Congo Diary: Episodes of the Revolutionary War in the Congo by Guevara Ernesto Che

Author:Guevara, Ernesto Che [Guevara, Ernesto Che]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Politics, History, biography; political science; biographies; world history; autobiographies; government; geopolitics; biographies of famous people; political science books; history; history books; political books; politics; africa; autobiography; african; gifts for history buffs; political philosophy; african history; world politics; history gifts; history teacher gifts; history of africa; international politics; historical books; africa history; history buff gifts; hispanic books; history lovers gifts; anthology; mystery; short stories; osprey
ISBN: 9781644210734
Amazon: 1644210738
Goodreads: 59386583
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
Published: 2021-11-02T07:00:00+00:00

Machado and I agreed that it was impossible to have 50 doctors here, unless we organized them as a guerrilla unit. He also agreed with me about the genuinely alarming aspects of the situation as he had witnessed all the depravity at the fronts and had developed a feel for the spirit of this revolution.

I had hoped that some compañeros, such as the local minister of public health, might help to create a little order, especially because he came from the Fizi area and had some authority. But he proved to be a nobody. He remained there until the end, except for a brief time when he left on account of something to do with his work, but he kept completely detached from Massengo (I can’t say which of them was to blame) and even more detached from reality. Of course, he could not occupy himself with public health; he had only the Cuban doctors, and the few medicines that arrived were for the fronts or for some primary care in the areas where our forces were based. We had once spoken with Massengo of the need to concern ourselves more with Fizi, to impose authority on the general and pay him some attention (as far as doctors and the radio were concerned, for example), but that was now history as Fizi had become enemy territory.

Moja arrived from Lubondja, where he had been to inspect the aftermath of the explosion at the munitions dump. He told us that Baraka had been lost without a fight, in his opinion, and that the cannon and mortars had been abandoned by the men in charge of them. In this case, I think it was the brand-new Bulgarian instructors.4

With all this information, we called a meeting with the leaders for whom a search had been made and who finally showed up. Until then we had not managed to get any cohesive action from either Calixte or Jean Ila (the commander at Kalonda-Kibuyu); I don’t know whether they themselves were to blame for this, or whether the fault lay with Lambert, whose outlandish method of work precluded any proper organization. In the end, the meeting was attended by Massengo, Compañero Muyumba, the public health minister, commanders Jean Ila and Calixte, Lieutenant-Colonel Lambert, other commanders from Lambert’s front, and the usual political commissars and observers. A message had been sent to Zakarias but he had not replied, so the Rwandans were not represented. What I had to say was more or less the following:

First, an introduction of those present: the minister of public health from Cuba, who had come to assess healthcare needs; Siki, the chief of staff of a Cuban army; Tembo, the party organization secretary who had left his post to join the fight here; Compañero Moja and Compañero Mbili, with a long record of struggle. My points were more or less the same as what I had said to Massengo, but I added a review of each leader’s conduct. Lambert was undoubtedly a dynamic compañero, but he had to do everything himself.

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