Congo Diary: Episodes of the Revolutionary War in the Congo

Che Guevara's feats in our continent were of such magnitude that no prison or censorship could hide them from us. His life is an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom. --Nelson Mandela

Che Guevara at the prime of his life and the height of his fame, went off to fight in the Congo. In that fleeting, anonymous passage through Africa, Che Guevara was to sow a seed that no one will destroy. --Gabriel Garc a M rquez

In April 1965, Che Guevara set out clandestinely from Havana to Congo to head a force of some 200 veteran Cuban soldiers to assist the African liberation movement against Belgian colonialists, four years after the assassination of the democratically elected socialist president of Congo, Patrice Lumumba. Because this diary deals with what Che admits was a failure, he examines every painful detail about what went wrong in order to draw constructive lessons for planned future guerrilla movements. Unique among his books, Congo Diary gives us Che's brutal honesty and his story-telling ability as he recounts this fascinating episode of guerrilla warfare unblinkingly and without sugar coating or jargon. Considered by some to be Che's best book, it is also one of the few that he had a chance to edit for publication after writing it.