An African Dream: The Diaries of the Revolutionary in the Congo (Panther)

click here for more details, find new or used items	Ernesto Guevara Our price £7.19 (£8.99) New from £4.48 Used from £0.69 Pages: 264 (Paperback) ISBN: 1860468470 Pub: The Harvill Press Pub date: 2001-04-19 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 298701

Reader Reviews:

An honest account of a doomed enterpirse (6/7 people found this helpful)

Che Guevara is rarely given a fair review. He inspired either love or loathing by his actions, and no matter how unbiassed an attempt may be made to assess his life and the impact he had, no-one can help but judge this man who polarises opinion. This is why this book is so very interesting, as it provides a damning report by Che's worst critic - himself. Admitedly, the book was tidied-up by Che after the attempt to incite revolution in the Congo had failed, and therefore lacks some of the stark honesty of his Bolivian Diaries, yet its prime objective it to investigate the true reason for the failure of the enterprise. Che paints a sorry picture of the 'freindly' fighters with whom he was working, and even if Che himself is not of interest to the reader, the book provides an excellent angle on the current problems being faced in the Congo, and an interesting opinion on Kabila. The Cuban forces were extremely idealistic and on a high after their unprecedented success in the mountains of their homeland, whereas the local fighters seemed more concerned with their own rivalries and lacked the political cohesivness to succeed. The book demonstrates how even the most grandiose enterprise can be broken down in petty disputes, and smaller incidents, and how the greatest of men can be sidetracked by minor concerns. What is porobably the saddest fact discerned from this book is that Che failed to learn his own lessons and went on to duplicate many of the Afrcian mistakes on the Bolivian expedition that cost him his life. The 'African Dream' may not have been Che's most successful hour, but nobody who reads this book can doubt his commitment, and as the Mobutu regime that defeated him has now been so thoroughly discredited, perhaps Che's mission can be seen in a more favourable light in the west, without having to condone everything he stood for.

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