Che Guevara, Heroic Leader Who Sowed Revolutionary Seed in Africa

On October 9, 1967, Che Guevara, 39, was killed by the Bolivian army. US-backed Bolivian forces captured Guevara while battling his band of guerrillas in Bolivia and executed him. His hands were cut off as proof of his death, and his body was buried in an unmarked grave.

On October 17, 1997, 30 years after his death, Che's remains were interred in Santa Clara, Cuba.

On November 21, 1965, after almost seven months in the Congo, where Che's presence was most relevant, he left for Tanzania, where he stayed clandestinely for several weeks.

"Well, undoubtedly, beyond these leaders I have already mentioned and the countries where Che was present in some way, the country where Che's presence was most visible was in the Congo. Che arrived in the Congo accompanied by a group of Cuban revolutionaries, former combatants in the struggle against Batista. And the intention was in some way to advise, in some way to articulate in a better way a revolutionary movement that was taking place in the Congo," Demirel Alfonso López, historian, Master in Educational Sciences with a specialty in history and philosophy from Cuba, says.

To this day, the figure of Che remains an example and a symbol of the revolution that breaks the geopolitical balance.

"The process of decolonization in Africa is a process that in some way had already begun in the mid-1950s, but undoubtedly the Cuban Revolution, the figures of Che and Fidel, are going to give an extraordinary impulse to these struggles for liberation, which is not only a national liberation struggle; it is a seal, let us say, a mark that the example of the Cuban Revolution is going to imprint on this process of decolonization in Africa," Frank Josué Solar Cabrales, professor at the University of Oriente in Santiago de Cuba, president of the Chair for the Study of the Thought and Work of Fidel Castro at the University of Oriente, stresses.

Tomás Alberto Escandón Carvajal, Che Guevara's communications technician in the Congo, revealed to Sputnik Africa the details of their acquaintance and what kind of person he was.

To find out what else the speakers had to say, tune in to the Global South Pole podcast, brought to you by Sputnik Africa.

In addition to the website, you can also catch our episodes on Telegram.

► You can also listen to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Deezer, Castbox, Pocket Casts, Afripods, Podcast Addict, and Overcast.

► Check out all the episodes of Global South Pole.