Che Guevara in the DR Congo: The Dream of Unfinished Liberation
Crispin Kabasele Tshimanga Babanya Kabudi | Union of Socialist Democrats (UDS, Democratic Republic of the Congo)
The Congolese odyssey of the great internationalist revolutionary Ernesto Rafael Guevara De la Serna—known as “Che,” a native of Rosario, Argentina—merits analysis. It is worth recalling that Commander Che, a key figure of the Cuban Revolution, dedicated his entire life—right up to his death by execution ordered by the CIA in La Higuera, Bolivia, on October 9, 1967—to the global spread of socialism.
A brilliant military strategist and an outstanding Marxist-Leninist, the Argentine Ernesto Che Guevara symbolizes the struggle against poverty, inequality, injustice, domination, the exploitation of man, plunder, foreign interference, and more.
An unparalleled anti-imperialist, Che Guevara stepped down from his political and state duties in Cuba to dedicate himself to the liberation of other nations—including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a former Belgian colony rightly regarded as a reservoir of natural resources for international imperialism.
From the 1885 Berlin Conference on the partitioning of colonies to the present day, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been transformed into the private property of predatory capitalism. Its natural resources are shamelessly exploited to fuel the prosperity of imperialist powers. They unashamedly enrich the metropolises at the expense of the local population, whose destitution and poverty are glaringly evident.
The brief glimmer of hope that emerged in 1958 following the Accra Conference—where the Congolese anti-colonialist Patrice-Emery Lumumba met figures such as Kwame Nkrumah, Ben Bella, Ahmed Sékou Touré, and Modibo Keïta—was extinguished three years later, in January 1961, with the vile assassination of the MNC/Lumumba leader. This barbaric act sent shockwaves through the global progressive community.
The physical elimination of Patrice-Emery Lumumba in 1961 caused such a massive shockwave that it stirred distant Cuba and deeply moved Comrade Che Guevara. In April 1965, he arrived with his revolutionary contingent at Hewa Bora, in the mountainous Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; there, the Lumumbist Laurent-Désiré—who would go on to become the third Congolese president thirty-five years later—was leading a rebellion rooted in Marxist-Leninist ideology.
Deeply attached to the Democratic Republic of the Congo—a bond he had demonstrated during his historic speech at the United Nations on December 11, 1964, in which he vehemently condemned Lumumba’s assassination and the impunity with which the Congolese people’s rights were violated due to the country’s immense wealth—the Argentine revolutionary decided to take to the field in the DRC to drive out imperialism.
Thus, during his African tour, Ernesto Che Guevara met Laurent Kabila—one of Lumumba’s loyal lieutenants—in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Kabila made a strong impression on him. Without a moment’s hesitation, Che Guevara provided him with military aid, including manpower. For seven months, he campaigned across the Congolese lands of Kivu. Upon arriving in the bush, Laurent Kabila’s host was deeply shaken. He encountered a situation he had not expected. Disorganization was rampant. Some Lumumbist fighters refused to obey his orders or cooperate with him, while others—poorly trained—were undisciplined.
Upon encountering these harrowing realities in the Congo, Commander Che Guevara drew a bitter conclusion, summarized by these words: “indiscipline, disorder, ignorance of the most basic rules of combat, a lack of fighting spirit on the battlefield, and a lack of authority among troop commanders.” To this must be added the superstitious mindset of Kabila’s men and the ethnic and local rivalries—or rather, the tribalism—that continues to plague the entire country.
From the time of the revolutionary Che Guevara’s visit to the present day, the prevailing impression is that the liberation of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a titanic undertaking—and, consequently, an unfinished one. As a result, the exploitation of natural resources has intensified due to predators of all stripes. Imperialist forces rub their hands in glee at the massive profits they have reaped, while the Congolese people continue to live in abject poverty.
The Congolese lackeys of imperialism, scattered across the national political landscape, remain utterly unmoved by the havoc wreaked by their masters; indeed, they are complicit in it.
Meanwhile, the aspirations for sovereignty, social justice, and development championed by certain revolutionary movements have not been fully realized, and numerous challenges persist to this day. Unfortunately, some Congolese organizations and movements are “left-wing” in name only. The struggle has been temporarily stifled, for the Congolese progressive movement was decapitated by the Mobutu dictatorship. Revolutionaries faced a fate of death, imprisonment, or exile.
Hence the effort to revive the Congolese Left, undertaken in recent years by the Union of Socialist Democrats (UDS). Our anti-imperialist party is working to reawaken the Congolese progressive movement—against all odds. The seed sown by Comrade Ernesto Che Guevara—who honored the Congolese people—has not withered. Congolese revolutionaries have a duty to nurture it, with the multifaceted support of progressives from around the world.
Thank you.
