Carlos Moore Wedderburn

A Jamaican Cuban, Carlos Moore was born in Cuba and has lived extensively abroad in France, Africa, and in the Caribbean.  He worked closely with Senegal's Cheik Anta Diop, a founder of AfroCentrism, and was considered to be his lieutenant. Exiled for a number of years from Cuba, he has more recently been back visiting the island.

Carlos Moore is best known for his authorship of "Castro, the Blacks, and Africa," a work highly critical of the Cuban Revolution.  He was answered in this by Pedro Perez Sarduy, in "An Open letter to Carlos Moore" and by Lisa Brock and Otis Cunningham in their "Race and the Cuban Revolution: A Critique of Carlos Moore's "Castro, the Blacks, and Africa"

Moore's book is an interesting history on the topic but periodically suffers from exaggerations.  This makes it more difficult for others to raise some of the issues that he has.  For example, he has made it a thesis of his book that Cuba's efforts in Africa were entirely opportunistic in a credible way, and that primarily black troops were sent to die in Africa.   The Cuban effort in Africa was costly and occasioned some not inconsiderable reservations in Cuba but at the same time Cubans are proud of what they did and many white Cuban troops fought and died there as well.

Moore has also claimed that there is no difference between Miami and Havana: both are equally racist... That would be a little difficult given that Miami overwhelmingly self identifies as "white" (>85%) while Cuba has over 70% of African descent and the Havana establishment has AfroCubans in leadership positions while Miami has none.  That is not to say there are not problems in Cuba, far from it - the 2002 Census holds that Cuba is 70% white, a complete lie. While the leadership in Havana and Santiago has some AfroCuban presence, that is not true in some other areas, even those with a strong African presence, where the leadership is very strongly "gallego" (of Spanish origin).  However, folks who have visited both Miami and Cuba would agree there is a difference not only in degree but in kind between the two when it comes to issues of race and identity. It is curious to hear many "white" Cubans in Miami echo Mr. Moore and shed crocodile tears for the poor oppressed black man in Cuba, etc, when they have done so much to destroy the Cuban economy.

Carlos Moore's relationship to official US groups has long been the subject of speculation. Castro, the Blacks, and Africa is alleged to have been published with CIA funds. What is known is that he was a translator for Angola's Holden Roberto whose FNLA was funded by CIA. And during Roberto's exile in the US, Moore spent a lot of time with Roberto as he traveled back and forth between Washington and Miami.