How should
history remember
To many, he was a heroic champion of
the disenfranchised; to others, a cruel
tyrant. Following Fidel Castro’s death in
November 2016, we asked five historians
to offer their verdicts on the Cuban
leader’s life and legacy
COMPILED BY MATT ELTONC a st ro?
Fidel
He inspired everyone from
Black Power activists to SouthAfrican freedom fighters
SIMON HALL
Castro was a revolutionary who symbolised his age. In December
1956, he returned from exile in Mexico, determined to overthrow
the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, Cuba’s American-backed
strongman. Arriving on 2 December aboard the Granma, Castro
boldly predicted that “we will be free or we will be martyrs.”
It was a cry that resonated with the times: 1956 saw a historic
victory for African-Americans in Montgomery, following
a year-long boycott of the city’s segregated buses, while,
in South Africa, tens of thousands of women took to
the streets of Pretoria to denounce apartheid.
The year also ushered in independence for Sudan, Tunisia,
Morocco and the Gold Coast – the first surrender of colonial
power in sub-Saharan Africa – and witnessed a popular uprising
against Stalinist rule in Hungary. In the decade that followedApril 2017 81