The path to freedom is not paved in gold.

Fidel Castro was the first world leader to recognize apartheid. But, why? Was South Africa going to be a strategic outpost? Was it a place that would provide a boom to the economy of Cuba? Why would a communist nation embrace and a South African trouble maker? Power? Fame? 

None of the above. 

The struggle for freedom takes on strange bedfellows sometimes, especially when it is a minority population. Why indeed would a Cuban leader already controversial in his own hemisphere take up the mantel of a populous' struggle half a world away? Was Castro sending warships? Mounting an assault? None of the above. 

So, what is this all about, because this relationship with a Cuban dictator earned Nelson Mandela the accusation of being a communist.