In the preface to his Congo diaries, Che Guevara began: ‘This is the history of a failure.’ Such is this book.
The African Dream: The diaries of the Revolutionary War in the CongoGrove Press, 2001, ISBN 0802138349
In 1965, Guevara decided to venture to West Africa and offer his knowledge and experience as a guerrilla to the ongoing conflict in the Congo. According to Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella, Guevara thought that Africa was imperialism's weak link and therefore had enormous revolutionary potential.[82] Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had fraternal relations with Che dating back to his 1959 visit, saw Guevara's plans to fight in the Congo as "unwise" and warned that he would become a "Tarzan" figure, doomed to failure.[83] Despite the warning, Guevara led the Cuban operation in support of the Marxist Simba movement, which had emerged from the ongoing Congo Crisis. Guevara, his second-in-command Victor Dreke, and 12 other Cuban expeditionaries arrived in the Congo on April 24, 1965 and a contingent of approximately 100 Afro-Cubans joined them soon afterward.[84][85] They collaborated for a time with guerrilla leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who had previously helped supporters of the slain Patrice Lumumba lead an unsuccessful revolt months earlier. Disillusioned with the discipline of Kabila's troops, Guevara would dismiss him, stating "nothing leads me to believe he is the man of the hour."[86]
South African mercenaries, led by Mike Hoare in concert with Cuban exiles and the CIA, worked with the Congo National Army to thwart Guevara. They were able to monitor his communications, and so pre-empted his attacks and interdicted his supply lines. Despite the fact that Guevara sought to conceal his presence in the Congo, the U.S. government was aware of his location and activities: The National Security Agency was intercepting all of his incoming and outgoing transmissions via equipment aboard the USNS Pvt Jose F. Valdez (T-AG-169), a floating listening post that continuously cruised the Indian Ocean off Dar es Salaam for that purpose.[87]
Guevara's aim was to export the revolution by instructing local anti-Mobutu Simba fighters in Marxist ideology and foco theory strategies of guerrilla warfare. In his Congo Diary, he cites the incompetence, intransigence and infighting of the local Congolese forces as key reasons for the revolt's failure.[88] Later that year, ill with dysentery, suffering from asthma, and disheartened after seven months of frustrations, Guevara left the Congo with the Cuban survivors. (Six members of his column had died.) At one point Guevara considered sending the wounded back to Cuba, and fighting in Congo alone until his death, as a revolutionary example; however, after being urged by his comrades and pressed by two emissaries sent by Castro, at the last moment he reluctantly agreed to retreat.
A few weeks later, when writing the preface to the diary he kept during the Congo venture, he began: "This is the history of a failure."[89]
troubled times, the fearful & naive are always drawn to charismatic radicals.
Fatima Hassan appointed Hogan advisor
Scientists Rip S. African AIDS Policies
By TERRY LEONARD
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 6, 2006; 10:14 AM
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- More than 80 international scientists and academics condemned South Africa's AIDS policies as ineffective and immoral and called for the firing of the health minister in a letter to President Thabo Mbeki released Wednesday.The scientists called Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang an embarrassment to South Africa and said her activities undermined science. Signatories included American Nobel Laureate David Baltimore and Dr. Robert Gallo, a co-discoverer of the HIV virus that causes AIDS and developer of the first HIV blood test.They called "for the immediate removal of Dr. Tshabalala-Msimang as minister of health and for an end to the disastrous, pseudoscientific policies that have characterized the South African government's response to HIV/AIDS."
Manto back, slams her deputy Sunday Times 19 November 2006
November 2008: ANC Today ? Mbete fighting AIDS etc
TAC Secretariat Statement - 29 September 2006
On 19 September 2006, Deputy-President Phumzile Mlambo-Ncguka addressed the
Ninth Cosatu Congress. In her speech, the Deputy-President dealt an
irreversible blow to AIDS denialism. She stated unequivocally that HIV, the
virus that causes AIDS, is the major cause of death in our country.
Cabinet has once again stepped into the centre of the campaign on HIV/AIDS.
This is where it belongs. Through the restructured Inter-Ministerial
Committee and its various statements, Cabinet has authorised meetings with
the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and insisted on a clear message from
government on HIV prevention and treatment.
Sunday Times builds on HIV advocacy with new campaign
The Sunday Times’ Each One Reach Five campaign is a bold and ambitious approach to the fight against HIV/AIDS. The newspaper has asked that every person reading the stories that appeared on the issue of 15 April 2007 do an HIV test and get five people to do the same. The campaign aims to get 25-million South Africans to test before the end of the year.
“Today, the Sunday Times is asking each person who reads the stories on this page to take an HIV test and to get five others to do the same. Ask each of those five to get another five to do the same, and so on,” the paper reported.
There is no doubt that if the campaign continues to enjoy the popularity with which it has been launched it will certainly go a long way to helping many know their HIV status. Wife of former President Nelson Mandela, Graça Machel has already been tested with six people she has persuaded to join her in this brave step.
A list published by the Sunday Times boasts celebrities and businesspeople who have already pledged themselves to the campaign and indicates a good response to its launch. The list features the likes of Survivor SA winner Vanessa Marawa, business magnates Patrice Motsepe, Wendy Luhabe and Raymond Ackerman, and former boxing champion Baby Jake Matlana. Acting Minister of Health, Jeff Radebe has heartily endorsed the campaign particularly “as there is the need for an in the uptake if voluntary counseling and testing,” the Sunday Times reported, going on to note:
“For any such campaign to be effective, attention should be paid to:
Effective utilisation of peer influence;
Ensuring that all testing is linked with prevention, treatment, care and support services;
Availability of services as the demand for their use increases; and
Consideration of human rights, particularly confidentiality and the right to information.”
Deputy Health Minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge also lauded the newspaper’s initiative, saying it has helped create a national spirit of unity and determination to work together to overcome HIV/AIDS.
“To gain a true picture of HIV prevalence, we must test at least 25-million people. We will then know the size of the problem and can support those who test negative to remain negative and support and care for those who are HIV-positive. I encourage you to support this Sunday Times initiative,” she said in a column in thepaper.
2 nov 2007 Feinstein slams Mbeki for unforgiveable aids denialism