Castro’s Cuba, George Floyd and Mohbad: revolutionising power of human agency, By Omoniyi Ibietan

In the dawn of 26 July 1953 when Fidel Castro led the first assault on Moncada Barracks to begin the revolutionary overthrow of the roguish regime of former Army Sergeant, Fulgencio Batista, there were only 138 men in Castro’s squad.

After all the trials, incarceration and flight to Mexico, Fidel, his brother Raul, and others regrouped with new recruits, including the enigmatic Cuban exile Camilo Cienfuegos, and the inimitable Argentine doctor, Ernesto “Ché” Guevara. In November 1956, these men, under the auspices of The July 26th Movement sailed on a tiny yacht back to Cuba.

Those that set out from Mexico were 82, far less than the original 138 that took on Moncada Barracks. By January 1959, the triumphant Castro forces, had ‘berthed’ at Havana with masses of people who had snowballed cheering the revolutionaries as they navigated through villages, towns and cities of Cuba. The power of communication and human social action to roll back unfreedoms and redeem the society is stunning.

In ‘Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age’, Prof. Manuel Castells, a leading light of communication technology scholarship, who as a boy on the street of Catalonia, had distributed leaflets to mobilise revolutionaries against the fascist government of Francisco Franco, documented the huge possibilities of communication technologies when in granite coalition with the human agency.

It was what we saw in the Arab Spring, in the ‘Intifada’, as well as in the global outrage against the action of Derek Chauvin, the police officer in Minneapolis, who on May 25, 2020, knelt on the back of the neck of George Floyd, for about 10 minutes and took life out of him unjustifiably. “I cannot breathe”, Floyd muttered with his last strength. The world was outraged as protests rocked all continents of the world. The American claim to be the bastion of democracy, human rights and freedom was questioned by the conscionable section of humanity that demanded justice for Floyd.

Now, again, the world is outraged at the manner of the passing of Ilerioluwa Oladimeji Aloba (popularly known as Mohbad), the Nigerian songwriter, rapper and singer, who supposedly died and was hurriedly buried. The optics in texts and visuals are gory but not the solidarity that is rekindling the true meaning of humanity.

Over 7 million topics in media mentions are connected to advocacy for justice for Mohbad, who’s believed to have been hounded to death by some powerful people over an estranged relationship in the music industry. As the Leadership newspaper reported two days ago, even Daddy Showkey, another popular Nigerian singer who believed “Mohbad’s death was not an isolated incident and suggested the involvement of influential figures in the music industry and the society at large”, said he had been receiving death threats for speaking out.

But in the age of the Internet, there is hope, as Castells contends perceptively. Seven-two hours ago, Twitter stats hit 3,079,002 on the subject of Mohbad, and from Premium Times reports, 7 days ago, over 126,000 people have signed the petition seeking justice for Mohbad. As I write, at least 600,000 people have unfollowed Naira Marley on Instagram. Two radio stations (Splash FM and Agidigbo FM) have banned Naira Marley songs until ongoing police investigations are concluded. In fact, Agidigbo banned all songs from the Marlian Records brand. There have been candlelight processions for Mohbad and monetary donations running into millions have been made towards the upkeep of his wife and son.

The social media in Castro’s Cuba were undigitized, but through a combination of military action, information-sharing and strategic communication campaigns, Castro, his allies and the people of Cuba triumphed. The role of the media systems of communication was significant in birthing that revolution, especially professional and social action of revolutionary journalists who published sequence of interviews educating people about the revolution in languages they understood and in contexts that made meaning. Radio, expectedly, was also used extensively. So were other forms of publicity, especially interpersonal communication and of course, the printed word which consequence had been in ascendancy ever since Gutenberg birthed the printing press to revolutionize written communication.

Importantly, among those who attacked Moncada Barracks were nine teenagers, 96 others were in their twenties, twenty-seven were in their thirties and only 5 are in their 40s, just the same way we saw young people in the vanguard of protests for justice for George Floyd and Mohbad.

So, the point is, the young people (the most active segment of the human agency) and communication (of any kind prevailing at any epoch) have always been central to social changes and the search for justice.

To change the society, we require education, then the conviction to challenge tyranny. We must be intentional and organise ourselves through conscious self-activity underwritten by forged strategic alliances with relevant, ready, willing and available segments of the society. There are hardly other potent ways to defeat forces of oppression.

Therefore, we must learn to utilise both online and offline resources to project our causes. Mohbad is gone but justice is hovering. May our system deliver justice rather than just interpret the law. May justice come to Mohbad better than it did to George Floyd. May the souls of George and Mohbad find peace eternally.

-Ibietan PhD is the Head of Media Relations and PR at NCC