Stepping out of the aeroplane at José Martí International Airport in Havana, in September 1978, as he later recalled with some amusement, La Guma assumed that the cheering crowds and waving flags were all there to greet the ANC's first Chief Representative in the region. He waved back enthusiastically, only to discover that a Cuban minister on the same flight was standing just behind him.

For Blanche, Cuba would be their ‘second home’: ‘The best part of our exile was spent in Cuba’, in part because of the climate, the warmth of the people and the support they received from the Cuban government and Party. The demographic mix may also have reminded them of Cape Town. ‘Somehow, Cuba showed me mirror images of my own folk, and it made exile easier’ because this was also a socialist society, La Guma told Jan Carew in 1979, while Reg September recalls ‘the people of mixed colours … so typical of Cape Town’ and partly ascribes the similarities between Cuban dancing and ‘the earlier Cape Town dancing among the Coons’ to a shared history of slavery and journeys of resistance that produced creole cultures.

La Guma regarded the task of setting up the ANC mission in Cuba as a ‘great honour’, for the National Executive Committee had unanimously elected him to the post and wanted immediate action. Blanche joined him in December 1978, having remained in London to finalise their domestic matters.