far-off Cuba but in the nearby Congo, where the struggle was not against some puppet like Tshombe but against US imperialism, which, in its neocolonial form, was threatening the newly acquired independence of almost every African people and helping to keep the colonies in subjection. I spoke to them of the fundamental importance which the struggle for the liberation of the Congo had in our eyes. A victory would be continental in its impact and consequences—and so would a defeat.
The reaction was worse than cool. Although most refrained from any kind of comment, some asked to speak and violently rebuked me for what I had said. They argued that their respective peoples, who had been abused and degraded by imperialism, would protest if any casualties were suffered not as a result of oppression in their own land, but from a war to liberate another country. I tried to show them that we were not talking about a struggle within fixed borders, but of a war against the common oppressor, present as much in Mozambique as in Malawi, Rhodesia6 or South Africa, the Congo or Angola. No one saw it this way.
The farewells were cool and polite, and we were left with the clear sense that Africa had a long way to go before it achieved real revolutionary maturity. But we had also had the pleasure of meeting people prepared to carry the struggle through to the end. From that moment, we set ourselves the task of selecting a group of black [Afro-] Cubans, volunteers of course, and sending them to reinforce the struggle in the Congo.
1. Che carried out a tour of Africa that lasted three months after participating in the XIX General Assembly of the United Nations. On December 17, 1964, he set out on a trip that took him to eight African countries: Algeria, Mali, Congo (Brazzaville), Guinea, Ghana, Dahomey (today Benin), Tanzania and Egypt, in addition to a very brief visit to China. During his travels throughout the continent, Che met with the principal leaders of those countries, as well as with leaders of liberation movements in the region, to establish closer links with the Cuban revolution and offer them aid in their struggles. He met with Ahmed Ben Bella, Gamal Abdel Nasser, and Sékou Touré, the presidents of Algeria, the United Arab Republic (Egypt) and Guinea, respectively; he also met the Angolans Agostinho Neto and Lucio Lara of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), Samora Michel and Marcelino Dos Santos from Mozambique and the Congolese leader Laurent Désiré Kabila, among others.
His participation in the Second Economic Seminar of Afro-Asian Solidarity held in Algiers was of great importance. Cuba had been invited as an observer and sole representative from Latin America. In his speech Che analyzed that necessarily international dimension of the anti-imperialist struggle, concluding that proletarian internationalism “is not only a duty for the peoples struggling for a better future, it is also an inescapable necessity.” (See Che Guevara Reader, Ocean Press) In this confrontation with imperialism, Che argues it is necessary to forge an alliance between the two principal actors, the underdeveloped countries and the socialist countries, even when he admits that “these alliances cannot be made spontaneously, without discussions, without birth pangs, which sometimes can be painful.”
On this road to international unity and solidarity, Che criticizes the socialist countries, saying that, as the vanguard, they had a moral duty to commit to genuine solidarity with the peoples initiating their liberation struggles, instead of establishing economic, commercial and political relations with them that were, in some ways, tacitly complicit in imperialist exploitation. For Che, the nature of the new relationship between the socialist countries and the Third World would be the result of the necessary change in consciousness that should reflect the new socialist society, leading to “a new fraternal attitude toward humanity, both at an individual level, within the societies where socialism is being built or has been built, and on a world scale, with regard to all peoples suffering from imperialist oppression.” Che returned to Cuba on March 14, 1965.
2. Che uses this term in English.
3. A reference to the Supreme Council of the Congolese Revolution.
4. In Che’s analysis and denunciations of imperialist aggression against any attempt to achieve liberation by any people, anywhere in the world, he repeatedly referred to the Congo and its assassinated revolutionary leader, Patrice Lumumba, whom Che called a martyr of the world revolution. In Che’s eyes, the tragic events in the Congo were an example of the most brutal and extreme form of the penetration and development of neocolonialism, as well as telling proof of the barbarism and bestiality that imperialism is capable of in pursuing hegemonic control over peoples and their natural resources. In his speech to the XIX UN General Assembly, he denounced the role played by that international organization as an instrument used by imperialism to pursue its interests on the pretext of carrying out “humanitarian” missions.
“How can we forget,” Che asked, “the machinations and maneuvers that followed the occupation of [the Congo] by UN troops, under whose auspices the assassins of this great African patriot acted with impunity?” He also pointed out the convergence between reactionary Congolese sectors and countries such as the United States, Great Britain and Belgium, concluding, “All free people of the world must be prepared to avenge the crime of the Congo.”
5. Che’s concept of a revolutionary combatant is not limited to the military dimension, but rather views the combatant as a representative of the vanguard of a people on their way to liberation. In his book Guerrilla Warfare (Ocean Press) Che defines the revolutionary combatant, the guerrilla, as a “social reformer” who “launches himself against the conditions of the reigning institutions at a particular moment and dedicates himself with all the vigor that circumstances permit to breaking the mold of these institutions.” Che emphasizes the importance of ideological motivation and further argues the guerrilla movement can only survive with the support of the local population and, for that reason, the behavior of individual guerrillas must be strictly ethical at all times. In analyzing the Cuban experience in his essay “Socialism and Man in Cuba,” Che stressed the importance of example, noting, “in the attitude of our [Rebel Army] combatants could be glimpsed the man and woman of the future.”
For further reading on Che Guevara’s views on revolutionary combatants, see: “What is a Guerrilla Fighter?” in the newspaper Revolución, February 19, 1959; “Morale and Discipline of Revolutionary Combatants,” Verde Olivo magazine, March 17, 1960; and “Guerrilla Warfare: A Method” in Che Guevara Reader (Ocean Press) as well as his book, Guerrilla Warfare (Ocean Press).
6. Here “Rhodesia” is used in a geographic not political sense to refer to the area occupied by Zambia and Zimbabwe. In 1910, Northern Rhodesia (today Zambia) separated from Southern Rhodesia, which was called Rhodesia after 1964. In 1980, it became known as Zimbabwe, after independence following the Lancaster House (London) agreements of September and December of 1979.
The second act opens in the Congo and includes some incidents whose meaning, for the time being, still cannot be explained, such as my appointment at the head of the Cuban forces, even though I am white; the selection of the future combatants; the organization of my secret departure, the limited possibility for leave-taking, the explanatory letters, the whole series of secret maneuvers that it would be dangerous even today to put on paper, and which can anyway be clarified at a later date.1
After the hectic round of bittersweet farewells, which in the best scenario was expected to be for a number of years, the last step was the clandestine journey itself, the details of which also cannot be revealed.
I was leaving behind nearly 11 years of work alongside Fidel for the Cuban revolution, and a happy home, if that is the right word for the abode of a revolutionary dedicated to his task and a bunch of kids who scarcely knew how much I loved them. The cycle was beginning again.
One fine day I turned up in Dar es-Salaam. No one recognized me, not even the ambassador—an old compañero [Pablo Rivalta] who had been with us in the invasion [of central Cuba during the revolutionary war in 1958] and was a captain in the Rebel Army—or was able to identify me.
We installed ourselves on a small farm, rented as temporary