Cynthia Grenier © 2001
WorldNetDaily.com, October 9, 2001.
Thirty-four years after Ernesto Che Guevara was killed by a drunken Bolivian
sergeant, Grove Press has published on the anniversary of his death the diaries
he had kept during the year he had spent in the Congo before setting forth for
another and final futile attempt to bring about a revolution, this time in
Bolivia.
The cover bears the rather romantic title of "The African Dream,"
subtitled "The diaries of the revolutionary war in the Congo." Below a
glam black-and-white photograph of the iconic Guevara is a citation from the
Sunday Times (London): "This fascinating secret history at last illuminates
the missing chapter of a revolutionary icon."
While Regis Debray was serving time in a Bolivian prison, being taken
prisoner after visiting Guevara in the Bolivian back country (Guevara credits
him as being "courageous" at his trial which Guevara heard over the
radio), Debray's mother, a well-born woman of the haute bourgeoisie, was working
at the couturier Pierre Cardin organizing cultural events. In one of history's
little ironies, Cardin's quarters were directly across the street from the
American Embassy.
I interviewed Madame Debray for the New York Times. She was very gracious,
very dignified and not really richly rewarding as interviews go. Not much later,
through her family connections, she prevailed upon Gen. De Gaulle, then
president, to get her son sprung and returned to France. His only comment on his
return to Paris was, "Being in prison gives you a lot of time to get caught
up on your reading."
A little later, while I was European Editor for Ballentine Books, I thought
it would be a coup if I could get the U.S. rights to the Congo diaries and
managed a meeting with Debray himself. Debray at this time still visited Cuba,
and appeared to be on excellent terms with Castro. He acknowledged the Congo
diaries would certainly make for very interesting reading, but, shaking his head
sadly, he said, "The Cubans will never let them out. They'll keep them in
their archives forever."
A brief footnote on Debray: Some years later, my husband in New York –
in Greenwich Village, in fact – spent an evening together with him. All
Debray wanted to talk about was how much he loved New York, those skyscrapers
and Los Angeles – he couldn't find enough adjectives to express his
enthusiasm for that city.
It wasn't too much later when I noted one of the major French publishing
houses had just brought out an important biography on Gen. De Gaulle by Regis
Debray – one very favorable to the general, judging by reviews in the
French press. Madame Mitterand, known for her sympathies for the left, was
thought to be behind one of the last official visits made by a foreign head of
state before President Mitterand's death: Fidel Castro.
Now, why have the Cubans decided after 34 years to publish these diaries?
Could it be that Castro in his old age is getting envious of Guevara's lasting
fame? Find a demonstration anywhere in the world today and you'll find some of
those big iconic photographs of the dashing, idealistic young revolutionary
rising above the crowd.
The title, "The African Dream" is fairly rich in irony, as "The
African Nightmare" would be a more apt title. Everything went wrong. It had
been decided that Guevara would not be viewed as the leader, but as a Cuban
councilor, so it wouldn't appear a white man was giving them orders. But Guevara
found so many of the Congolese and Rwandans incompetent, when not plain
hopeless, that he was forced to take charge, which constantly bred bad blood.
And he had constant problems with the black Cubans acting superior and
contemptuous to the Congolese. As for igniting revolutionary fervor among these
men who would lie at the least provocation, he found it just about impossible.
As Guevara and a number of Cubans finally pulled out of the Congo, he notes,
"A mooring rope seemed to have broken, and the excitement of the Cubans and
Congolese rose like boiling liquid over the little container of our boats,
affecting but not infecting me. During those last hours of our time in the
Congo, I felt more alone than I had done even in Cuba or on any of my wanderings
around the globe. I might say: 'Never have I found myself so alone again as I do
today after all my travels!'"
Cynthia Grenier, an international film and theater critic, is the former
Life editor of the Washington Times and acted as senior editor at The World &
I, a national monthly magazine, for six years.
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.
The
African Dream: The diaries of the Revolutionary War in the Congo
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