. In 2 years and a half, I never had a weekend of my own. So, I have been invited to attend funerals, weddings, birthdays …etc. I was even sent by one groom as one of his family elders (Shimagle) who, according to Ethiopian matrimonial culture, presented a boy’s request to a family to give him their daughter off for marriage.
Ethiopians who have studied in Cuba have established an association that is called the Ethio-Cuba Friendship Association. It is an NGO that is recognized by the state and they work in many projects. They work along with the embassy; they defend the Cuban principles in front of the lies and the international pressure.
When I also need to do something in the embassy I don’t hire people. I call them one weekend and we work together. And we later end up at a party just drinking and eating. This is the life that we have produced. This Association is very important.
In March every year, there is the anniversary of the Battle of Karamara (Battle of Ogaden). That was the final Combat between the Cuban troops and the invaders here in Ethiopia. And then those people remembered that because the people were still alive. They organized every year in the Memorial Park near the central post office.
So every year we organize that meeting with them. The association keeps that part and the world that keeps alive their memories and all the pictures of the people who died there. It’s an obligation for us. It’s a moral obligation to go to that Park and to preserve our respect for the people that have fallen far away from our country and that part is going to be perhaps the centre for that celebration what is going to be music is going to be big time just because we have a lot of people here to celebrate. You get more than 5,000 Ethiopians. Now there are about 2,000 in Ethiopia. We can gather 400 of them very easily because if we send a message 400 come every year. But this year we make something bigger because we feel that we must share the 50 years of cooperation that has never been interrupted.
There are many areas in which Ethiopia and Cuba can work together. How much is the cooperation between the two countries progressing?
We understand each other and also as a country, we share the same challenges, like the economic challenges. Ethiopia must feed more than 120 million people. But you do have a big territory. We are a small island lot of resources in Ethiopia. But we have to feed 11 million people; but this is the same kind of effort that we have to do to feed, to provide education as well as medical care to all our people.
In these two years, I have witnessed the peace process in Ethiopia. Ethiopia was coming from a very difficult crisis, the Civil War in the North and your diplomacy was very skillful and with the help of some friends you were able to sign that peace agreement. Ethiopia was able to recover from that and despite those sanctions difficulties like the war in Russia, and the food crisis everywhere it has managed to keep economic productivity as well as to be recognized as one of the most vibrant economies in Africa and also to join the BRICS. They are the most important economies of the world. The composition of the group is the most important economic group in the world. They are strong, big economies. And now Ethiopia is part of that; it is a new possibility of cooperation.
Throughout the years we have been able to establish some kind of cooperation in the health services. We have contributed to creating nurses and doctors here. Now is of no importance because in these 50 years, Ethiopians have been able to create their capacities and they all possibilities do have a lot of University Health Universities in the country and you create your own to graduate your students, but we continue giving some kind of assistance. We have confirmed that Ethiopia now needs specialization services, like cancer diseases that need surgeries and also using the capacity that Cuba has created. We have a very high standard in the health system. And we are working on different projects. And now our health cooperation is 1 step higher.
We are working on some projects in the sugar industry. We have been able to identify that Ethiopia has built around 13 or 14 factories. Some of them are working. They are working with some difficulties because you have a very important technology in the sugar industry. But you have a lack of expertise in the harvest of sugar cane. We are definitely to finish one Big Technical mission that visits all the sugar Factories in Ethiopia. Now we are preparing a proposal on how to make cooperation that will benefit our countries.
Ethiopia has a long traditional expertise and an important culture of coffee producers. So we need your help. We need the Ethiopian varieties. And in Cuba, we consume a lot of onions, but we don’t have that kind of production. We need varieties. The weather in Cuba is like that of the central part of Ethiopia. It’s very hot. The production needs some expertise and we need to change the variety and increase the production because we need to provide food to the 11 million people. We cannot buy that from the international Market because of the economic sanction against Cuba.
We have different projects to help Ethiopia in its water resources. Ethiopia has a lot of irrigation and Water Resources in different places, but other places don’t have them, so you need to transport that using gravity, and solar energy and we are working on processing that. And we are developing projects to make a better potential of the water resource because you need it for agriculture.
What will be the role of Ethiopia’s membership in BRICS to Ethiopia and friendly countries?
Ethiopia’s membership in BRICS will open wider possibilities. BRICS are not a political consultation Forum but we have something as we are good friends. So we are confident that we have inside bricks the possibility to insert our economy through Ethiopia on the BRICS and also Ethiopia will get a fund to expand their economy. So we are like Ethiopia. We are countries with economic difficulties. We are calling the people to invest in Cuba and all the Ethiopian investment will be welcome in Cuba in the areas that we can’t have from benefits to get together.
At the same time, Ethiopia is a member of BRICS means it is a member of a group of countries with some political power in the United Nations. That is also another edge of this issue. The BRICS defend their positions. And in that, we have a very fruitful cooperation in a multilateral forum. When we face challenges and attacks against our Internal Affairs we gather together and defend our interests.
How has Ethio-Cuba relations played in bringing Africa and Latin America closer together?
Ethiopia has helped us in Africa. It is the political capital of Africa. There are now about 130 embassies here. African countries are there. Even the quality of the African diplomats here is very good. This is very high. For any country that needs cooperation with Africa or needs African support, they need to contact all the representatives here and the government of Ethiopia which has become an important political spot in the African map. So in fact many countries that don’t have so huge relationship with Africa, approach Cuba and they say “we need the support of the African country because this is very practical you are 54 states. So, 54 states are a third of the Supporters in any vote in the United Nations. So you need to work with the African culture. But if you are a country that comes here once every 2 years and can ask for support, you will not get it. In fact, in these 2 years, I have recommended many Latin American countries to open their embassies in Addis Ababa.
A few years back Cuba had the largest number of Embassies in Africa, which are now 34. By now Brazil has 36 Embassies in Africa. So I have hope that many more Latin American countries would open their embassies here in Addis Ababa.
Thank you very much and I wish you the best in your future career!
Thank you
BY ZEKARIAS WOLDEMARIAM
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 8 JUNE 2024
