By LOUIS EA MOYSTON
Jamaica Observer, Saturday, June 18, 2011
Ernesto Che Guevara was born in Rosario, Argentina, on June 14, 1928. He was an adventurer. This characteristic was reflected in his book The Motorcycle Diaries telling of his trip around Argentina on an observation tour. It provides an insightful characterisation of this humanist and internationalist. Che played a pivotal role in the Cuban revolution and the early development of the revolutionary government of that country. Yearning for the "creation of two, three and more Vietnams", he left Cuba in 1965 to ignite the anti-imperialist war in the Congo. That was a failed project.
He went to Bolivia in 1966 but that was another failed project. He was captured and killed by a combination of CIA Special Forces in collaboration with their Bolivian counterparts. He was killed in a manner similar to the recent killing of Osama Bin Laden. Guevara was certainly one of the most outstanding people of philosophical proportions of the 20th century.
My encounter with Che Guevara took place by way of reading. My love for reading increased in the post-1972 period when the Michael Manley leadership unleashed a new period characterised by an awakening. It was a sort of renaissance inspired by a radical leadership. So I began to read about socialism and matters concerning Africa. Closer to home was Fidel Castro in Cuba. It was while reading the book, Fidel by Herbert Matthews in early 1973 that I came across Che. This book led me to Venceremos in late 1973, a collection of speeches by Che ranging from the revolutionary war, the growth of imperialism, party militancy and creating the new form of socialism in Cuba.
I recall showing Venceremos to an old schoolmate, Baron Grey, who was out from the US on holiday, and he told me to make sure I read Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth. I did and my interest in this type of literature grew. The period 1972-1976 was important for me in terms of my political development, and most important, my developing a view of the world. I was developing an understanding of guerilla warfare in a time when Southern Africa was on fire with liberation movements.
In early 1975 my fascination with guerilla warfare and Che Guevara continued with my reading of Guerilla Warfare, outlining and illustrating the theories, principles and organisation of guerilla warfare. This book was complemented by the reading of Episodes of the Revolutionary War by Ernesto Che Guevara. This book presents a compilation of diary records of a history of minor and major victories of the guerrillas from the time they landed on the beach to their victory from the mountains of Sierra Maestra. His sharing of the experiences of these guerrilla fighters helped my developing a clearer picture of the revolutionary warfare in Southern Africa during the 1970s.
In late 1976 I read The Diary of Che Guevara: Bolivia November 1966-October 1967. Of course, this book chronicled another major set of experiences of Guevara in a difficult situation conducting a war in a condition that may not have been characterised by a revolutionary situation. Prior to going to Bolivia, Che went to Africa to ignite the anti-imperialist war on the continent. Che Guevara Reader is an important compilation of Che's writing that highlights his ideas on his international solidarity and also the need to create "two, three and many more Vietnams". Prior to his failed project in Bolivia, Che went to the Congo. In The African Dream: the Diaries of Revolutionary War in the Congo, Guevara provides a fascinating history of the early development of the revolutionary war in the Congo and the difficulties in developing revolutionaries out of the colonised Africans; and a record of a bitter political failure. His trip to Bolivia was indeed another bitter political and ideological failure that led to his execution.
In the book The Diary of Che Guevara: Bolivia November 1966-October 1967, Fidel Castro provided a "necessary introduction" to the book. He began by describing Che as a "diarist" and how important his diary records were as a working guide and "constant evaluation of the occurrences, the situation and the men...They were of revolutionary content, pedagogic and human". Castro's account of the role of Che's daily journal suggests themes of action research, critical reflection and transformative and radical pedagogy. Peter McLaren (2000), in Che Guevara, Paulo Freire and the Pedagogy of Revolution, agrees that the "new man" concept of the Cuban Revolution converges with Paulo Freire's idea of education and its emancipatory qualities in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. McLaren (2000) describes
In the book The Diary of Che Guevara: Bolivia November 1966-October 1967, Fidel Castro provided a "necessary introduction" to the book. He began by describing Che as a "diarist" and how important his diary records were as a working guide and "constant evaluation of the occurrences, the situation and the men...They were of revolutionary content, pedagogic and human". Castro's account of the role of Che's daily journal suggests themes of action research, critical reflection and transformative and radical pedagogy. Peter McLaren (2000), in Che Guevara, Paulo Freire and the Pedagogy of Revolution, agrees that the "new man" concept of the Cuban Revolution converges with Paulo Freire's idea of education and its emancipatory qualities in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. McLaren (2000) describes
In his book Guevara, Anderw Sinclair argues that Sartre was correct when he called Che "the most complete man of his age". Sinclair describes Guevara as a renaissance man with a multiplicity of careers - a medical doctor, a diarist, a political and military theorist, guerilla fighter, and a tactician among others. The writer notes that Fidel asked about Che's qualities and he answered this way: "If we wish to express what we want the men of the future generations to be, we must say: let them be like Che". According to the writer, "The difference between Che and other men was that Che did not let other men put his ideas into practice. He practised them himself." Long live Che Guevara!
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