Across the world, countries, movements and groups on Thursday August 13, 2026 marked the centenary of Fidel Castro Ruz, the iconic Cuban revolutionary. That was yesterday. But Fidel is not yesterday’s man. Although he marched into the full embrace of history on November 25, 2016, he is a man of today as his ideas of a better humanity and world, continue to spread. Given their timeless nature, Fidel will be also be a man of tomorrow. In Nigeria, we gathered at the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Africa’s largest labour centre for his commemoration.
Joined by workers and professionals political and human rights activists and ambassadors of various countries, we filled its conference hall, flowing to the upper chambers as various participants took the audiences through the essential Fidel Castro. For me, at the occasion, I was more interested in Fidel the humanist who despite the famed efficiency of the United States, US Central Intelligence Agency, survived over six hundred assassination plots by that agency. I reflected that when Fidel spoke on arrival in Havana at the beginning of the Cuban Revolution, a dove flew around and perched on its shoulder as if saying, this is the chosen one. I recalled that when he died, a big all-night African funeral ceremony was held for him by groups of Nigerians at the National Stadium, Lagos as they saw him as an African ancestor. These I narrated at this occasion.
