Fidel Castro, who has died aged 90, was a towering figure of the twentieth century. No leader has cast such a long shadow on our turbulent century as he did. With his demise has ended a misty world of decolonisation, national liberation struggles and small nations’ identity, dignity and sovereignty against imperialist depredations.

Nowhere was Fidel’s influence felt more keenly than in the African continent. Fidel’s internationalist outlook and material and military support to the liberation struggles raging in Africa led to Guinea Bissau, Angola and Namibia emerging independent from foreign occupation.

What started with independence of Guinea Bissau under the charismatic Amilcar Cabral triggered copycat liberation struggles leading to the liberation of Namibia and Angola.

In decisively landing Cuban troops in Angola, without authorisation from the USSR, Fidel not only managed to fortify and entrench the struggling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) government against South African troops and US supported guerilla groups but also negotiated both the withdrawal of the South African army from Angola and the end of South African occupation of Namibia by adroitly using Cuban military footprint in the region as a bargaining chip. By this stroke of strategic military genius, Fidel also hastened the end of apartheid in South Africa.

Nelson Mandela openly acknowledged Fidel’s role in the demise of apartheid. This raised Fidel’s profile in South Africa and beyond as evidenced in the reception accorded to him during his 1998 visit to the region in the wake of the end of apartheid.

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Fidel not just outfoxed 11 US presidents but frustrated US imperialist mission in parts of Africa. Though he was ideologically allied to the USSR, his independent political outlook also made him an important figure with the Non-Aligned Movement. In the Muslim world, too, Fidel supported Algerian national struggles, Jamal Nasir in Egypt and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.

The example of Cuba inspired new left wing resurgence in the America. Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez, was inspired by Fidel’s philosophy, parading his own brand of socialism in the region. As a result, a wave of socialist governments in Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina came to power.

Born into a middle class family, Castro became interested in politics as a law student at the University of Havana. During and after his student years, his foremost aim was to restore Cuba’s national dignity widely deemed to be sullied by US outsized involvement in the affairs of Cuba. Fidel’s internationalist outlook developed in his early career when in 1947 he became involved in the struggle to overthrow the US-backed military regime in the Dominican Republic.

In 1953, his guerilla attack on the Macondo military barracks failed, resulting in his arrest and trial. He was lucky to be amnestied before impressing himself on the nation’s consciousness through his robust defence statement "History will absolve me in the court". This won him a huge following.

After his release Fidel domiciled himself in Mexico. In Mexico, Fidel, Raul and an Argentina revolutionary, Che, planned another guerilla insurrection in Cuba. In 1956, Fidel landed in the ship Granma with his 80 fellow revolutionaries. With brilliant guerilla and mass moblisation strategy, Fidel’s guerilla army was able to gather wider support from the larger society. This turnaround led to Fidel and his followers riding to Havana in 1959 after the hated military dictator Batista fled the country.

The revolution Fidel brought about has managed to live on despite heavy odds and externally imposed privations on the people of Cuba. This miracle is owed to Fidel who steered the country with sheer force of his personality, oratory and genuine dedication to the welfare of Cuban people. Under his leadership the long-suppressed and neglected black population found a new voice and importance; the country grew more socially and economically equal than at any time in the Cuban history. His was a living presence in every Cuban home for the last fifty years. For a large majority of people, Fidel alone stood between a new confident, more equal, self-respecting and independent island nation and the old, US supported, deeply unequal and discriminatory oligarchy ruled by predominantly white elites.

As a result of socially just programmer Cuba recorded impressive improvement in health and education sectors. Cuba has one of the best well-laid public health systems with Cuban infant mortality figures dwarfing the US. Cuba has the highest proportion of doctors to its population. Fidel’s lasting achievement lies in turning Cuba from a US colony into a self-respecting, proud and independent island nation. The act of determinedly transforming Cuba into a new self-respecting island nation, free of US financial and political exploitation subsumed Fidel in a life long battle with its powerful neighbour.

This life and death struggle saw more than 600 assassination attempts made on Fidel’s life by the CIA and other anti-Castro groups. Externally, the unremitting hostility of the US forced Fidel to reach out to the USSR adopting Marxist-Leninist creed despite his early career as democratic nationalist committed to equality and social justice under representative democracy in a planned economy.

When Fidel nationalised US business interest in Cuba, US reacted with severing diplomatic relations and imposing punitive economic sanctions on Cuba. The embargo imposed huge costs on the Cuban economy. Yet Fidel remained undeterred.

However, the change in US hostility towards Cuba was inaugurated with President Obama’s 2016 Cuba visit. The unremitting US hostility -- largely stoked by influential community of Cuban exile -- also led to small scale human rights abuses which figure disproportionately in anti-Castro obituary notices in the mainstream western press. However, these human rights abuses, though condemnable, must be placed in the context of US’s naked regime change policies pursued against the beleaguered Cuban revolution.

In Pakistan 2005 earthquake Cuban doctors played a sterling part in the medical response, saving thousands of lives. Like Cuban revolutionary diplomacy in the past, Cuba nowadays is known for medical internationalism, jetting doctors to disaster zones in the world.

In 2008, Fidel retired from active frontline role due to old age and illness. The baton passed to his younger brother Raul, who has been at the helm since then. Yet the revolution lives on in millions of lives and many generations radically transformed. This is Fidel’s last legacy to his own people and the world at large.