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Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle Against Ebola in West Africa
In 2014 three West African countries were hit by the largest epidemic on record of the deadly Ebola virus. In response to an international call for help, Cuba’s revolutionary socialist government provided what was needed most—and what no other country even tried to deliver.
In a matter of weeks, more than 250 volunteer Cuban doctors, nurses, technicians, and public health specialists were on the ground providing hands-on care to thousands of desperately ill human beings and their traumatized families and communities.
By mid-2015 the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea had been virtually eradicated.
The discipline, courage, sense of humor, and pride of these Cuban volunteers rings throughout the firsthand accounts recorded here. Their actions showed the world the kind of men and women only a deep-going socialist revolution can produce.
In a matter of weeks, more than 250 volunteer Cuban doctors, nurses, technicians, and public health specialists were on the ground providing hands-on care to thousands of desperately ill human beings and their traumatized families and communities.
By mid-2015 the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea had been virtually eradicated.
The discipline, courage, sense of humor, and pride of these Cuban volunteers rings throughout the firsthand accounts recorded here. Their actions showed the world the kind of men and women only a deep-going socialist revolution can produce.
- GenresNonfiction
250 pages, Paperback
Published December 1, 2019
28 people want to read
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October 2, 2025
In April 1974 the fifty-year-old, deeply decayed fascist dictatorship in Portugal was overthrown by a military coup that unleashed a powerful revolutionary upsurge of Portuguese workers and farmers. (see Cuba and Angola: Fighting for Africa’s Freedom and Our Own. While this upsurge had a big impact on the world in many ways, one of the most obvious was that Portugal began dismantling its almost 500-year-old empire in Africa and negotiating with the national liberation movements which had been fighting it. The former backers of Portugal, the US and South Africa, tried to step into the breach and support pro-imperialist groups that were fighting for “independence.”
In order to fight the armies of South Africa, between 1975 and 1991 some 425,000 Cubans volunteered for military duty in Angola. Cuba had no interest in staying in Angola longer than necessary, but it should be noted that as part of the negotiations leading to withdrawal, freedom for the South African colony of Namibia was won. And in South Africa, Nelson Mandela had been released the year before the last Cubans departed. At a speech in Havana on July 26, 1991, Mandela said “the defeat of the racist army at Cuito Cuanavale [in 1988] has made it possible for me to be here today.” (See How Far We Slaves Have Come!: South Africa and Cuba in Today's World). A lot of people try to avoid these simple facts, because they want to believe that it was the US who was against apartheid. Facts are hard to refute; the pseudo-science of doing so is called bourgeois “political science.”
The Cuban revolutionary government had been providing medical aid to Africa since 1963—the first mission—Algeria. At first it went hand-in-hand with support to national liberation struggles. After the victory in southern Africa, Fidel Castro said that Cuba could not afford such a military involvement again, in the foreseeable future. But he said nothing about scaling down medical missions. This is today the most visible form of Cuba’s proletarian internationalism.
And this is why US imperialism, with the help of a few Cubans who have sold both their “souls” and their country, is working overtime to discredit it. Lies have been spread about Cuban doctors. Hoping to stain the image of the Cuban Revolution, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slandered Cuba’s international medical assistance program, saying it engages in “exploitative and coercive labor practices” towards its volunteer doctors. Pompeo announced July 26, 2019, that the State Department will deny visas to “certain Cuban officials & others responsible” for Cuba’s overseas medical aid programs. “Cuba must cease using this program to earn money on the backs of its citizens,” he said. Pompeo’s slanders—and similar ones made by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro—that the Cuban medical personnel serving abroad are “slaves,” are an attempt to hide the conquests made by workers and farmers in Cuba over the last five decades.
This exceptional book by a leading Cuban journalist who was present for some of the time in the three countries—Guinea (Conakry); Sierra Leone; and Liberia, where large numbers of Cuban volunteers were involved in fighting against the Ebola epidemic—is the best answer to Pompeo and other liars and cynics. There were other countries and NGOs involved as well, but no one did as much as Cuba. Ubieta provides interviews with Cuban doctors and nurses, one of whom, Dr. Rotceh Ríos explains,
“And we established a norm that was followed everywhere in Sierra Leone: There
were no differences between doctors and nurses. Everyone had to perform IV insertions, wipe bottoms, and mop up vomit. In fact, this norm was carried out to the letter.”
The interviews with the Cuban medical personnel are far from being either Hagiography or cookie-cutter uniformity. Some of the Cubans practice religion in one of the two main forms--Christianity and the Afro-Cuban practices based on Yoruba religion.
One of them had been hostile to the revolution. As Dr. Leonardo Fernández explains:
“It was in Nicaragua that I became a revolutionary. Earlier, when I was seventeen, you couldn’t listen to Beatles songs or go to a bar or be out on the street late at night. And although my family had belonged to the July 26 Movement, and my father and sister had been in the Sierra Maestra mountains, I was a rebel. I didn’t understand. [This was during a roughly five-year period when Stalinist cultural ideas held sway].
“I liked rock music and had long hair. But I had been educated in the principles of the revolution, and one day I was told: ‘There’s this situation developing.’ I raised my hand and off I went. And I learned to appreciate Cuba. It was outside Cuba that I learned to value the revolution.”
[Incidentally, today there’s a statue of John Lennon in a park in Havana. The Cuban Communist Party has made plenty of mistakes, but they usually get things right in the end].
Ubieta spends some time giving the specific historical background of the three countries, and he refutes various conspiracy theories about Ebola and writes,
“All these irrational reasons may or may not have contributed to the epidemic, but its spread is the result, first and foremost of inherited poverty. The number one vector causing and transmitting fatal diseases is poverty, with all its social and cultural consequences.” The 256 Cuban doctors, nurses and health care technicians saved a lot of lives.
In countries where many people suffer malnutrition, and have the malaria parasite, anything like Ebola or HIV-Aides, is going to spread quickly. It isn’t a conspiracy to kill black people. Capitalism seeks to exploit their labor, not to kill them (although in the process it kills many of all skin colors).
In order to fight the armies of South Africa, between 1975 and 1991 some 425,000 Cubans volunteered for military duty in Angola. Cuba had no interest in staying in Angola longer than necessary, but it should be noted that as part of the negotiations leading to withdrawal, freedom for the South African colony of Namibia was won. And in South Africa, Nelson Mandela had been released the year before the last Cubans departed. At a speech in Havana on July 26, 1991, Mandela said “the defeat of the racist army at Cuito Cuanavale [in 1988] has made it possible for me to be here today.” (See How Far We Slaves Have Come!: South Africa and Cuba in Today's World). A lot of people try to avoid these simple facts, because they want to believe that it was the US who was against apartheid. Facts are hard to refute; the pseudo-science of doing so is called bourgeois “political science.”
The Cuban revolutionary government had been providing medical aid to Africa since 1963—the first mission—Algeria. At first it went hand-in-hand with support to national liberation struggles. After the victory in southern Africa, Fidel Castro said that Cuba could not afford such a military involvement again, in the foreseeable future. But he said nothing about scaling down medical missions. This is today the most visible form of Cuba’s proletarian internationalism.
And this is why US imperialism, with the help of a few Cubans who have sold both their “souls” and their country, is working overtime to discredit it. Lies have been spread about Cuban doctors. Hoping to stain the image of the Cuban Revolution, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slandered Cuba’s international medical assistance program, saying it engages in “exploitative and coercive labor practices” towards its volunteer doctors. Pompeo announced July 26, 2019, that the State Department will deny visas to “certain Cuban officials & others responsible” for Cuba’s overseas medical aid programs. “Cuba must cease using this program to earn money on the backs of its citizens,” he said. Pompeo’s slanders—and similar ones made by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro—that the Cuban medical personnel serving abroad are “slaves,” are an attempt to hide the conquests made by workers and farmers in Cuba over the last five decades.
This exceptional book by a leading Cuban journalist who was present for some of the time in the three countries—Guinea (Conakry); Sierra Leone; and Liberia, where large numbers of Cuban volunteers were involved in fighting against the Ebola epidemic—is the best answer to Pompeo and other liars and cynics. There were other countries and NGOs involved as well, but no one did as much as Cuba. Ubieta provides interviews with Cuban doctors and nurses, one of whom, Dr. Rotceh Ríos explains,
“And we established a norm that was followed everywhere in Sierra Leone: There
were no differences between doctors and nurses. Everyone had to perform IV insertions, wipe bottoms, and mop up vomit. In fact, this norm was carried out to the letter.”
The interviews with the Cuban medical personnel are far from being either Hagiography or cookie-cutter uniformity. Some of the Cubans practice religion in one of the two main forms--Christianity and the Afro-Cuban practices based on Yoruba religion.
One of them had been hostile to the revolution. As Dr. Leonardo Fernández explains:
“It was in Nicaragua that I became a revolutionary. Earlier, when I was seventeen, you couldn’t listen to Beatles songs or go to a bar or be out on the street late at night. And although my family had belonged to the July 26 Movement, and my father and sister had been in the Sierra Maestra mountains, I was a rebel. I didn’t understand. [This was during a roughly five-year period when Stalinist cultural ideas held sway].
“I liked rock music and had long hair. But I had been educated in the principles of the revolution, and one day I was told: ‘There’s this situation developing.’ I raised my hand and off I went. And I learned to appreciate Cuba. It was outside Cuba that I learned to value the revolution.”
[Incidentally, today there’s a statue of John Lennon in a park in Havana. The Cuban Communist Party has made plenty of mistakes, but they usually get things right in the end].
Ubieta spends some time giving the specific historical background of the three countries, and he refutes various conspiracy theories about Ebola and writes,
“All these irrational reasons may or may not have contributed to the epidemic, but its spread is the result, first and foremost of inherited poverty. The number one vector causing and transmitting fatal diseases is poverty, with all its social and cultural consequences.” The 256 Cuban doctors, nurses and health care technicians saved a lot of lives.
In countries where many people suffer malnutrition, and have the malaria parasite, anything like Ebola or HIV-Aides, is going to spread quickly. It isn’t a conspiracy to kill black people. Capitalism seeks to exploit their labor, not to kill them (although in the process it kills many of all skin colors).
February 4, 2023
If heaven exists then it's just a bunch of Cubans up there hanging out alone....
Just kidding, but in all honesty wow. THIS is what Fidel Castro meant by the 'New Man.' Soooo inspirational. I dream of the day we have transformed not just society externally but also ourselves internally the way Cubans have.
They dismissed some of the bio-chemical warfare claims in the book as conspiracy theories with a bourgeois origin and ok... I know they have to be scientific in how they approach everything including a medical catastrophe like this of course but I do wish they had engaged with local socialists from the region such as Chernoh Alpha Bah who wrote The Ebola Outbreak in West Africa. They don''t have to agree with him but I wish his argument had been acknowledged or engaged with. I do really want people to tune into more African socialists and revolutionaries who are writing and publishing on the African continent today so I encourage folks to check that one out.
Overall this was a SUPER inspirational book and deepened by already tremendous respect for Cuban revolutionaries and the revolution. It made me realize how many heroic Cubans there are that are fighting for humanity including many whose names we will never know. Sometimes we focus a teeny bit too much on Fidel and Che (not that they're not very important). But it's so worth it to remember that the revolution has transformed the masses into true servants of the people.
Just kidding, but in all honesty wow. THIS is what Fidel Castro meant by the 'New Man.' Soooo inspirational. I dream of the day we have transformed not just society externally but also ourselves internally the way Cubans have.
They dismissed some of the bio-chemical warfare claims in the book as conspiracy theories with a bourgeois origin and ok... I know they have to be scientific in how they approach everything including a medical catastrophe like this of course but I do wish they had engaged with local socialists from the region such as Chernoh Alpha Bah who wrote The Ebola Outbreak in West Africa. They don''t have to agree with him but I wish his argument had been acknowledged or engaged with. I do really want people to tune into more African socialists and revolutionaries who are writing and publishing on the African continent today so I encourage folks to check that one out.
Overall this was a SUPER inspirational book and deepened by already tremendous respect for Cuban revolutionaries and the revolution. It made me realize how many heroic Cubans there are that are fighting for humanity including many whose names we will never know. Sometimes we focus a teeny bit too much on Fidel and Che (not that they're not very important). But it's so worth it to remember that the revolution has transformed the masses into true servants of the people.
May 20, 2022
Able Greenspan's Bookshelf
Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle Against Ebola in West Africa by Enrique Ubieta
Synopsis: In 2014 three West African countries were hit by the largest epidemic on record of the deadly Ebola virus. In response to an international call for help, Cuba's revolutionary socialist government provided what was needed most -- and what no other country even tried to deliver.
In a matter of weeks, more than 250 volunteer Cuban doctors, nurses, technicians, and public health specialists were on the ground providing hands-on care to thousands of desperately ill human beings and their traumatized families and communities.
By mid-2015 the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea had been virtually eradicated. The discipline, courage, sense of humor, and pride of these Cuban volunteers rings throughout the firsthand accounts recorded here. Their actions showed the world the kind of men and women only a deep-going socialist revolution can produce.
Critique: A story that was suppressed and largely unknown by Americans, "Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle Against Ebola in West Africa" showcases one of the benefits of the Cuban government and people have shared with other nations in the world during a threatened pandemic and debunks (after decades of demeaning propaganda about socialized medicine) the image most Americans hold of Cuba's accomplishments in the field of medicine and humanitarian outreach. An inherently interesting read, especially in this current era of a Covid-19 pandemic and the Trump administrations dismal record with respect to it, "Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle Against Ebola in West Africa" is an especially and unreservedly
recommended addition to personal reading lists, as well as community, college, and university library collections.
Able Greenspan Reviewer
BOOK REVIEW
Richard O. Djukpen
University of Wisconsin Green Bay, Wisconsin doi:10.1017/asr.2021.50 rdjukpen@gmail.com
AFRICAN STUDIES REVIEW
Enrique Ubieta Gomez. Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle against Ebola in West Africa. New York: Pathfinder, 2019. Translated from Spanish by Catriona Goss. 250 pp. Maps. Photos. References. Index. $17.00. Paper. ISBN: 978-1-60488-114-1.
Infectious diseases at pandemic level have had a devastating impact on humanity for many centuries. Therefore, understanding and managing the vectors and factors that propagate these diseases is paramount to human survival. Red Zone: Cuba and the battle against Ebola in West Africa by Enrique Ubieta Gomez represents one effort to understand the role of a nation-state and front-line workers in handling the Ebola crisis. The lessons of coopera- tion and determination presented in this book can be used in future pan- demics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic currently ravaging the world.
The book highlights the roles of the Cuban medical corps (healthcare workers) from Cuba in combating Ebola in West Africa. In addition to discussing their activities in West Africa, the author draws attention to other locations such as South America, Asia, and Southern Africa, where they also responded to disasters. Further, the author reviews the cooperation among medical personnel from different countries that are hitherto geo-political foes. For example, the United States and Cuba had no diplomatic alliance at the time of the Ebola missions, yet healthcare workers put aside national political bickering and worked unitedly to save lives in the “Ebola battlefield” in West Africa. The author presents many glorious moments that the political world can learn from, to help move humanity to a better place. When humans put their political, social, and cultural differences aside, they can achieve higher goals beneficial to all.
The author examines a plethora of factors that exacerbated the Ebola crisis, that future students of public health and policy making could study with reference to combatting pandemics. Such factors include effective cultural and communication methods, along with allaying doubts, misinformation, and uncertainties about the disease. An understanding of these factors and a rejection of misinformation would help in future efforts to fight pandemics.
The book discusses several “specific” reasons for the Ebola outbreak in the section “Ebola: Doubts and Certainties” (187–205). As the author argues, “... many of these reasons are macabre (suspicious) and not credible” (189). For example, it was alleged that the Ebola outbreak was a result of military
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the African Studies Association.
E57
E58 African Studies Review
experiments or biowarfare and birth control to depopulate the African conti- nent. “One such claim is that in 1982–1987 apartheid South Africa had a biological weapons program designed to kill or sterilize the black population” (189), while others accused the pharmaceutical industries of complicity in creating these new diseases, including Ebola. Generally, there is “the Manichean view of the world divided into ‘good and bad guys’ in the fight to dominate the world with biological warfare” (191–92). The author attempts to persuade readers to examine evidence critically and not accept any speculations.
The intimate personal notes and correspondences between volunteers and their families highlight the significance and power of the silent support of non-medical people to the success of these missions around the world. For example, the private note from one young man, “Dad. Be strong – everything is going to be fine” (207–10) to his ill doctor father in critical condition in a hospital in Europe, highlights the sacrifices of the people.
The book reflects on the Cuban medical brigade’s experiences in Libe- ria, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. In addition to the individual experiences of these healthcare workers, the book also catalogs the relationship between the West African governments (Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea) and Cuba as well as the developed world and the rest of the world. In the section “David, Goliath and other Reflections” (221–46), the author discusses the challenges the world faces when the “superpowers” work in opposition, and the great good that may result if there were cooperation. The good for humanity is greater when such an epidemic can be handled in a united manner to prevent unnecessary deaths. Painfully, such global cooperation was missing during the COVID-19 pandemic, and as a result, millions have been infected and died. Despite some political points presented in favor of communist Cuba, the author masterfully distills the medical experiences, activities, and cooperation between the health workers from diverse countries, with Cuba as the focus. This is a book that will enable scholars to understand the role of politics in fighting future pandemics successfully or otherwise.
Richard O. Djukpen
University of Wisconsin Green Bay, Wisconsin doi:10.1017/asr.2021.50 rdjukpen@gmail.com
For additional reading on this subject, the ASR recommends:
Depelchin, Jacques. 2007. “Cuba and The Recentering of African History.” African Studies Review 50 (2): 214–19. doi:10.1353/arw.2007.0090.
Duursma, Allard. 2019. “Mediating Solutions to Territorial Civil Wars in Africa: Norms, Interests, and Major Power Leverage.” African Studies Review 62 (3): 65–88. doi:10.1017/asr.2018.103.
Miller, Ivor. 2000. “A Secret Society Goes Public: The Relationship Between Abakuá and Cuban Popular Culture.” African Studies Review 43 (1): 161–88. doi: 10.2307/524726.
African Studies Quarterly | Volume 20, Issue 3|October 2021 http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v20/v20...
Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle Against Ebola in West Africa, written by Cuban journalist Enrique Ubieta Gómez, chronicles the experience of Cuban medical workers who volunteered to respond to the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. This book would be of interest to scholars of modern Cuba, the Cuban medical system, specifically the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade, and Cuba’s on-going relationship with the African continent.
In October 2014, Cuba’s Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade sent over 250 healthcare workers to the three Ebola-affected West African nations. In March 2015, Ubieta Gómez was commissioned to head a small press team that traveled to Guinea and Sierra Leone to report on the activities of Cuban doctors and nurses providing direct medical care at Ebola treatment units. This book is the result of that journey, and its purpose is to present Cuba’s response to the Ebola epidemic in the context of Cuba’s ongoing stance of solidarity with Africa and in its continuing implementation of revolutionary ideals.
The book does not delve deeply into the scientific or epidemiological aspects of Ebola but is rather a “human and political account” of the Cuban experience under difficult and unprecedented conditions.
Gómez interviewed numerous Cuban healthcare workers during his time in West Africa, and their stories make up the bulk of Red Zone. They discuss the reasons why they volunteered, the difficulties of leaving their families to face an unfamiliar virus, their anecdotes, and lessons from the field. They share both the victories and tragedies witnessed in the Ebola treatment units. These interviews present a valuable opportunity for more in-depth investigation and future research on Cuban medical missions.
It is notable that, as revealed within their stories and profiles, many of the volunteers already had a strong connection to Africa prior to 2014. Whether through past medical missions, cultural and religious practices, military service, or family history, many of the volunteers felt solidarity with Africa at a personal level. For example, Dr. Enrique Betancourt Casanova’s father was Samora Machel’s physician and died in the same plane crash that killed the Mozambican president and liberation leader.
Dr. Betancourt later worked as a doctor on a mission in Angola and cites his family’s history as a motivation to volunteer for Ebola response in West Africa.
The past is always present in Cuba’s relationship with Africa. Included in Red Zone are a number of photographs; images of the Ebola response are paired with older images of Cuban doctors and leaders in other African nations during their independence movements. Gómez writes much about Cuba’s history of solidarity with the continent, yet he cannot avoid placing that solidarity in the context of Cuba’s fraught relationship with the United States.
This can be distracting from the stated purpose of the book. A unique feature of Cuban history is that it created this solidarity on its own, independent of larger nations. Cuba sent volunteers to West Africa at the direct invitation of the affected countries, based on their shared histories, and did not need or wait for coordination from any other government. Why center the United States in a story about Cuba-African relations?
On the other hand, there would be no Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade without that fraught U.S.-Cuba history.
This special medical unit was founded in 2005 as a response to President Bush’s refusal of Cuban offers of assistance to areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. The enmity between the two countries continues to affect their ability to join forces during crises. Gómez discusses this further in the concluding chapter titled, “David, Goliath, and Other Reflections,” in which a secondary purpose emerges. Red Zone provides a Cuban socialist critique of the neoliberal paradigm of international aid and development projects.
Although Ubieta Gómez heavily praises the work of the medical brigade for implementing the ideals of the Cuban Revolution, it was surprising to learn in a chapter titled, “The Women,” that Cuban women were not allowed to volunteer for Ebola response, and female healthcare workers who were already on missions in West Africa were not allowed to stay. Gómez avoids critiquing this decision or questioning the weak reasons given for this policy. He does reproduce a letter from Dr. Eneida Álvarez Horta, coordinator of the Permanent Cuban Brigade in Sierra Leone, to the Cuban Public Health Ministry, expressing her dismay at the policy and asking to stay. He does not provide any quotes from the women affected.
Red Zone provides a distinctively Cuban perspective on the West African Ebola epidemic, informed by Cuba’s special relationship to the African continent and specialization in international medical missions. The Cuban healthcare workers who volunteered for this emergency mission in West Africa provide their own demonstration of revolutionary ideals and international solidarity. The book’s narrative casts a critical eye on the nature of international aid work, but often fails to turn that eye on itself.
By Heather Jordan, Independent Researcher
African Studies Quarterly | Volume 20, Issue 3|October 2021 http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v20/v20...
Just as the Cuban combatants in Angola set an example that can never be erased, the heroic actions of Cuba’s army of white coats will occupy a place of honor.” FIDEL CASTRO, OCTOBER 2014
In 2014 three West African countries were hit by the largest epidemic on record of the deadly Ebola virus. In response to an international call for help, Cuba’s revolutionary socialist government provided what was needed most—and what no other country even tried to deliver.
In a matter of weeks, more than 250 volunteer Cuban doctors, nurses, technicians, and public health specialists were on the ground providing hands-on care to thousands of desperately ill human beings and their traumatized families and communities.
By mid-2015 the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea had been virtually eradicated.
The discipline, courage, sense of humor, and pride of these Cuban volunteers rings throughout the firsthand accounts recorded here. Their actions showed the world the kind of men and women only a deep-going socialist revolution can produce.
Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle Against Ebola in West Africa by Enrique Ubieta
Synopsis: In 2014 three West African countries were hit by the largest epidemic on record of the deadly Ebola virus. In response to an international call for help, Cuba's revolutionary socialist government provided what was needed most -- and what no other country even tried to deliver.
In a matter of weeks, more than 250 volunteer Cuban doctors, nurses, technicians, and public health specialists were on the ground providing hands-on care to thousands of desperately ill human beings and their traumatized families and communities.
By mid-2015 the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea had been virtually eradicated. The discipline, courage, sense of humor, and pride of these Cuban volunteers rings throughout the firsthand accounts recorded here. Their actions showed the world the kind of men and women only a deep-going socialist revolution can produce.
Critique: A story that was suppressed and largely unknown by Americans, "Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle Against Ebola in West Africa" showcases one of the benefits of the Cuban government and people have shared with other nations in the world during a threatened pandemic and debunks (after decades of demeaning propaganda about socialized medicine) the image most Americans hold of Cuba's accomplishments in the field of medicine and humanitarian outreach. An inherently interesting read, especially in this current era of a Covid-19 pandemic and the Trump administrations dismal record with respect to it, "Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle Against Ebola in West Africa" is an especially and unreservedly
recommended addition to personal reading lists, as well as community, college, and university library collections.
Able Greenspan Reviewer
BOOK REVIEW
Richard O. Djukpen
University of Wisconsin Green Bay, Wisconsin doi:10.1017/asr.2021.50 rdjukpen@gmail.com
AFRICAN STUDIES REVIEW
Enrique Ubieta Gomez. Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle against Ebola in West Africa. New York: Pathfinder, 2019. Translated from Spanish by Catriona Goss. 250 pp. Maps. Photos. References. Index. $17.00. Paper. ISBN: 978-1-60488-114-1.
Infectious diseases at pandemic level have had a devastating impact on humanity for many centuries. Therefore, understanding and managing the vectors and factors that propagate these diseases is paramount to human survival. Red Zone: Cuba and the battle against Ebola in West Africa by Enrique Ubieta Gomez represents one effort to understand the role of a nation-state and front-line workers in handling the Ebola crisis. The lessons of coopera- tion and determination presented in this book can be used in future pan- demics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic currently ravaging the world.
The book highlights the roles of the Cuban medical corps (healthcare workers) from Cuba in combating Ebola in West Africa. In addition to discussing their activities in West Africa, the author draws attention to other locations such as South America, Asia, and Southern Africa, where they also responded to disasters. Further, the author reviews the cooperation among medical personnel from different countries that are hitherto geo-political foes. For example, the United States and Cuba had no diplomatic alliance at the time of the Ebola missions, yet healthcare workers put aside national political bickering and worked unitedly to save lives in the “Ebola battlefield” in West Africa. The author presents many glorious moments that the political world can learn from, to help move humanity to a better place. When humans put their political, social, and cultural differences aside, they can achieve higher goals beneficial to all.
The author examines a plethora of factors that exacerbated the Ebola crisis, that future students of public health and policy making could study with reference to combatting pandemics. Such factors include effective cultural and communication methods, along with allaying doubts, misinformation, and uncertainties about the disease. An understanding of these factors and a rejection of misinformation would help in future efforts to fight pandemics.
The book discusses several “specific” reasons for the Ebola outbreak in the section “Ebola: Doubts and Certainties” (187–205). As the author argues, “... many of these reasons are macabre (suspicious) and not credible” (189). For example, it was alleged that the Ebola outbreak was a result of military
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the African Studies Association.
E57
E58 African Studies Review
experiments or biowarfare and birth control to depopulate the African conti- nent. “One such claim is that in 1982–1987 apartheid South Africa had a biological weapons program designed to kill or sterilize the black population” (189), while others accused the pharmaceutical industries of complicity in creating these new diseases, including Ebola. Generally, there is “the Manichean view of the world divided into ‘good and bad guys’ in the fight to dominate the world with biological warfare” (191–92). The author attempts to persuade readers to examine evidence critically and not accept any speculations.
The intimate personal notes and correspondences between volunteers and their families highlight the significance and power of the silent support of non-medical people to the success of these missions around the world. For example, the private note from one young man, “Dad. Be strong – everything is going to be fine” (207–10) to his ill doctor father in critical condition in a hospital in Europe, highlights the sacrifices of the people.
The book reflects on the Cuban medical brigade’s experiences in Libe- ria, Sierra Leone, and Guinea. In addition to the individual experiences of these healthcare workers, the book also catalogs the relationship between the West African governments (Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea) and Cuba as well as the developed world and the rest of the world. In the section “David, Goliath and other Reflections” (221–46), the author discusses the challenges the world faces when the “superpowers” work in opposition, and the great good that may result if there were cooperation. The good for humanity is greater when such an epidemic can be handled in a united manner to prevent unnecessary deaths. Painfully, such global cooperation was missing during the COVID-19 pandemic, and as a result, millions have been infected and died. Despite some political points presented in favor of communist Cuba, the author masterfully distills the medical experiences, activities, and cooperation between the health workers from diverse countries, with Cuba as the focus. This is a book that will enable scholars to understand the role of politics in fighting future pandemics successfully or otherwise.
Richard O. Djukpen
University of Wisconsin Green Bay, Wisconsin doi:10.1017/asr.2021.50 rdjukpen@gmail.com
For additional reading on this subject, the ASR recommends:
Depelchin, Jacques. 2007. “Cuba and The Recentering of African History.” African Studies Review 50 (2): 214–19. doi:10.1353/arw.2007.0090.
Duursma, Allard. 2019. “Mediating Solutions to Territorial Civil Wars in Africa: Norms, Interests, and Major Power Leverage.” African Studies Review 62 (3): 65–88. doi:10.1017/asr.2018.103.
Miller, Ivor. 2000. “A Secret Society Goes Public: The Relationship Between Abakuá and Cuban Popular Culture.” African Studies Review 43 (1): 161–88. doi: 10.2307/524726.
African Studies Quarterly | Volume 20, Issue 3|October 2021 http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v20/v20...
Red Zone: Cuba and the Battle Against Ebola in West Africa, written by Cuban journalist Enrique Ubieta Gómez, chronicles the experience of Cuban medical workers who volunteered to respond to the 2014-2015 Ebola epidemic in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. This book would be of interest to scholars of modern Cuba, the Cuban medical system, specifically the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade, and Cuba’s on-going relationship with the African continent.
In October 2014, Cuba’s Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade sent over 250 healthcare workers to the three Ebola-affected West African nations. In March 2015, Ubieta Gómez was commissioned to head a small press team that traveled to Guinea and Sierra Leone to report on the activities of Cuban doctors and nurses providing direct medical care at Ebola treatment units. This book is the result of that journey, and its purpose is to present Cuba’s response to the Ebola epidemic in the context of Cuba’s ongoing stance of solidarity with Africa and in its continuing implementation of revolutionary ideals.
The book does not delve deeply into the scientific or epidemiological aspects of Ebola but is rather a “human and political account” of the Cuban experience under difficult and unprecedented conditions.
Gómez interviewed numerous Cuban healthcare workers during his time in West Africa, and their stories make up the bulk of Red Zone. They discuss the reasons why they volunteered, the difficulties of leaving their families to face an unfamiliar virus, their anecdotes, and lessons from the field. They share both the victories and tragedies witnessed in the Ebola treatment units. These interviews present a valuable opportunity for more in-depth investigation and future research on Cuban medical missions.
It is notable that, as revealed within their stories and profiles, many of the volunteers already had a strong connection to Africa prior to 2014. Whether through past medical missions, cultural and religious practices, military service, or family history, many of the volunteers felt solidarity with Africa at a personal level. For example, Dr. Enrique Betancourt Casanova’s father was Samora Machel’s physician and died in the same plane crash that killed the Mozambican president and liberation leader.
Dr. Betancourt later worked as a doctor on a mission in Angola and cites his family’s history as a motivation to volunteer for Ebola response in West Africa.
The past is always present in Cuba’s relationship with Africa. Included in Red Zone are a number of photographs; images of the Ebola response are paired with older images of Cuban doctors and leaders in other African nations during their independence movements. Gómez writes much about Cuba’s history of solidarity with the continent, yet he cannot avoid placing that solidarity in the context of Cuba’s fraught relationship with the United States.
This can be distracting from the stated purpose of the book. A unique feature of Cuban history is that it created this solidarity on its own, independent of larger nations. Cuba sent volunteers to West Africa at the direct invitation of the affected countries, based on their shared histories, and did not need or wait for coordination from any other government. Why center the United States in a story about Cuba-African relations?
On the other hand, there would be no Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade without that fraught U.S.-Cuba history.
This special medical unit was founded in 2005 as a response to President Bush’s refusal of Cuban offers of assistance to areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. The enmity between the two countries continues to affect their ability to join forces during crises. Gómez discusses this further in the concluding chapter titled, “David, Goliath, and Other Reflections,” in which a secondary purpose emerges. Red Zone provides a Cuban socialist critique of the neoliberal paradigm of international aid and development projects.
Although Ubieta Gómez heavily praises the work of the medical brigade for implementing the ideals of the Cuban Revolution, it was surprising to learn in a chapter titled, “The Women,” that Cuban women were not allowed to volunteer for Ebola response, and female healthcare workers who were already on missions in West Africa were not allowed to stay. Gómez avoids critiquing this decision or questioning the weak reasons given for this policy. He does reproduce a letter from Dr. Eneida Álvarez Horta, coordinator of the Permanent Cuban Brigade in Sierra Leone, to the Cuban Public Health Ministry, expressing her dismay at the policy and asking to stay. He does not provide any quotes from the women affected.
Red Zone provides a distinctively Cuban perspective on the West African Ebola epidemic, informed by Cuba’s special relationship to the African continent and specialization in international medical missions. The Cuban healthcare workers who volunteered for this emergency mission in West Africa provide their own demonstration of revolutionary ideals and international solidarity. The book’s narrative casts a critical eye on the nature of international aid work, but often fails to turn that eye on itself.
By Heather Jordan, Independent Researcher
African Studies Quarterly | Volume 20, Issue 3|October 2021 http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v20/v20...
Just as the Cuban combatants in Angola set an example that can never be erased, the heroic actions of Cuba’s army of white coats will occupy a place of honor.” FIDEL CASTRO, OCTOBER 2014
In 2014 three West African countries were hit by the largest epidemic on record of the deadly Ebola virus. In response to an international call for help, Cuba’s revolutionary socialist government provided what was needed most—and what no other country even tried to deliver.
In a matter of weeks, more than 250 volunteer Cuban doctors, nurses, technicians, and public health specialists were on the ground providing hands-on care to thousands of desperately ill human beings and their traumatized families and communities.
By mid-2015 the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea had been virtually eradicated.
The discipline, courage, sense of humor, and pride of these Cuban volunteers rings throughout the firsthand accounts recorded here. Their actions showed the world the kind of men and women only a deep-going socialist revolution can produce.
May 20, 2020
This is not just a book about the Ebola virus, even though that’s extremely important. One learns about the solidarity and internationalism at the heart of the Cuban Revolution, which created a different kind of society and a transformation of its people. Gomez, the author captures the discipline, courage, sense of humor, and pride of the Cuban volunteers through the firsthand accounts recorded here. Its also very personable, telling how they struggled to leave their families, but felt it their revolutionary duty to help, and that there was no greater honor than to dedicate their lives to help humanity in the face of worldwide oppression. You really admire and connect with these doctors and medical personnel, and it should make you want to learn more about Cuba.
March 29, 2020
Cuban international solidarity is truly amazing and show the strength of revolutionary organization.
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