Che in Congo? - question

[Solla]

Me and a friend of mine are wondering if it was true that Che fought in Congo. Excuse my ignorance.

[Dan Majerle]

yes

[hoffer]

he was helping the rebels of congo against the goverment

[damn the capitalism]

yes that's true !
Castro gave him many posts ,but the fact that he didn't want them ,he was responsable for the national bank ,but he failed in this job,he was the man in charge in many industries ,but the machines and the russian equipments didn't have a good qualities ,so he left this job!
He was born to be a rebel ,a revolutionary , so he didn't want to take these jobs given by Fidel, so he deided to apply his thoughts of revolution in the 3rd world countries and doing these guerilla warefare works ! he found that Congo is a suitable country and he fought with the communists there! he was told that everything was ready there ,and they got too much support and , so all this wasn't 100% true and the governemant army was strong! The fact was that he failed and he was forced to go back to Cuba,which was hard for him,because Fidel read a letter left by him (Che) in the case of abondaning the political life in cuba! So Fidel read this letter in public without taking che oppinion!

After this Che went back ,he didn't stay for a long period until he went with some revolutionaries badly trained to Bolivia!

[Felicia]

#Moderation Mode

This thread moved to Ernesto "Che" Guevara :)

Moved here (http://www.che-lives.com/cgi/community/topic.pl?forum=10&topic=302)


(Edited by felicia at 3:59 pm on April 30, 2003)

[Larissa]

His Congo guerrilla opened the road to eliminate the apartheid many years later.
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxi...ust/001952.html (http://lists.econ.utah.edu/pipermail/marxist-leninist-list/2000-August/001952.html)
From Che's Congo diary.

[Kapitan Andrey]

That revolution was failed!!!

THE NATION WASN'T READY FOR CHANGINGS!!!

[El Barbudo]

Kabila, Congo's revolution leader was a fucker. He stayed in Egypt when Che and congolian were waiting for him to lead the troops. Che had no power cause he couldnt tell troops who he really was. He was called Tatu and he couldnt tell anyone he was Che, or Usa would send troops to capture the Argentin Fighter

[Uhuru na Umoja]

Che was helping Kabila who was operating in the East of the Congo (near the Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania borders). He was in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (where I live now) for a while, and stayed at a hotel which is still in operation. I and my friends occassionally go there there for a drink (there is a also a bar attached).

(Edited by Uhuru na Umoja at 10:02 am on May 2, 2003)

[Solla]

Thanks, guys! I guess I have some Che-reading to catch up on! But this really helped :)

[Dirty Jersey]

have any of you read the african dream? che didnt have many nice things to say about the congolese. apparently they were lazy, not ready for revolution and rather cowardly. also their spiritual beliefs kind of fucked them.

[nz revolution]

don't dis the dawa potion.

Yeah its a good book, you get many laughs out of it, but it makes you cringe at petty mistakes that cost many lives.

"we don't eat, we don't work" so no trenches were dug and they lost every fuckin oupost they had and got killed and defeated.

Also closing your eyes while firing a gun and then discharging it into the air because you aren't looking where you are firing ARRRGGGHHHH

[Severian]

If you read Spanish, there's a book by Che about the Congo guerilla. It's called Pasajes de la Guerra Revolucionaria: Congo.

I guess "Che's African Dream" is basically the same thing in English? Is it the complete diary?

There's also a book by Che's second-in-command in the Congo, Victor Dreke - it's called "From the Escambray to the Congo." It's in both English and Spanish.

Yeah, Che was very critical of the Congolese guerilla leadership, including Laurent Kabila. And neither Che nor the Cubans was fully aware of or prepared for the political and cultural conditions of the Congo before they set out - didn't speak Swahili, for example. Che's very critical of himself for not learning, although he didn't have a lot of opportunity with everything else he was doing.

The guerillla movement was defeated, but on the other hand it was the beginning of future, more successful Cuban actions to aid national liberation movements in Africa - Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Ethiopia, etc. A learning experience.

[Larissa]

http://www.cpcs.umb.edu/events/cuba-africa...002/Atlanta.pdf (http://www.cpcs.umb.edu/events/cuba-africa-2002/Atlanta.pdf)
On Victor Dreke's book.

[Larissa]

http://www.themilitant.com/1997/6146/6146_22.html
Pombo speaks on Che's leadership in Africa.

[El Barbudo]

thx larissa for web sites...

[GCusack]

He did indeed, he fought there for 2 years but was defeated by the fact that the Congans he was fighting for jst weren't up for it.