Christine Hatzky - Böcker

Angola, a former Portuguese colony in southern central Africa, gained independence in 1975 and almost immediately plunged into more than two decades of conflict and crisis. Fidel Castro sent Cuban military troops to Angola in support of the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA), leading to its ascension to power despite facing threats both international and domestic. What is less known, and what Cubans in Angola brings to light, is the significant role Cubans played in the transformation of civil society in Angola during these years. Offering not just military support but also political, medical, administrative, and technical expertise as well as educational assistance, the Cuban presence in Angola is a unique example of transatlantic cooperation between two formerly colonized nations in the global South.

This volume shifts the focus from violence to peace studies in Latin America and sheds light on how social groups and individuals resist to violence and strive to create peaceful or at least less violent conditions of conviviality. Drawing on social sciences, history, and anthropology, but also on cultural, literary, and film studies, the book examines the role of social mobilizations, civic activism, and cultural/artistic initiatives as responses to the crisis of violence, which the state is unable or unwilling to address. In this sense, it debates what a culture of peace could mean in Latin America.Divided into four chapters, Chapter 1 discusses peace from an epistemological and philosophical perspective. In Chapter 2, the authors discuss the contours of a culture of peace with a particular focus on literary and cinematic narratives. Chapter 3 analyses the public debate about the role of the state in peace processes in the case of Costa Rica/Central America. Chapter 4 examines the importance of civil society activities in peace processes.Peace in Latin America is written for a wide and diverse audience that includes researchers, professors, specialists, students, civil society activists, and political actors not only from Latin America but from all over the world.

A history of Atlantic solidarity between Cuba and Africa, in struggle for African independence from colonial powersThe Cuban people hold a special place in the hearts of the people of Africa. The Cuban internationalists have made a contribution to African independence, freedom, and justice, unparalleled for its principled and selfless character.'As Nelson Mandela states, Cuba was a key participant in the struggle for the independence of African countries during the Cold War and the definitive ousting of colonialism from the continent. Beyond the military interventions that played a decisive role in shaping African political history, there were many-sided engagements between the island and the continent. Cuba and Africa, 1959-1994 is the story of tens of thousands of individuals who crossed the Atlantic as doctors, scientists, soldiers, students and artists. Each chapter presents a case study – from Algeria to Angola, from Equatorial Guinea to South Africa – and shows how much of the encounter between Cuba and Africa took place in non-militaristic fields: humanitarian and medical, scientific and educational, cultural and artistic.The historical experience and the legacies documented in this book speak to the major ideologies that shaped the colonial and postcolonial world, including internationalism, developmentalism and South–South cooperation.Approaching African–Cuban relations from a multiplicity of angles, this collection will appeal to an equally wide range of readers, from scholars in black Atlantic studies to cultural theorists and general readers with an interest in contemporary African history.