African Dream, The

Author Che Guevara
This extraordinary diary records in fine and often humorous detail Guevara's experiences with a Cuban guerrilla force in the eastern Congo between April and November 1965 as he attempts to spread the fight against US imperialism to Africa. It also contains a beautiful foreword by Aleida Guevara March, the daughter of Che, plus 8 pages of stunning photos.
Publisher: Harvill Press | ISBN no: 1-86046-764-4 | Year: 2000

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The period after the Second World War was meant to bring a new agenda to those countries previously under colonial rule, such as the Congo. The late 50’s heralded a new breed of African leader, one such man was named Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Congo. Unfortunately, Lumumba was assassinated in 1963, leading to a new form of US backed imperialism taking control, which has left the country in a constant state of turmoil and a civil was that continues today.

The African Dream – The Diaries of the Revolutionary War in the Congo tells of Che Guevara’s desire to spread the fight against US imperialism to Africa and put his theories of guerrilla warfare to use helping the oppressed people of the Congo. The extraordinary diary records in fine and often humorous detail Guevara’s experiences with a Cuban guerrilla force in the eastern Congo between April and November 1965. In Che’s own opinion, the adventure was a fiasco and this book is an unvarnished account of what he saw as flaws in the Congolese revolutionaries he met and his own plans. However, this does not mean it should be ignored, in fact, far from it.

Of all the leaders that Che met with, the one that most impressed him the most was Laurent Kabila, who he thought was the only leader to possess the true qualities of a mass leader. And indeed in the late 90’s, Kabila did eventually rule the Congo after ousting the corrupt Mobuto Sese Seko, if only for a short period before he too was murdered.

The way in which Che writes about the differing splits and factions in the Congolese resistance is an all too sad preview of regional and ethnic in-fighting that has effected the whole world in the last 15 years, but particularly, this region of Africa where the parties involved in the conflicts that killed hundreds of thousands in Rwanda and Burundi were involved here.

Guevara’s frustration at the lack of success with his task becomes obvious, and examples of supposedly committed revolutionaries being afraid to fire guns in the heat of battle, is laughable. But one must not diminish the importance of how much the Cubans learnt from their experiences in the Congo, in relation to their later international success, not just in Africa, but the whole of the third world.

Released for the first time in 1999, the diaries afford the reader a very personal insight into the thoughts and emotions of one of the Twentieth century’s great revolutionary martyr’s.

This special edition also contains a beautiful forward by Aleida Guevara March, the daughter of Che Guevara.