The Cuban Revolution and the Liberation Struggle in Guinea-Bissau: Images, Imaginings, Expectations and Experiences

The Cuban military were the only foreign force to directly participate in the Guinea-Bissau’s Liberation Struggle. It did so as an expression of internationalist solidarity, one of the pivotal principles of the Cuban Revolution. This article revisits the Cuban involvement in the war, analyzing how it simultaneously promoted the internationalization of the Cuban Revolution and the construction of the Guinean State. Drawing on Cuban, Portuguese, and Guinean archival sources and interviews carried out with key actors of this ideological and military cooperation, special relevance will be given to the role of Cuban cinema as an instrument of propaganda capable of fostering common imaginings that served the political interests of both nations.