:''"Pan-Africanism" may also refer to advocacy of African Unification''.

Pan-Africanism is a movement that seeks to unify African people into a "one African community". The largest governmental body striving for governmental unity is the African Union.

Origins

In the United States, the term is closely associated with Afrocentrism, an ideology of African American identity politics that emerged during the civil rights movement of the 1960s to 1970s. "Pan-African" unity is especially important in African American identity politics, because the African ancestry of Afro-American community cannot be derived from any identifiable African people. Therefore it has become necessary to minimize the differences between the various peoples of Africa in favour of a generalized "African" heritage. As a philosophy, Pan-Africanism represents the aggregation of the historical, cultural, spiritual, artistic, scientific and philosophical legacies of Africans from past times to the present. Pan-Africanism as an ethical system traces its origins from ancient times, and promotes values that are the product of the African civilization and the struggles against slavery, racism, colonialism, and neo-colonialism.

Pan-Africanism is usually seen as a product of the European slave trade. Enslaved Africans of diverse origins and their descendants found themselves embedded in a system of exploitation where their African origin became a sign of their servile status. Pan-Africanism set aside cultural differences, asserting the principality of these shared experiences to foster solidarity and resistance to exploitation.

Alongside a large number of slave insurrections, by the end of the eighteenth century a political movement developed across the Americas, Europe and Africa which sought to weld these disparate movements into a network of solidarity putting an end to this oppression. In London, the ''Sons of Africa'' was a political group addressed by Quobna Ottobah Cugoano in the 1791 edition of his book ''Thoughts and sentiments on the evil of slavery''. The group addressed meetings and organised letter-writing campaigns, published campaigning material and visited parliament. They wrote to figures such as Granville Sharp, William Pitt and other members of the white abolition movement, as well as King George III and the Prince of Wales, the future George IV.

Modern Pan-Africanism began around the beginning of the twentieth century. The African Association, later renamed the Pan-African Association, was organized by Henry Sylvester-Williams around 1887, and their first conference was held in 1900.

Concept

As originally conceived by Henry Sylvester-Williams (note: some history books credit this idea to Edward Wilmot Blyden) pan-Africanism referred to the unity of all continental Africa. The concept soon expanded, however, to include the African diaspora.

During apartheid South Africa there was a Pan Africanist Congress that dealt with the oppression of South Africans under European apartheid rule. Other pan-Africanist organizations include Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association-African Communities League, TransAfrica and the International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement.

The goals of Pan-Africanism are diverse. Some may view pan-Africanism as an endeavour to provide revisionist histories of Africa that include and focus on the perspectives of Africans, rather than only Europeans or colonialists. Others may view Pan-Africanism as an endeavour to return to "traditional" African concepts about culture, society, and values. Examples of this include Léopold Sédar Senghor's Négritude movement, and Mobutu Sese Seko's view of Authenticité.

An important theme running through much pan-Africanist literature concerns the historical links between different countries on the continent, and the benefits of cooperation as a way of resisting imperialism and colonialism.

In the 21st century, this theme has developed in response to globalisation and the problems of environmental justice. For instance, at the conference "Pan-Africanism for a New Generation" held at the University of Oxford, June 2011, Ledum Mittee, the current president of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) argues that environmental justice movements across the African continent should create horizontal linkages in order to better protect the interests of threatened peoples and the ecological systems in which they are embedded, and upon which their survival depends.

An important aspect is the argument that Egypt is an African country, and shares important historical and cultural continuities with other countries in the Nile valley. This is sometimes characterised by the term Nile Valley Civilisations or African civilisations that group Egypt with other civilisations of other parts of the continent.

Some universities have gone as far as creating "Departments of Pan-African Studies" in the late 1960s. This includes the California State University, where that department was founded in 1969 as a direct reaction to the civil rights movement, and is today dedicated to "teaching students about the African World Experience", to "demonstrate to the campus and the community the richness, vibrance, diversity, and vitality of African, African American, and Caribbean cultures" and to "presenting students and the community with an Afrocentric analysis" of anti-black racism. Syracuse University also offers a masters degree in "Pan African Studies".

Key figures in Pan-Africanism

Edward Wilmot Blyden has been called the Father of Pan-Africanism.

W. E. B. Du Bois has also been called the Father of Pan-Africanism. Du Bois hosted the highly influential 5th Pan-African Conference in Manchester, UK.

Marcus Garvey, was a Caribbean-born Pan-Africanist, stern advocate for the Back-to-Africa movement, and has also been labeled as a Father of Pan-Africanism. Garvey led the largest organization with Pan-African goals in history.

Paul Robeson, the singer, actor and political radical, co-founded the Council on African Affairs(1937–1950) which became a leading voice of anti-colonialism and Pan-Africanism in the U.S. and internationally. Robeson said as early as the 1930s that he wanted "to be African", studied African language and culture and urged Americans to fight African imperialism Robeson was close friends with Jomo Kenyatta, Kwame Nkrumah and W. E. B. Du Bois. Despite stereotypes endemic to the times, Robeson's films such as Song of Freedom and Jericho/Dark Sands were the first to show African's in a positive light.Robeson also wrote and spoke out against Apartheid, the need for African Independence and narrated an early film about the regime, My Song Goes Forth(also known as Africa Sings, Africa Looks Up, U.K., 1937)

Jomo Kenyatta was a Pan-African activist who became the first president of Kenya.

Bob Marley was a Jamaican born musician whos music reflected Pan Africanist thought, music and philosophy.

Julius Kambarage Nyerere: Key figure for Pan Africanism and SADC

Ahmed Sékou Touré was a Pan-African activist, who became the first President of Guinea, West Africa, the first French sub-Saharan African colony to gain independence from France on October 2, 1958 following its rejection of the famous 1958 Referendum that was proposed by President Charles De Gaulle of France. President Toure, along with President William Tubman of neighboring Liberia and President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, was the vanguard behind the creation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which has been transformed into the African Union (AU), at a Special Head of States Meeting held in the northern Liberian city of Sanniquelle, Nimba County, which is often referred to as the "birth place" of the OAU (now the AU).

Fela Anikulapo Kuti: The founder of Afrobeat music, and political/human rights activist. Promoted pan-africanism through his music.

Gamal Abd El Nasser was a Pan-African activist and the president of Egypt. Alongside Nkrumah, he endorsed the African countries who were fighting for independence and placed Egyptian culture and civilisation within an African framework.

Kwame Nkrumah was a Pan-African activist who became the first president of Ghana

Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia, was a key figure in Pan-Africanism due to his call for greater unity among African Nations.

Molefi Kete Asante strongly influenced by Kaiwada philosophy wrote his treatise on Afrocentricity. This greatly influenced Pan-Africanists in the late seventies and eighties. Another contemporary Afrocentric movement leader was Prof. Chinweizu Ibekwe (known simply as Chinweizu), a scholarly Nigerian anthropologist and a beacon of Africanism.

Muammar al-Gaddafi, also known as Colonel Gaddafi, has been the de facto leader of Libya since a 1969 coup, has in recent years been an active organizer of African unity and has proposed the formation, based on Gamal Abd El Nasser and Kwame Nkrumah's dream, of a United States of Africa Report

Robert Gabriel Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe who has ruled for more than 28 years.

Malcolm X planned to link the Organization of Afro-American Unity through Pan-Africanism to internationalize the human struggle of African people.

Robert Sobukwe was a South African political dissident, who founded the Pan Africanist Congress in opposition to the apartheid.

Pan-African banner

The Pan-African flag was designed by Marcus Garvey and is known as "The Red, Black, and Green". This flag symbolizes the struggle for the unification and liberation of African people. The "red" stands for the blood that unites all people of African ancestry, "black" represents the color of the skin of the people of Africa, and "green" stands for the rich land of Africa.

Sometimes the green, gold, and red of the Ethiopian flag are used as the colors of the Pan-African movement. According to some sources, this is because Ethiopia resisted European colonization attempts except for a brief period of occupation by Italy under the Fascists. Ethiopia is the headquarters of the African Union and several institutions concentrated on the African continent. Sebujja Katende, ambassador of Uganda to the AU said Ethiopia is considered as "the grand father of Africa."

The four Pan-African colors—red, black, green, and gold—have inspired many nations flags, outside of Africa as well as within it.

Maafa studies

Maafa is an aspect of Pan-African studies. The term collectively refers to 500 years of suffering (including the present) of people of African heritage through slavery, imperialism, colonialism, and other forms of oppression. In this area of study, both the actual history and the legacy of that history are studied as a single discourse. The emphasis in the historical narrative is on African agents, as opposed to non-African agents.

Political parties and organizations

Africa-based

African Unification Front

All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party (Ghana)

Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (South Africa)

Ubuntu Republics of Africa

Barbados

The Commission for Pan-African Affairs, a unit within the Office of the Prime Minister of Barbados

British-based

Pan-African Federation

US-based

The Council on African Affairs Founded in 1937, by Max Yergan and Paul Robeson the (CAA), was the first major U.S. organization whose focus was on providing pertinent and up-to-date information about Pan-Africanism across the U.S., particularly to African Americans. Probably the most successful campaign of the Council was for South African famine relief in 1946. The CAA was hopeful that following World War II, there would be a move towards Third World independence under the trusteeship of the United Nations. To the CAA's dismay, the proposals introduced by the U.S. government to the conference in April/May 1945 set no clear limits on the duration of colonialism and no motions towards allowing territorial possessions to move towards self government. Liberal supporters abandoned the CAA, and the federal government cracked down on its operations. In 1953 the CAA was charged with subversion under the McCarran Act. Its principal leaders, including Robeson, Du Bois, and Hunton, were subjected to harassment, indictments, and in the case of Hunton, imprisonment. Under the weight of internal disputes, government repression, and financial hardships, the Council on African Affairs disbanded in 1955.

The Us organization was founded in 1965 by Dr Maulana Karenga, following the Watts riots. It is based on the synthetic African philosophy of kawaida and the Nguzo Saba. In the words of its founder and chair, Dr. Karanga, ''the essential task of our organization Us has been and remains to provide a philosophy, a set of principles and a program which inspires a personal and social practice that not only satisfies human need but transforms people in the process, making them self-conscious agents of their own life and liberation.'' Us is perhaps most well-known for creating Kwaanza and the Nguzo Saba, or Seven Principles.

Pan-African concepts and philosophies

Afrocentric Pan-Africanism

Afrocentric Pan-Africanism, as espoused by Dr. Kwabena Faheem Ashanti, Ph. D in his book ''The Psychotechnology of Brainwashing: Crucifying Willie Lynch''. Another newer movement that has evolved from the early Afrocentric school is the Afrisecal movement or Afrisecaism of Dr Francis Ohanyido a Nigerian Philosopher- Poet. Black Nationalism is sometimes associated with this form of pan-Africanism; the figure of Afrocentric Pan-Africanism in the Spanish-speaking world is Professor Antumi Toasijé.

Kawaida

Hip Hop

During the past three decades hip hop has emerged as a powerful force shaping black and African identities worldwide. In his article “Hip-hop Turns 30: Whatcha Celebratin’ For?,” Greg Tate describes hip hop culture as the product of a Pan-African state of mind. It is an “ethnic enclave/ empowerment zone that has served as a foothold for the poorest among us to get a grip on the land of the prosperous,”. Hip hop authenticates a black identity, and in doing so, creates a unifying uplifting force among Africans as Pan-Africanism sets out to achieve.

Pan-African art

See FESPACO, DPAFF and PAFF for Pan-African film festivals

See African art

See also

Pan-African Congress

List of topics related to Black and African people

African Diaspora

African American

Afro-Latino

Africana womanism

Négritude

Pan-Arabism

References

External links

Pan African: Information

African Union

African Code Unity Through Diversity

AFROSTYLY : Kamit News (Black Community)

:PanAfricanist.com

One Unified African People: An interview with Obi Egbuna by Gregory Elich, ''The Zimbabwe Guardian'', June 7, 2009

Stokely Carmichael - Pan-africanist and Inventor of the Black Power slogan

Category:African and Black nationalism Category:African diaspora Category:Identity politics Africanism Category:Political movements Category:Politics and race

an:Panafricanismo ast:Panafricanismu ca:Panafricanisme de:Panafrikanismus el:Παναφρικανισμός es:Panafricanismo eo:Panafrikanismo eu:Panafrikanismo fr:Panafricanisme gl:Panafricanismo id:Pan-Afrikanisme it:Panafricanismo sw:Muungano wa Afrika nl:Panafrikanisme ja:パン・アフリカ主義 no:Panafrikanisme pl:Panafrykanizm pt:Pan-africanismo ru:Панафриканизм sk:Panafrikanizmus fi:Panafrikkalaisuus sv:Panafrikanism tr:Pan-Afrikanizm uk:Панафриканізм zh:泛非主义

name	Che Guevara
birth name	Ernesto Guevara
birth date	June 14, 1928
birth place	Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina
death date	October 09, 1967
death place	La Higuera, Vallegrande, Bolivia
death cause	Executed
resting place	Che Guevara MausoleumSanta Clara, Cuba
organization	26th of July Movement, United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, National Liberation Army (Bolivia)
religion	''None'' (Marxist humanist)
spouse	Hilda Gadea (1955–1959)Aleida March (1959-1967, his death)
children	Hilda (1956–1995), Aleida (b. 1960), Camilo (b. 1962), Celia (b. 1963), Ernesto (b. 1965)
signature	CheGuevaraSignature.svg
signature size	110

Ernesto "Che" Guevara (; June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967), commonly known as El Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia within popular culture.

As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout Latin America and was radically transformed by the endemic poverty and alienation he witnessed. His experiences and observations during these trips led him to conclude that the region's ingrained economic inequalities were an intrinsic result of capitalism, monopolism, neocolonialism, and imperialism, with the only remedy being world revolution. This belief prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Arbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow solidified Guevara's political ideology. Later, while living in Mexico City, he met Raúl and Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement, and sailed to Cuba aboard the yacht, ''Granma'', with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second-in-command, and played a pivotal role in the victorious two year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.

Following the Cuban Revolution, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals, instituting agrarian reform as minister of industries, helping spearhead a successful nationwide literacy campaign, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba’s armed forces, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism. Such positions also allowed him to play a central role in training the militia forces who repelled the Bay of Pigs Invasion and bringing the Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles to Cuba which precipitated the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Additionally, he was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare, along with a best-selling memoir about his youthful motorcycle journey across South America. Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and executed.

Guevara remains both a revered and reviled historical figure, polarized in the collective imagination in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, essays, documentaries, songs, and films. As a result of his perceived martyrdom, poetic invocations for class struggle, and desire to create the consciousness of a "new man" driven by moral rather than material incentives; he has evolved into a quintessential icon of various leftist-inspired movements. ''Time'' magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, while an Alberto Korda photograph of him entitled ''Guerrillero Heroico'' (shown), was declared "the most famous photograph in the world."

Early life

Ernesto Guevara was born to Celia de la Serna y Llosa and Ernesto Guevara Lynch on June 14, 1928 in Rosario, Argentina, the eldest of five children in an Argentine family of Spanish, Basque and Irish descent. In lieu of his parents' surnames, his legal name (Ernesto Guevara) will sometimes appear with de la Serna, or Lynch accompanying it. In reference to Che's "restless" nature, his father declared "the first thing to note is that in my son's veins flowed the blood of the Irish rebels." Very early on in life Ernestito (as he was then called) developed an "affinity for the poor." Growing up in a family with leftist leanings, Guevara was introduced to a wide spectrum of political perspectives even as a boy. His father, a staunch supporter of Republicans from the Spanish Civil War, often hosted many veterans from the conflict in the Guevara home.

Though suffering crippling bouts of acute asthma that were to afflict him throughout his life, he excelled as an athlete, enjoying swimming, football, golf, and shooting; while also becoming an "untiring" cyclist. He was an avid rugby union player, and played at fly-half for Club Universitario de Buenos Aires. His rugby playing earned him the nickname "Fuser"—a contraction of ''El Furibundo'' (raging) and his mother's surname, de la Serna—for his aggressive style of play.

Guevara learned chess from his father and began participating in local tournaments by age 12. During adolescence and throughout his life he was passionate about poetry, especially that of Pablo Neruda, John Keats, Antonio Machado, Federico García Lorca, Gabriela Mistral, César Vallejo, and Walt Whitman. He could also recite Rudyard Kipling's ''"If—"'' and José Hernández's ''"Martín Fierro"'' from memory. Additionally, he enjoyed the works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Franz Kafka, Albert Camus, Vladimir Lenin, and Jean-Paul Sartre; as well as Anatole France, Friedrich Engels, H. G. Wells, and Robert Frost.

As he grew older, he developed an interest in the Latin American writers Horacio Quiroga, Ciro Alegría, Jorge Icaza, Rubén Darío, and Miguel Asturias. Many of these authors' ideas he cataloged in his own handwritten notebooks of concepts, definitions, and philosophies of influential intellectuals. These included composing analytical sketches of Buddha and Aristotle, along with examining Bertrand Russell on love and patriotism, Jack London on society, and Nietzsche on the idea of death. Sigmund Freud's ideas fascinated him as he quoted him on a variety of topics from dreams and libido to narcissism and the oedipus complex. His favorite subjects in school included philosophy, mathematics, engineering, political science, sociology, history and archaeology.

Years later, a February 13, 1958, declassified CIA 'biographical and personality report' would make note of Guevara’s wide range of academic interests and intellect, describing him as "quite well read" while adding that "Che is fairly intellectual for a Latino."

Motorcycle journey

In 1948, Guevara entered the University of Buenos Aires to study medicine. His "hunger to explore the world" led him to intersperse his collegiate pursuits with two long introspective journeys that would fundamentally change the way he viewed himself and the contemporary economic conditions in Latin America. The first expedition in 1950 was a 4,500 kilometer (2,800 mi) solo trip through the rural provinces of northern Argentina on a bicycle on which he installed a small motor. This was followed in 1951 by a nine month 8,000 kilometer (5,000 mi) continental motorcycle trek through most of South America. For the latter, he took a year off from studies to embark with his friend Alberto Granado, with the final goal of spending a few weeks volunteering at the San Pablo Leper colony in Peru, on the banks of the Amazon River.

In Chile, Guevara found himself enraged by the working conditions of the miners in Anaconda's Chuquicamata copper mine; and moved by his overnight encounter in the Atacama Desert with a persecuted communist couple who didn't even own a blanket, describing them as "the shivering flesh-and-blood victims of capitalist exploitation." Additionally, on the way to Machu Picchu high in the Andes, he was struck by the crushing poverty of the remote rural areas, where peasant farmers worked small plots of land owned by wealthy landlords. Later on his journey, Guevara was especially impressed by the camaraderie among those living in a Leper Colony, stating "The highest forms of human solidarity and loyalty arise among such lonely and desperate people." Guevara used notes taken during this trip to write an account entitled ''The Motorcycle Diaries'', which later became a ''New York Times'' best-seller, and was adapted into a 2004 award-winning film of the same name.

In total, the journey took Guevara through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, and to Miami, before returning home to Buenos Aires. By trip's end, he came to view Latin America not as collection of separate nations, but as a single entity requiring a continent-wide liberation strategy. His conception of a borderless, united Hispanic America sharing a common 'Latino' heritage was a theme that prominently recurred during his later revolutionary activities. Upon returning to Argentina, he completed his studies and received his medical degree in June 1953, making him officially "Dr. Ernesto Guevara."

Guevara later remarked that through his travels of Latin America, he came in "close contact with poverty, hunger and disease" along with the "inability to treat a child because of lack of money" and "stupefaction provoked by the continual hunger and punishment" that leads a father to "accept the loss of a son as an unimportant accident." It was these experiences which Guevara cites as convincing him that in order to "help these people", he needed to leave the realm of medicine, and consider the political arena of armed struggle.

Guatemala, Arbenz and United Fruit

On July 7, 1953, Guevara set out again, this time to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador. On December 10, 1953, before leaving for Guatemala, Guevara sent an update to his Aunt Beatriz from San José, Costa Rica. In the letter Guevara speaks of traversing through the "dominions" of the United Fruit Company, which convinced him "how terrible" the "Capitalist octopuses" were. This affirmed indignation carried the "head hunting tone" that he adopted in order to frighten his more Conservative relatives, and ends with Guevara swearing on an image of the then recently deceased Joseph Stalin, not to rest until these "octopuses have been vanquished." Later that month, Guevara arrived in Guatemala where President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán headed a democratically elected government that, through land reform and other initiatives, was attempting to end the ''latifundia'' system. To accomplish this, President Arbenz had enacted a major land reform program, where all uncultivated portions of large land holdings were to be expropriated and redistributed to landless peasants. The biggest land owner, and one most affected by the reforms, was the United Fruit Company, from which the Arbenz government had already taken more than 225,000 uncultivated acres. Pleased with the road the nation was heading down, Guevara decided to settle down in Guatemala so as to "perfect himself and accomplish whatever may be necessary in order to become a true revolutionary."

In Guatemala City, Guevara sought out Hilda Gadea Acosta, a Peruvian economist who was well-connected politically as a member of the left-leaning Alianza Popular Revolucionaria Americana (APRA, American Popular Revolutionary Alliance). She introduced Guevara to a number of high-level officials in the Arbenz government. Guevara then established contact with a group of Cuban exiles linked to Fidel Castro through the July 26, 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. During this period he acquired his famous nickname, due to his frequent use of the Argentine diminutive interjection ''che'', a vocative casual speech filler used to call attention or ascertain comprehension, similarly to both "bro" or the Canadian phrase "eh".

Guevara's attempts to obtain a medical internship were unsuccessful and his economic situation was often precarious. On May 15, 1954, a shipment of Škoda infantry and light artillery weapons was sent from Communist Czechoslovakia for the Arbenz Government and arrived in Puerto Barrios. As a result, the U.S. CIA sponsored an army which invaded the country and installed the right-wing dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas. Guevara was eager to fight on behalf of Arbenz and joined an armed militia organized by the Communist Youth for that purpose, but frustrated with the group's inaction, he soon returned to medical duties. Following the coup, he again volunteered to fight, but soon after, Arbenz took refuge in the Mexican Embassy and told his foreign supporters to leave the country. Guevara’s repeated calls to resist were noted by supporters of the coup, and he was marked for murder. After Hilda Gadea was arrested, Guevara sought protection inside the Argentine consulate, where he remained until he received a safe-conduct pass some weeks later and made his way to Mexico. He married Gadea in Mexico in September 1955.

The overthrow of the Arbenz regime cemented Guevara's view of the United States as an imperialist power that would oppose and attempt to destroy any government that sought to redress the socioeconomic inequality endemic to Latin America and other developing countries. In speaking about the coup Guevara stated:

Guevara's conviction that Marxism achieved through armed struggle and defended by an armed populace was the only way to rectify such conditions was thus strengthened. Gadea wrote later, "It was Guatemala which finally convinced him of the necessity for armed struggle and for taking the initiative against imperialism. By the time he left, he was sure of this."

Mexico City and preparation

Guevara arrived in Mexico City in early September 1954, and worked in the allergy section of the General Hospital. In addition he gave lectures on medicine at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and worked as a news photographer for Latina News Agency. His first wife Hilda notes in her memoir ''My Life with Che'', that for a while, Guevara considered going to work as a doctor in Africa and that he continued to be deeply troubled by the poverty around him. In one instance, Hilda describes Guevara's obsession with an elderly washerwoman whom he was treating, remarking that he saw her as "representative of the most forgotten and exploited class." Hilda later found a poem that Che had dedicated to the old woman, containing "a promise to fight for a better world, for a better life for all the poor and exploited."

During this time he renewed his friendship with Ñico López and the other Cuban exiles whom he had met in Guatemala. In June 1955, López introduced him to Raúl Castro who subsequently introduced him to his older brother, Fidel Castro, the revolutionary leader who had formed the 26th of July Movement and was now plotting to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. During a long conversation with Fidel on the night of their first meeting, Guevara concluded that the Cuban's cause was the one for which he had been searching and before daybreak he had signed up as a member of the July 26 Movement. Despite their "contrasting personalities", from this point on Che and Fidel began to foster what dual biographer Simon Reid-Henry deems a "revolutionary friendship that would change the world", as a result of their coinciding commitment to anti-imperialism.

By this point in Guevara’s life, he deemed that U.S.-controlled conglomerates installed and supported repressive regimes around the world. In this vein, he considered Batista a "U.S. puppet whose strings needed cutting." Although he planned to be the group's combat medic, Guevara participated in the military training with the members of the Movement. The key portion of training involved learning hit and run tactics of guerrilla warfare. Guevara and the others underwent arduous 15-hour marches over mountains, across rivers, and through the dense undergrowth, learning and perfecting the procedures of ambush and quick retreat. From the start Guevara was Alberto Bayo's "prize student" among those in training, scoring the highest on all of the tests given. At the end of the course, he was called "the best guerrilla of them all" by their instructor, General Bayo.

Cuban Revolution

Invasion, warfare and Santa Clara

The first step in Castro's revolutionary plan was an assault on Cuba from Mexico via the ''Granma,'' an old, leaky cabin cruiser. They set out for Cuba on November 25, 1956. Attacked by Batista's military soon after landing, many of the 82 men were either killed in the attack or executed upon capture; only 22 found each other afterwards. Guevara wrote that it was during this bloody confrontation that he laid down his medical supplies and picked up a box of ammunition dropped by a fleeing comrade, finalizing his symbolic transition from physician to combatant.

Only a small band of revolutionaries survived to re-group as a bedraggled fighting force deep in the Sierra Maestra mountains, where they received support from the urban guerrilla network of Frank País, the 26th of July Movement, and local campesinos. With the group withdrawn to the Sierra, the world wondered whether Castro was alive or dead until early 1957 when the interview by Herbert Matthews appeared in ''The New York Times''. The article presented a lasting, almost mythical image for Castro and the guerrillas. Guevara was not present for the interview, but in the coming months he began to realize the importance of the media in their struggle. Meanwhile, as supplies and morale diminished, and with an allergy to mosquito bites which resulted in agonizing walnut-sized cysts on his body, Guevara considered these "the most painful days of the war."

During Guevara’s time living hidden among the poor subsistence farmers of the Sierra Maestra mountains, he discovered that there were no schools, no electricity, minimal access to healthcare, and more than 40 percent of the adults were illiterate. As the war continued, Guevara became an integral part of the rebel army and "convinced Castro with competence, diplomacy and patience." Guevara set up factories to make grenades, built ovens to bake bread, taught new recruits about tactics, and organized schools to teach illiterate campesinos to read and write. Moreover, Guevara established health clinics, workshops to teach military tactics, and a newspaper to disseminate information. The man who three years later would be dubbed by ''Time Magazine'': "Castro's brain", at this point was promoted by Fidel Castro to ''Comandante'' (commander) of a second army column.

As the only other ranked Comandante besides Fidel Castro, Guevara was a harsh disciplinarian who sometimes shot defectors. Deserters were punished as traitors, and Guevara was known to send squads to track those seeking to go AWOL. As a result, Guevara became feared for his brutality and ruthlessness. During the guerrilla campaign, Guevara was also responsible for the sometimes summary execution of a number of men accused of being informers, deserters or spies. In his diaries, Guevara described the first such execution of Eutimio Guerra, a peasant army guide who admitted treason when it was discovered he accepted the promise of ten thousand pesos for repeatedly giving away the rebel's position for attack by the Cuban air force. Such information also allowed Batista's army to burn the homes of rebel-friendly peasants. Upon Guerra's request that they "end his life quickly", Che stepped forward and shot him in the head, writing "The situation was uncomfortable for the people and for Eutimio so I ended the problem giving him a shot with a .32 pistol in the right side of the brain, with exit orifice in the right temporal [lobe]." His scientific notations and matter-of-fact description, suggested to one biographer a "remarkable detachment to violence" by that point in the war. Later, Guevara published a literary account of the incident entitled "Death of a Traitor", where he transfigured Eutimio's betrayal and pre-execution request that the revolution "take care of his children", into a "revolutionary parable about redemption through sacrifice."

Although he maintained a demanding and harsh disposition, Guevara also viewed his role of commander as one of a teacher, entertaining his men during breaks between engagements with readings from the likes of Robert Louis Stevenson, Cervantes, and Spanish lyric poets. Together with this role, and inspired by José Martí's principle of "literacy without borders", Guevara further ensured that his rebel fighters made daily time to teach the uneducated campesinos with whom they lived and fought to read and write, in what Guevara termed the "battle against ignorance."

His commanding officer Fidel Castro has described Guevara as intelligent, daring, and an exemplary leader who "had great moral authority over his troops." Castro further remarked that Guevara took too many risks, even having a "tendency toward foolhardiness." Guevara's teenage lieutenant, Joel Iglesias, recounts such actions in his diary, noting that Guevara's behavior in combat even brought admiration from the enemy. On one occasion Iglesias recounts the time he had been wounded in battle, stating "Che ran out to me, defying the bullets, threw me over his shoulder, and got me out of there. The guards didn't dare fire at him ... later they told me he made a great impression on them when they saw him run out with his pistol stuck in his belt, ignoring the danger, they didn't dare shoot."

Guevara was instrumental in creating the clandestine radio station ''Radio Rebelde'' (Rebel Radio) in February 1958, which broadcast news to the Cuban people with statements by the 26th of July movement, and provided radiotelephone communication between the growing number of rebel columns across the island. Guevara had apparently been inspired to create the station by observing the effectiveness of CIA supplied radio in Guatemala in ousting the government of Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán.

In late July 1958, Guevara played a critical role in the Battle of Las Mercedes by using his column to halt a force of 1,500 men called up by Batista's General Cantillo in a plan to encircle and destroy Castro's forces. Years later, Major Larry Bockman of the United States Marine Corps would analyze and describe Che's tactical appreciation of this battle as "brilliant." During this time Guevara also became an "expert" at leading hit and run tactics against Batista’s army, and then fading back into the countryside before the army could counterattack.

As the war extended, Guevara led a new column of fighters dispatched westward for the final push towards Havana. Travelling by foot, Guevara embarked on a difficult 7 week march only travelling at night to avoid ambush, and often not eating for several days. In the closing days of December 1958, Guevara’s task was to cut the island in half by taking Las Villas province. In a matter of days he executed a series of "brilliant tactical victories" that gave him control of all but the province’s capital city of Santa Clara. Guevara then directed his "suicide squad" in the attack on Santa Clara, that became the final decisive military victory of the revolution. In the six weeks leading up to the Battle of Santa Clara there were times when his men were completely surrounded, outgunned, and overrun. Che's eventual victory despite being outnumbered 10:1, remains in the view of some observers a "remarkable tour de force in modern warfare."

Radio Rebelde broadcast the first reports that Guevara's column had taken Santa Clara on New Year's Eve 1958. This contradicted reports by the heavily controlled national news media, which had at one stage reported Guevara's death during the fighting. At 3 am on January 1, 1959, upon learning that his generals were negotiating a separate peace with Guevara, Fulgencio Batista boarded a plane in Havana and fled for the Dominican Republic, along with an amassed "fortune of more than $ 300,000,000 through graft and payoffs." The following day on January 2, Guevara entered Havana to take final control of the capital. Fidel Castro took 6 more days to arrive, as he stopped to rally support in several large cities on his way to rolling victoriously into Havana on January 8, 1959. In mid-January 1959, Guevara went to live at a summer villa in Tarara to recover from a violent asthma attack. While there he started the Tarara Group, a group that debated and formed the new plans for Cuba's social, political, and economic development. In addition, Che began to write his book ''Guerrilla Warfare'' while resting at Tarara. When Hilda Gadea arrived in Cuba in late January, Guevara told her that he was involved with another woman, and the two agreed on a divorce, which was finalized on May 22. On June 2, 1959, he married Aleida March, a Cuban-born member of the 26th of July movement with whom he had been living since late 1958. Guevara returned to the seaside village of Tarara in June for his honeymoon with Aleida. Guevara had children from both his marriages, and one illegitimate child, as follows: With Hilda Gadea (married August 18, 1955; divorced May 22, 1959), Hilda Beatriz Guevara Gadea, born February 15, 1956 in Mexico City; died August 21, 1995 in Havana, Cuba; with Aleida March (married June 2, 1959), Aleida Guevara March, born November 24, 1960 in Havana, Cuba, Camilo Guevara March, born May 20, 1962 in Havana, Cuba, Celia Guevara March, born June 14, 1963 in Havana, Cuba, and Ernesto Guevara March, born February 24, 1965 in Havana, Cuba; and with Lilia Rosa López (extramarital), Omar Pérez, born March 19, 1964 in Havana, Cuba.

La Cabaña, land reform, and literacy

The first major political crisis arose over what to do with the captured Batista officials who had been responsible for the worst of the repression. During the rebellion against Batista's dictatorship, the general command of the rebel army, led by Fidel Castro, introduced into the liberated territories the 19th century penal law commonly known as the ''Ley de la Sierra'' (Law of the Sierra). This law included the death penalty for extremely serious crimes, whether perpetrated by the Batista regime or by supporters of the revolution. In 1959, the revolutionary government extended its application to the whole of the republic and to those it considered war criminals, captured and tried after the revolution. According to the Cuban Ministry of Justice, this latter extension was supported by the majority of the population, and followed the same procedure as those in the Nuremberg Trials held by the Allies after World War II.

To implement a portion of this plan, Castro named Guevara commander of the La Cabaña Fortress prison, for a five-month tenure (January 2 through June 12, 1959). Guevara was charged with purging the Batista army and consolidating victory by exacting "revolutionary justice" against those considered to be traitors, ''chivatos'' (informants) or war criminals. Serving in the post as commander of La Cabaña, Guevara reviewed the appeals of those convicted during the revolutionary tribunal process. On some occasions the penalty delivered by the tribunal was death by firing squad. Raúl Gómez Treto, senior legal advisor to the Cuban Ministry of Justice, has argued that the death penalty was justified in order to prevent citizens themselves from taking justice into their own hands, as happened twenty years earlier in the anti-Machado rebellion. Biographers note that in January 1959, the Cuban public was in a "lynching mood", and point to a survey at the time showing 93% public approval for the tribunal process. Moreover, a January 22, 1959, Universal Newsreel broadcast in the U.S. and narrated by Ed Herlihy, featured Fidel Castro asking an estimated one million Cubans whether they approved of the executions, and was met with a roaring "''¡Si!''" (yes). With 20,000 Cubans estimated to have been killed at the hands of Batista's collaborators, and many of the war criminals sentenced to death accused of torture and physical atrocities, the newly empowered government carried out executions, punctuated by cries from the crowds of ''"¡paredón!"'' (to the wall), which biographer Jorge Castañeda describes as "without respect for due process."

Although there are differences between different accounts, it is estimated that several hundred people were executed nationwide during this time, with estimates for Guevara's jurisdictional death total at La Cabaña ranging from 55 to 164. Conflicting views exist of Guevara's attitude towards the executions at La Cabaña. Some exiled opposition biographers report that he relished the rituals of the firing squad, and organized them with gusto, while others relate that Guevara pardoned as many prisoners as he could. What is acknowledged by all sides is that Guevara had become a "hardened" man, who had no qualms about the death penalty or summary and collective trials. If the only way to "defend the revolution was to execute its enemies, he would not be swayed by humanitarian or political arguments." This is further confirmed by a February 5, 1959, letter to Luis Paredes López in Buenos Aires where Guevara states unequivocally "The executions by firing squads are not only a necessity for the people of Cuba, but also an imposition of the people."

Along with ensuring "revolutionary justice", the other key early platform of Guevara's was establishing agrarian land reform. Almost immediately after the success of the revolution on January 27, 1959, Guevara made one of his most significant speeches where he talked about "the social ideas of the rebel army." During this speech, he declared that the main concern of the new Cuban government was "the social justice that land redistribution brings about." A few months later on May 17, 1959, the Agrarian Reform Law crafted by Guevara went into effect, limiting the size of all farms to . Any holdings over these limits were expropriated by the government and either redistributed to peasants in parcels or held as state run communes. The law also stipulated that sugar plantations could not be owned by foreigners.

On June 12, 1959, Castro sent Guevara out on a three-month tour of 14 mostly Bandung Pact countries (Morocco, Sudan, Egypt, Syria, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Yugoslavia, Greece) and the cities of Singapore and Hong Kong. Sending Guevara away from Havana allowed Castro to appear to be distancing himself from Guevara and his Marxist sympathies, which troubled both the United States and some of Castro's July 26 Movement members. Guevara spent 12 days in Japan (July 15–27), participating in negotiations aimed at expanding Cuba's trade relations with that nation. During the visit, he refused to visit and lay a wreath at Japan's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier commemorating soldiers lost during World War II, remarking that the Japanese "imperialists" had "killed millions of Asians." In its place, Guevara stated that he would instead visit Hiroshima, where the American military had detonated an atom-bomb 14 years earlier. Despite his denunciation of Imperial Japan, Guevara also considered President Truman a "macabre clown" for the bombings, and after visiting Hiroshima and its Peace Memorial Museum, he sent back a postcard to Cuba stating "In order to fight better for peace, one must look at Hiroshima."

Upon Guevara's return to Cuba in September 1959, it was evident that Castro now had more political power. The government had begun land seizures included in the agrarian reform law, but was hedging on compensation offers to landowners, instead offering low interest "bonds", a step which put the U.S. on alert. At this point the affected wealthy cattlemen of Camagüey mounted a campaign against the land redistributions, and enlisted the newly disaffected rebel leader Huber Matos, who along with the anti-Communist wing of the 26th of July Movement, joined them in denouncing the "Communist encroachment." During this time Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo was offering assistance to the "Anti-Communist Legion of the Caribbean" which was training in the Dominican Republic. This multi-national force, composed mostly of Spaniards and Cubans, but also of Croatians, Germans, Greeks, and right-wing mercenaries, was plotting to topple Castro's new regime.

Such threats were heightened when, on March 4, 1960, two massive explosions ripped through the French freighter ''La Coubre'', which was carrying Belgian munitions from the port of Antwerp, and was docked in Havana Harbor. The blasts killed at least 76 people and injured several hundred, with Guevara personally providing first aid to some of the victims. Cuban leader Fidel Castro immediately accused the CIA of "an act of terrorism" and held a state funeral the following day for the victims of the blast. It was at the memorial service that Alberto Korda took the famous photograph of Guevara, now known as ''Guerrillero Heroico''.

These perceived threats prompted Castro to further eliminate "counter-revolutionaries", and to utilize Guevara to drastically increase the speed of land reform. To implement this plan, a new government agency, the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA), was established to administer the new Agrarian Reform law. INRA quickly became the most important governing body in the nation, with Guevara serving as its head in his capacity as minister of industries. Under Guevara's command, INRA established its own 100,000 person militia, used first to help the government seize control of the expropriated land and supervise its distribution, and later to set up cooperative farms. The land confiscated included owned by U.S. corporations. Months later, as retaliation, U.S President Dwight D. Eisenhower sharply reduced U.S. imports of Cuban sugar (Cuba’s main cash crop), thus leading Guevara on July 10, 1960, to address over 100,000 workers in front of the Presidential Palace at a rally called to denounce U.S. "economic aggression."

Along with land reform, one of the primary areas that Guevara stressed needed national improvement was in the area of literacy. Before 1959 the official literacy rate for Cuba was between 60–76%, with educational access in rural areas and a lack of instructors the main determining factors. As a result, the Cuban government at Guevara's behest dubbed 1961 the "year of education", and mobilized over 100,000 volunteers into "literacy brigades", who were then sent out into the countryside to construct schools, train new educators, and teach the predominately illiterate ''Guajiros'' (peasants) to read and write. Unlike many of Guevara's later economic initiatives, this campaign was "a remarkable success." By the completion of the Cuban Literacy Campaign, 707,212 adults had been taught to read and write, raising the national literacy rate to 96%.

Accompanying literacy, Guevara was also concerned with establishing universal access to higher education. To accomplish this, the new regime introduced affirmative action to the universities. While announcing this new commitment, Guevara told the gathered faculty and students at the University of Las Villas that the days when education was "a privilege of the white middle class" had ended. "The University" he said, "must paint itself black, mulatto, worker, and peasant." If it didn’t, he warned, the people would break down its doors "and paint the University the colors they like."

The "New Man", Bay of Pigs and Missile Crisis

At this stage, Guevara acquired the additional position of Finance Minister, as well as President of the National Bank. These appointments, combined with his existing position as Minister of Industries, placed Guevara at the zenith of his power, as the "virtual czar" of the Cuban economy. As a consequence of his position at the head of the central bank, it was now Guevara's duty to sign the Cuban currency, which per custom would bear his signature. Instead of using his full name, he signed the bills solely "''Che''." It was through this symbolic act, which horrified many in the Cuban financial sector, that Guevara signaled his distaste for money and the class distinctions it brought about. Guevara's long time friend Ricardo Rojo later remarked that "the day he signed ''Che'' on the bills, (he) literally knocked the props from under the widespread belief that money was sacred."

Guevara's first desired economic goal, which coincided with his aversion for wealth, was to see a nation-wide elimination of material incentives in favor of moral ones. He viewed capitalism as a "contest among wolves" where "one can only win at the cost of others," and thus desired to see the creation of a "new man and woman." Guevara continually stressed that a socialist economy in itself is not "worth the effort, sacrifice, and risks of war and destruction" if it ends up encouraging "greed and individual ambition at the expense of collective spirit." A primary goal of Guevara's thus became to reform "individual consciousness" and values to produce better workers and citizens. In his view, Cuba's "new man" would be able to overcome the "egotism" and "selfishness" that he loathed and discerned was uniquely characteristic of individuals in capitalist societies. In describing this new method of "development", Guevara stated:

A further integral part of fostering a sense of "unity between the individual and the mass", Guevara believed, was volunteer work and will. To display this, Guevara "led by example", working "endlessly at his ministry job, in construction, and even cutting sugar cane" on his day off. He was known for working 36 hours at a stretch, calling meetings after midnight, and eating on the run. Such behavior was emblematic of Guevara's new program of moral incentives, where each worker was now required to meet a quota and produce a certain quantity of goods. As a replacement for the pay increases abolished by Guevara, workers who exceeded their quota now only received a certificate of commendation, while workers who failed to meet their quotas were given a pay cut. Guevara unapologetically defended his personal philosophy towards motivation and work, stating:

In the face of a loss of commercial connections with Western states, Guevara tried to replace them with closer commercial relationships with Eastern Bloc states, visiting a number of Marxist states and signing trade agreements with them. At the end of 1960 he visited Czechoslovakia, the U.S.S.R., North Korea, Hungary and East Germany and signed, for instance, a trade agreement in East Berlin on December 17, 1960. Such agreements helped Cuba's economy to a certain degree but also had the disadvantage of a growing economic dependency on the Eastern Bloc. It was also in East Germany where Guevara met Tamara Bunke (later known as "Tania"), who was assigned as his interpreter, and who would years later join him and be killed with him in Bolivia.

Whatever the merits or demerits of Guevara’s economic principles, his programs were unsuccessful. Guevara's program of "moral incentives" for workers caused a rapid drop in productivity and a rapid rise in absenteeism. In reference to the collective failings of Guevara's vision, reporter I.F. Stone who interviewed Guevara twice during this time, remarked that he was "Galahad not Robespierre", while opining that "in a sense he was, like some early saint, taking refuge in the desert. Only there could the purity of the faith be safeguarded from the unregenerate revisionism of human nature."

On April 17, 1961, 1,400 U.S.-trained Cuban exiles invaded Cuba during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Guevara did not play a key role in the fighting, as one day before the invasion a warship carrying Marines faked an invasion off the West Coast of Pinar Del Rio and drew forces commanded by Guevara to that region. However, historians give him a share of credit for the victory as he was director of instruction for Cuba’s armed forces at the time. Author Tad Szulc in his explanation of the Cuban victory, assigns Guevara partial credit, stating: "The revolutionaries won because Che Guevara, as the head of the Instruction Department of the Revolutionary Armed Forces in charge of the militia training program, had done so well in preparing 200,000 men and women for war." It was also during this deployment that he suffered a bullet grazing to the cheek when his pistol fell out of its holster and accidentally discharged.

In August 1961, during an economic conference of the Organization of American States in Punta del Este, Uruguay, Che Guevara sent a note of "gratitude" to U.S. President John F. Kennedy through Richard N. Goodwin, a young secretary of the White House. It read "Thanks for Playa Girón (Bay of Pigs). Before the invasion, the revolution was shaky. Now it's stronger than ever." In response to U.S. Treasury Secretary Douglas Dillon presenting the Alliance for Progress for ratification by the meeting, Guevara antagonistically attacked the United States claim of being a "democracy", stating that such a system was not compatible with "financial oligarchy, discrimination against blacks, and outrages by the Ku Klux Klan." Guevara continued, speaking out against the "persecution" that in his view "drove scientists like Oppenheimer from their posts, deprived the world for years of the marvelous voice of Paul Robeson, and sent the Rosenbergs to their deaths against the protests of a shocked world." Guevara ended his remarks by insinuating that the United States was not interested in real reforms, sardonically quipping that "U.S. experts never talk about agrarian reform; they prefer a safe subject, like a better water supply. In short they seem to prepare the revolution of the toilets."

Guevara, who was practically the architect of the Soviet-Cuban relationship, then played a key role in bringing to Cuba the Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles that precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962 and brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. A few weeks after the crisis, during an interview with the British communist newspaper the ''Daily Worker'', Guevara was still fuming over the perceived Soviet betrayal and told correspondent Sam Russell that, if the missiles had been under Cuban control, they would have fired them off. While expounding on the incident later, Guevara reiterated that the cause of socialist liberation against global "imperialist aggression", would ultimately have been worth the possibility of "millions of atomic war victims." The missile crisis further convinced Guevara that the two World's superpowers (U.S. & U.S.S.R.) used Cuba as a pawn in their own global strategies. Afterward he denounced the Soviets almost as frequently as he denounced the Americans.

International diplomacy

By December 1964, Che Guevara had emerged as a "revolutionary statesman of world stature" and thus traveled to New York City as head of the Cuban delegation to speak at the United Nations. During his impassioned address, he criticized the United Nations inability to confront the "brutal policy of apartheid" in South Africa, proclaiming "can the United Nations do nothing to stop this?" Guevara then denounced the United States policy towards their black population, stating:

An indignant Guevara ended his speech by reciting the ''Second Declaration of Havana'', decreeing Latin America a "family of 200 million brothers who suffer the same miseries." This "epic", Guevara declared, would be written by the "hungry Indian masses, peasants without land, exploited workers, and progressive masses." To Guevara the conflict was a struggle of mass and ideas, which would be carried forth by those "mistreated and scorned by imperialism" who were previously considered "a weak and submissive flock." With this "flock", Guevara now asserted, "Yankee monopoly capitalism" now terrifyingly saw their "gravediggers." It would be during this "hour of vindication" Guevara pronounced, that the "anonymous mass" would begin to write its own history "with its own blood", and reclaim those "rights that were laughed at by one and all for 500 years." Guevara ended his remarks to the United Nations general assembly by hypothesizing that this "wave of anger” would "sweep the lands of Latin America", and that the labor masses who "turn the wheel of history", for the first time were "awakening from the long, brutalizing sleep to which they had been subjected.

Guevara later learned that there were two failed attempts on his life by Cuban exiles during his stop at the U.N. complex. The first from Molly Gonzales who tried to break through barricades upon his arrival with a seven-inch hunting knife, and later during his address by Guillermo Novo with a timer-initiated bazooka that was fired off target from a boat in the East River at the United Nations Headquarters. Afterwards, Guevara commented on both incidents stating that "it is better to be killed by a woman with a knife than by a man with a gun", while adding with a languid wave of his cigar that the explosion had "given the whole thing more flavor."

While in New York City, Guevara also appeared on the CBS Sunday news program ''Face the Nation'' and met with a range of people, from U.S. Senator Eugene McCarthy to associates of Malcolm X. Malcolm X expressed his admiration, declaring Guevara "one of the most revolutionary men in this country right now" while reading a statement from him to a crowd at the Audubon Ballroom.

On December 17, Guevara left for Paris and embarked on a three-month tour that included the People's Republic of China, the United Arab Republic (Egypt), Algeria, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Dahomey, Congo-Brazzaville and Tanzania, with stops in Ireland and Prague. While in Ireland, Guevara embraced his own Irish heritage, celebrating Saint Patrick's Day in Limerick City. He wrote to his father on this visit, humorously stating "I am in this green Ireland of your ancestors. When they found out, the television [station] came to ask me about the Lynch genealogy, but in case they were horse thieves or something like that, I didn't say much."

During this voyage, he wrote a letter to Carlos Quijano, editor of a Uruguayan weekly, which was later re-titled ''Socialism and Man in Cuba''. Outlined in the treatise was Guevara's summons for the creation of a new consciousness, status of work, and role of the individual. He also laid out the reasoning behind his anti-capitalist sentiments, stating:

Guevara ended the essay by declaring that "the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love" and beckoning on all revolutionaries to "strive every day so that this love of living humanity will be transformed into acts that serve as examples", thus becoming "a moving force." The genesis for Guevara's assertions relied on the fact that he believed the example of the Cuban Revolution was "something spiritual that would transcend all borders."

Algiers, the Soviets and China

In Algiers, Algeria on February 24, 1965, Guevara made what turned out to be his last public appearance on the international stage when he delivered a speech at an economic seminar on Afro-Asian solidarity. He specified the moral duty of the socialist countries, accusing them of tacit complicity with the exploiting Western countries. He proceeded to outline a number of measures which he said the communist-bloc countries must implement in order to accomplish the defeat of imperialism. Having criticized the Soviet Union (the primary financial backer of Cuba) in such a public manner, he returned to Cuba on March 14 to a solemn reception by Fidel and Raúl Castro, Osvaldo Dorticós and Carlos Rafael Rodríguez at the Havana airport.

As revealed in his last public speech in Algiers, Guevara had come to view the Northern Hemisphere, led by the U.S. in the West and the Soviet Union in the East, as the exploiter of the Southern Hemisphere. He strongly supported Communist North Vietnam in the Vietnam War, and urged the peoples of other developing countries to take up arms and create "many Vietnams."

Moreover, the coincidence of Guevara's views with those expounded by the Chinese Communist leadership under Mao Zedong was increasingly problematic for Cuba as the nation's economy became more and more dependent on the Soviet Union. Since the early days of the Cuban revolution, Guevara had been considered by many an advocate of Maoist strategy in Latin America and the originator of a plan for the rapid industrialization of Cuba which was frequently compared to China's "Great Leap Forward." Castro became weary of Guevara's opposition to Soviet conditions and recommendations; measures that Castro saw as necessary, but which Guevara described as corrupt and "pre-monopolist."

In Guevara's private writings from this time (since released), he displays his growing criticism of the Soviet political economy, believing that they had "forgotten Marx". This led Guevara to denounce a range of Soviet practices including what he saw as their attempt to "air-brush the inherent violence of class struggle integral to the transition from capitalism to socialism", their "dangerous" policy of peaceful co-existence with the United States, their failure to push for a "change in consciousness" towards the idea of work, and their attempt to "liberalise" the socialist economy. It was Guevara's desire to see the complete elimination of money, interest, commodity production, the market economy, and "mercantile relationships"; all conditions that the Soviets argued would only disappear when world communism was achieved. Disagreeing with this incrementalist approach, Guevara's critique of the ''Soviet Manual of Political Economy'' was encapsulated with him correctly predicting that since the Soviets were not willing to abolish the law of value (as Guevara desired), they would eventually return to capitalism.

Two weeks after his Algiers speech, Guevara dropped out of public life and then vanished altogether. His whereabouts were a great mystery in Cuba, as he was generally regarded as second in power to Castro himself. His disappearance was variously attributed to the failure of the industrialization scheme he had advocated while minister of industry, to pressure exerted on Castro by Soviet officials disapproving of Guevara's pro-Chinese Communist stance on the Sino-Soviet split, and to serious differences between Guevara and the pragmatic Castro regarding Cuba's economic development and ideological line. Pressed by international speculation regarding Guevara's fate, Castro stated on June 16, 1965 that the people would be informed when Guevara himself wished to let them know. Still, rumors spread both inside and outside Cuba. On October 3, Castro revealed an undated letter purportedly written to him by Guevara some months earlier: in it, Guevara reaffirmed his enduring solidarity with the Cuban Revolution, but declared his intention to leave Cuba to fight for the revolutionary cause abroad. Additionally, he resigned from all his positions in the government and party, and renounced his honorary Cuban citizenship.

Congo

In early 1965, Guevara went to Africa to 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. 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. Despite the warning, Guevara traveled to the Congo while using the alias Ramón Benítez. 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. They collaborated for a time with guerrilla leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila, who had previously helped supporters of the overthrown Patrice Lumumba lead an unsuccessful revolt months earlier. As an admirer of the late Lumumba, Guevara declared that his "murder should be a lesson for all of us." Guevara, with limited knowledge of Swahili and the local languages was assigned a teenage interpreter Freddy Ilanga. Over the course of seven months Ilanga grew to "admire the hard-working Guevara", who according to Mr. Ilanga, "showed the same respect to black people as he did to whites." However, Guevara soon became disillusioned with the discipline of Kabila's troops and later dismissed him, stating "nothing leads me to believe he is the man of the hour."

As an additional obstacle, white South African mercenaries, led by Mike Hoare in concert with Cuban exiles and the CIA, worked with the Congo National Army to thwart Guevara in the mountains near the village of Fizi on Lake Tanganyika. 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 , a floating listening post that continuously cruised the Indian Ocean off Dar es Salaam for that purpose.

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. Later that year on November 20, 1965, in ill health with dysentery, suffering from acute asthma, and disheartened after seven months of frustrations, Guevara left the Congo with the Cuban survivors (Six members of his 12-man 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; after being urged by his comrades and pressed by two emissaries sent by Castro, at the last moment he reluctantly agreed to leave Africa. In speaking about his experience in the Congo months later, Guevara concluded that he left rather than fight to the death because: "The human element failed. There is no will to fight. The leaders are corrupt. In a word... there was nothing to do." Guevara also declared that "we can't liberate by ourselves a country that does not want to fight." 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."

Guevara was reluctant to return to Cuba, because Castro had made public Guevara's "farewell letter"—a letter intended to only be revealed in the case of his death—wherein he severed all ties in order to devote himself to revolution throughout the world. As a result, Guevara spent the next six months living clandestinely in Dar es Salaam and Prague. During this time he compiled his memoirs of the Congo experience, and wrote drafts of two more books, one on philosophy and the other on economics. He then visited several Western European countries to test his new false identity papers, created by Cuban Intelligence for his later travels to South America. As Guevara prepared for Bolivia, he secretly traveled back to Cuba to visit Castro, as well as to see his wife and to write a last letter to his five children to be read upon his death, which ended with him instructing them:

Bolivia

In late 1966, Guevara's location was still not public knowledge, although representatives of Mozambique's independence movement, the FRELIMO, reported that they met with Guevara in late 1966 or early 1967 in Dar es Salaam regarding his offer to aid in their revolutionary project, which they ultimately rejected. In a speech at the 1967 International Workers' Day rally in Havana, the Acting Minister of the armed forces, Major Juan Almeida, announced that Guevara was "serving the revolution somewhere in Latin America".

Before he departed for Bolivia, Guevara altered his appearance by shaving off his beard and part of the top of his head as well as dyeing it grey so he would be unrecognizable as Che Guevara. On November 3, 1966, Guevara secretly arrived in La Paz, Bolivia on a flight from Montevideo, Uruguay under the false name Adolfo Mena González, and posed as a Uruguayan businessman working for the Organization of American States.

Guevara's first base camp was located in the montane dry forest in the remote Ñancahuazú region. Training at the camp in the Ñancahuazú valley proved to be hazardous and little was accomplished in the way of building a guerrilla army. Former Stasi operative Haydée Tamara Bunke Bider, better known by her ''nom de guerre'' "Tania", who had been installed as his primary agent in La Paz, was reportedly also working for the KGB and in several Western sources she is inferred to have unwittingly served Soviet interests by leading Bolivian authorities to Guevara's trail.

Guevara's guerrilla force, numbering about 50 and operating as the ELN (''Ejército de Liberación Nacional de Bolivia''; "National Liberation Army of Bolivia"), was well equipped and scored a number of early successes against Bolivian army regulars in the difficult terrain of the mountainous Camiri region. As a result of Guevara’s units winning several skirmishes against Bolivian troops in the spring and summer of 1967, the Bolivian government began to overestimate the true size of the guerrilla force. But in September, the Army managed to eliminate two guerrilla groups in a violent battle, reportedly killing one of the leaders.

Researchers hypothesize that Guevara's plan for fomenting revolution in Bolivia failed, for an array of reasons:

He had expected to deal only with the Bolivian military, who were poorly trained and equipped, and was unaware that the U.S. government had sent a team of the CIA's Special Activities Division commandos and other operatives into Bolivia to aid the anti-insurrection effort. The Bolivian Army would also be trained, advised, and supplied by U.S. Army Special Forces including a recently organized elite battalion of Rangers trained in jungle warfare that set up camp in La Esperanza, a small settlement close to the location of Guevara's guerrillas. Guevara had expected assistance and cooperation from the local dissidents which he did not receive, nor did he receive support from Bolivia's Communist Party, under the leadership of Mario Monje, which was oriented toward Moscow rather than Havana. In Guevara's own diary captured after his death, he wrote about the Communist Party of Bolivia, which he characterized as "distrustful, disloyal and stupid."

He had expected to remain in radio contact with Havana. The two shortwave transmitters provided to him by Cuba were faulty; thus the guerrillas were unable to communicate with and be resupplied, leaving them isolated and stranded.

In addition, Guevara's known preference for confrontation rather than compromise, which had previously surfaced during his guerrilla warfare campaign in Cuba, contributed to his inability to develop successful working relationships with local leaders in Bolivia, just as it had in the Congo. This tendency had existed in Cuba, but had been kept in check by the timely interventions and guidance of Fidel Castro.

The end result was that Guevara was unable to attract inhabitants of the local area to join his militia during the 11 months he attempted recruitment. Near the end of the venture Guevara wrote in his diary that "the peasants do not give us any help, and are turning into informers."

Capture and execution

Félix Rodríguez, a Cuban exile turned CIA Special Activities Division operative, advised Bolivian troops during the hunt for Guevara in Bolivia. In addition, the 2007 documentary ''My Enemy's Enemy'', directed by Kevin Macdonald, alleges that Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie aka ''"The Butcher of Lyon"'', advised and possibly helped the CIA orchestrate Guevara's eventual capture.

On October 7, an informant apprised the Bolivian Special Forces of the location of Guevara's guerrilla encampment in the Yuro ravine. On October 8, they encircled the area with 1,800 soldiers, and Guevara was wounded and taken prisoner while leading a detachment with Simeón Cuba Sarabia. Che biographer Jon Lee Anderson reports Bolivian Sergeant Bernardino Huanca's account: that a twice wounded Guevara, his gun rendered useless, shouted "Do not shoot! I am Che Guevara and worth more to you alive than dead."

Guevara was tied up and taken to a dilapidated mud schoolhouse in the nearby village of La Higuera on the night of October 8. For the next half day, Guevara refused to be interrogated by Bolivian officers and would only speak quietly to Bolivian soldiers. One of those Bolivian soldiers, helicopter pilot Jaime Nino de Guzman, describes Che as looking "dreadful". According to Guzman, Guevara was shot through the right calf, his hair was matted with dirt, his clothes were shredded, and his feet were covered in rough leather sheaths. Despite his haggard appearance, he recounts that "Che held his head high, looked everyone straight in the eyes and asked only for something to smoke." De Guzman states that he "took pity" and gave him a small bag of tobacco for his pipe, with Guevara then smiling and thanking him. Later on the night of October 8, Guevara, despite having his hands tied, kicked Bolivian Officer Espinosa into the wall, after the officer entered the schoolhouse in order to snatch Guevara's pipe from his mouth as a souvenir. In another instance of defiance, Guevara spat in the face of Bolivian Rear Admiral Ugarteche shortly before his execution.

The following morning on October 9, Guevara asked to see the ''"maestra"'' (school teacher) of the village, 22-year-old Julia Cortez. Cortez would later state that she found Guevara to be an "agreeable looking man with a soft and ironic glance" and that during their conversation she found herself "unable to look him in the eye", because his "gaze was unbearable, piercing, and so tranquil." During their short conversation, Guevara pointed out to Cortez the poor condition of the schoolhouse, stating that it was "anti-pedagogical" to expect campesino students to be educated there, while "government officials drive Mercedes cars" ... declaring "that's what we are fighting against."

Later that morning on October 9, Bolivian President René Barrientos ordered that Guevara be killed. The order was relayed by Félix Rodríguez despite the U.S. government’s desire that Guevara be taken to Panama for further interrogation. The executioner was Mario Terán, a half-drunken sergeant in the Bolivian army who had requested to shoot Che on the basis of the fact that three of his friends from B Company, all named "Mario", had been killed in an earlier firefight with Guevara's band of guerrillas. To make the bullet wounds appear consistent with the story the government planned to release to the public, Félix Rodríguez ordered Terán to aim carefully to make it appear that Guevara had been killed in action during a clash with the Bolivian army. Gary Prado, the Bolivian captain in command of the army company that captured Guevara, said that the reasons Barrientos ordered the immediate execution of Guevara is so there would be no possibility that Guevara would escape from prison, and also so there would be no drama in regard to a trial.

Moments before Guevara was executed he was asked by a Bolivian soldier if he was thinking about his own immortality. "No", he replied, "I'm thinking about the immortality of the revolution." When Sergeant Terán entered the hut, Che Guevara then told his executioner, "I know you've come to kill me. Shoot, coward! You are only going to kill a man!" Terán hesitated, then opened fire with his semiautomatic rifle, hitting Guevara in the arms and legs. Guevara writhed on the ground, apparently biting one of his wrists to avoid crying out. Terán then fired several times again, wounding him fatally in the chest at 1:10 pm, according to Rodríguez. In all, Guevara was shot nine times. This included five times in the legs, once in the right shoulder and arm, once in the chest, and finally in the throat.

Months earlier, during his last public declaration to the Tricontinental Conference, Guevara wrote his own epitaph, stating "Wherever death may surprise us, let it be welcome, provided that this our battle cry may have reached some receptive ear and another hand may be extended to wield our weapons."

Post-execution, remains and memorial

After his execution, Guevara's body was lashed to the landing skids of a helicopter and flown to nearby Vallegrande, where photographs were taken of him lying on a concrete slab in the laundry room of the Nuestra Señora de Malta. Several witnesses were called to confirm that it was Guevara, key amongst them British journalist Richard Gott, the only witness to have met Guevara when he was alive.

Put on public show, as hundreds of local residents filed past the body, many of them considered Guevara's corpse to represent a "Christ-like" visage, with some of them even surreptitiously clipping locks of his hair as divine relics. Such comparisons were further extended when two weeks later upon seeing the post-mortem photographs, English art critic John Berger observed that they resembled two famous paintings: Rembrandt's ''The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp'' and Andrea Mantegna's ''Lamentation over the Dead Christ''. There were also four correspondents present when Guevara's body arrived in Vallegrande, including Bjorn Kumm of the Swedish ''Aftonbladet'', who described the scene in an November 11, 1967, exclusive for ''The New Republic''.

A declassified memorandum dated October 11, 1967 to United States President Lyndon B. Johnson from his National Security Advisor, Walt Whitman Rostow, called the decision to kill Guevara "stupid" but "understandable from a Bolivian standpoint." After the execution, Rodríguez took several of Guevara's personal items, including a Rolex GMT Master wristwatch which he continued to wear many years later, often showing them to reporters during the ensuing years. Today, some of these belongings, including his flashlight, are on display at the CIA. After a military doctor amputated his hands, Bolivian army officers transferred Guevara's body to an undisclosed location and refused to reveal whether his remains had been buried or cremated. The hands were preserved in formaldehyde to be sent to Buenos Aires for fingerprint identification. (His fingerprints were on file with the Argentine police.) They were later sent to Cuba.

On October 15, Fidel Castro acknowledged that Guevara was dead and proclaimed three days of public mourning throughout the island. On October 18, Castro addressed a crowd of one million mourners in Havana's Plaza de la Revolución and spoke about Guevara's character as a revolutionary. Fidel Castro closed his impassioned eulogy thusly:

French intellectual Régis Debray, who was captured in April 1967 while with Guevara in Bolivia, gave an interview from prison, in August 1968, where he enlarged on the circumstances of Guevara's capture. Debray, who had lived with Guevara's band of guerrillas for a short time, said that in his view they were "victims of the forest" and thus "eaten by the jungle." Debray described a destitute situation where Guevara's men suffered malnutrition, lack of water, absence of shoes, and only possessed six blankets for 22 men. Debray recounts that Guevara and the others had been suffering an "illness" which caused their hands and feet to swell into "mounds of flesh" to the point where you could not discern the fingers on their hands. Despite the futile situation, Debray described Guevara as "optimistic about the future of Latin America" and remarked that Guevara was "resigned to die in the knowledge that his death would be a sort of renaissance", noting that Guevara perceived death "as a promise of rebirth" and "ritual of renewal."

In late 1995, retired Bolivian General Mario Vargas revealed to Jon Lee Anderson, author of ''Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life'', that Guevara's body was located near a Vallegrande airstrip. The result was a multi-national search for the remains, which would last more than a year. In July 1997, a team of Cuban geologists and Argentine forensic anthropologists discovered the remnants of seven bodies in two mass graves, including one man with amputated hands (like Guevara). Bolivian government officials with the Ministry of Interior later identified the body as Guevara when the excavated teeth "perfectly matched" a plaster mold of Che's teeth, made in Cuba prior to his Congolese expedition. The "clincher" then arrived when Argentine forensic anthropologist Alejandro Inchaurregui inspected the inside hidden pocket of a blue jacket dug up next to the handless cadaver and found a small bag of pipe tobacco. Nino de Guzman, the Bolivian helicopter pilot who had given Che a small bag of tobacco, later remarked that he "had serious doubts" at first and "thought the Cubans would just find any old bones and call it Che"; he stated "after hearing about the tobacco pouch, I have no doubts." On October 17, 1997, Guevara's remains, with those of six of his fellow combatants, were laid to rest with military honors in a specially built mausoleum in the Cuban city of Santa Clara, where he had commanded over the decisive military victory of the Cuban Revolution.

Removed when Guevara was captured were his 30,000-word, hand-written diary, a collection of his personal poetry, and a short story he authored about a young Communist guerrilla who learns to overcome his fears. His diary documented events of the guerrilla campaign in Bolivia with the first entry on November 7, 1966 shortly after his arrival at the farm in Ñancahuazú, and the last dated October 7, 1967, the day before his capture. The diary tells how the guerrillas were forced to begin operations prematurely because of discovery by the Bolivian Army, explains Guevara's decision to divide the column into two units that were subsequently unable to re-establish contact, and describes their overall unsuccessful venture. It also records the rift between Guevara and the Communist Party of Bolivia that resulted in Guevara having significantly fewer soldiers than originally expected and shows that Guevara had a great deal of difficulty recruiting from the local populace, partly because of the fact that the guerrilla group had learned Quechua, unaware that the local language was actually a Tupí–Guaraní language. As the campaign drew to an unexpected close, Guevara became increasingly ill. He suffered from ever-worsening bouts of asthma, and most of his last offensives were carried out in an attempt to obtain medicine.

The Bolivian Diary was quickly and crudely translated by ''Ramparts'' magazine and circulated around the world. There are at least four additional diaries in existence—those of Israel Reyes Zayas (Alias "Braulio"), Harry Villegas Tamayo ("Pombo"), Eliseo Reyes Rodriguez ("Rolando")—each of which reveals additional aspects of the events. In July 2008, the Bolivian government of Evo Morales unveiled Guevara's formerly sealed diaries composed in two frayed notebooks, along with a logbook and several black-and-white photographs. At this event, Bolivia's vice minister of culture, Pablo Groux, expressed that there were plans to publish photographs of every handwritten page later in the year. Meanwhile, in August 2009, anthropologists working for Bolivia's Justice Ministry discovered and unearthed five of Guevara's fellow guerrillas near the Bolivian town of Teoponte.

Legacy

Over forty years after his execution, Che's life and legacy still remain a contentious issue. The contradictions of his ethos at various points in his life have created a complex character of unending duality.

An array of notable individuals have lauded Guevara as a hero; for example, Nelson Mandela referred to him as "an inspiration for every human being who loves freedom" while Jean-Paul Sartre described him as "not only an intellectual but also the most complete human being of our age." Others who expressed their admiration include authors Graham Greene who remarked that Che "represented the idea of gallantry, chivalry, and adventure", and Susan Sontag who expounded that "(Che's) goal was nothing less than the cause of humanity itself." In the black community, philosopher Frantz Fanon professed Guevara to be "the world symbol of the possibilities of one man", while Black Panther Party head Stokely Carmichael eulogized that "Che Guevara is not dead, his ideas are with us." Praise has been reflected throughout the political spectrum, with the anarcho-capitalist / libertarian theorist Murray Rothbard extolling Guevara as a "heroic figure", lamenting after his death that "more than any man of our epoch or even of our century, (Che) was the living embodiment of the principle of revolution", while journalist Christopher Hitchens commented that "[Che's] death meant a lot to me and countless like me at the time, he was a role model, albeit an impossible one for us bourgeois romantics insofar as he went and did what revolutionaries were meant to do—fought and died for his beliefs." Guevara remains a beloved national hero to many in Cuba, where his image adorns the $3 Cuban Peso and school children begin each morning by pledging "We will be like Che." In his homeland of Argentina, where high schools bear his name, numerous Che museums dot the country, which in 2008 unveiled a bronze statue of him in his birth city of Rosario. Additionally, Guevara has been sanctified by some Bolivian campesinos as "Saint Ernesto", to whom they pray for assistance.

Conversely, Jacobo Machover, an exiled opposition author, dismisses the hero-worshipping and portrays him as a ruthless executioner. Detractors have theorized that in much of Latin America, Che-inspired revolutions had the practical result of reinforcing brutal militarism and internecine conflict for many years. In an assessment of Guevara, British historian Hugh Thomas opines that Che was a "brave, sincere and determined man who was also obstinate, narrow, and dogmatic." At the end of his life, according to Thomas, "he seems to have become convinced of the virtues of violence for its own sake", while "his influence over Castro for good or evil" grew after his death, as Fidel took up many of his views. In Thomas' assessment "as in the case of Martí, or Lawrence of Arabia, failure has brightened, not dimmed the legend." Alvaro Vargas Llosa of The Independent Institute has hypothesized that Guevara’s contemporary followers "delude themselves by clinging to a myth", while describing Guevara as "Marxist Puritan" who employed his rigid power to suppress dissent, while also operating as a "cold-blooded killing machine". Llosa has also accused Guevara's "fanatical disposition" as being the linchpin of the "Sovietization" of the Cuban revolution, speculating that he possessed a "total subordination of reality to blind ideological orthodoxy." Guevara remains a hated figure amongst many in the Cuban exile and Cuban-American community of the United States, who view him with animosity as "the butcher of La Cabaña."

Despite his polarized status, a high-contrast monochrome graphic of his face, created in 1968 by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick, has become one of the world's most universally merchandized and objectified images, found on an endless array of items, including t-shirts, hats, posters, tattoos, and bikinis, ironically contributing to the consumer culture Guevara despised. Yet, he still remains a transcendent figure both in specifically political contexts and as a wide-ranging popular icon of youthful rebellion.

Timeline

Archival media

Video footage

Guevara interviewed in 1964 on a visit to Dublin, Ireland, (2:53), English translation, from RTÉ Libraries and Archives, Video Clip

Guevara reciting a poem, (1:00), English subtitles, from ''El Che: Investigating a Legend'' – Kultur Video 2001, Video Clip

Guevara showing support for Fidel Castro, (0:22), English subtitles, from ''El Che: Investigating a Legend'' – Kultur Video 2001, Video Clip

Guevara speaking about labor, (0:28), English subtitles, from ''El Che: Investigating a Legend'' – Kultur Video 2001, Video Clip

Guevara speaking about the Bay of Pigs, (0:17), English subtitles, from ''El Che: Investigating a Legend'' – Kultur Video 2001, Video Clip

Guevara speaking against imperialism, (1:20), English subtitles, from ''El Che: Investigating a Legend'' – Kultur Video 2001, Video Clip

Audio recording

Guevara interviewed on ABC's ''Issues and Answers'', (23:53), English translation, narrated by Lisa Howard, March 24, 1964, Audio clip

List of works

Originally written in Spanish by Ernesto "Che" Guevara, later translated into English ''A New Society: Reflections for Today's World'', Ocean Press, 1996, ISBN 1-875284-06-0 ''Back on the Road: A Journey Through Latin America'', Grove Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8021-3942-6 ''Che Guevara, Cuba, and the Road to Socialism'', Pathfinder Press, 1991, ISBN 0-87348-643-9 ''Che Guevara on Global Justice'', Ocean Press (AU), 2002, ISBN 1-876175-45-1 ''Che Guevara: Radical Writings on Guerrilla Warfare, Politics and Revolution,'' Filiquarian Publishing, 2006, ISBN 1-59986-999-3 ''Che Guevara Reader: Writings on Politics & Revolution'', Ocean Press, 2003, ISBN 1-876175-69-9 ''Che Guevara Speaks: Selected Speeches and Writings'', Pathfinder Press (NY), 1980, ISBN 0-87348-602-1 ''Che Guevara Talks to Young People'', Pathfinder, 2000, ISBN 0-87348-911-X ''Che: The Diaries of Ernesto Che Guevara'', Ocean Press (AU), 2008, ISBN 1-920888-93-4 ''Colonialism is Doomed'', Ministry of External Relations: Republic of Cuba, 1964, ASIN B0010AAN1K ''Critical Notes on Political Economy: A Revolutionary Humanist Approach to Marxist Economics'', Ocean Press, 2008, ISBN 1-876175-55-9 ''Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War, 1956–58'', Pathfinder Press (NY), 1996, ISBN 0-87348-824-5 ''Guerrilla Warfare: Authorized Edition'', Ocean Press, 2006, ISBN 1-920888-28-4 ''Latin America: Awakening of a Continent'', Ocean Press, 2005, ISBN 1-876175-73-7 ''Marx & Engels: An Introduction'', Ocean Press, 2007, ISBN 1-920888-92-6 ''Our America And Theirs: Kennedy And The Alliance For Progress'', Ocean Press, 2006, ISBN 1-876175-81-8 ''Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War: Authorized Edition'', Ocean Press, 2005, ISBN 1-920888-33-0 ''Self Portrait Che Guevara'', Ocean Press (AU), 2004, ISBN 1-876175-82-6 ''Socialism and Man in Cuba'', Pathfinder Press (NY), 1989, ISBN 0-87348-577-7 ''The African Dream: The Diaries of the Revolutionary War in the Congo'', Grove Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8021-3834-9 ''The Argentine'', Ocean Press (AU), 2008, ISBN 1-920888-93-4 ''The Bolivian Diary of Ernesto Che Guevara'', Pathfinder Press, 1994, ISBN 0-87348-766-4 ''The Great Debate on Political Economy'', Ocean Press, 2006, ISBN 1-876175-54-0 ''The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America'', London: Verso, 1996, ISBN 1-85702-399-4 ''The Secret Papers of a Revolutionary: The Diary of Che Guevara'', American Reprint Co, 1975, ASIN B0007GW08W ''To Speak the Truth: Why Washington's "Cold War" Against Cuba Doesn't End'', Pathfinder, 1993, ISBN 0-87348-633-1

See also

Main:

Che Guevara (photo)

Che Guevara in popular culture

Legacy of Che Guevara

Guevarism

Books:

The Motorcycle Diaries (book)

''Guerrilla Warfare'' (book)

''Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War'' (book)

Films:

''Che – Part 1 & Part 2'' (2008 film)

''The Motorcycle Diaries'' (film)

''Che!'' (1969 film)

''The Hands of Che Guevara'' (film)

Notes

References

Almudevar, Lola (October 9, 2007). "Bolivia marks capture, execution of 'Che' Guevara 40 years ago". ''San Francisco Chronicle''.

Anderson, Jon Lee (1997). ''Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life''. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-1600-0.

Bamford, James (2002). ''Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency'' (Reprint edition). New York: Anchor Books. ISBN 0-385-49908-6.

BBC News (January 17, 2001). "Profile: Laurent Kabila". Accessed April 10, 2008.

BBC News (May 26, 2001). ''Che Guevara photographer dies''. Accessed January 4, 2006.

BBC News (October 9, 2007). "Cuba pays tribute to Che Guevara". ''BBC News, International version''.

Ben Bella, Ahmed (October 1997). "Che as I knew him". ''Le Monde diplomatique''. mondediplo.com. Accessed February 28, 2008.

Bockman, USMC Major Larry James (April 1, 1984). ''The Spirit of Moncada: Fidel Castro's Rise to Power 1953–1959''. United States: Marine Corps Command and Staff College.

Castañeda, Jorge G (1998). ''Che Guevara: Compañero''. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-75940-9.

Castro, Fidel (editors Bonachea, Rolando E. and Nelson P. Valdés; 1972). ''Revolutionary Struggle 1947–1958''. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-02065-3.

DePalma, Anthony (2006). ''The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba, and Herbert L. Matthews of the New York Times''. New York: Public Affairs. ISBN 1-58648-332-3.

Dorfman, Ariel (June 14, 1999). ''Time 100: Che Guevara''. ''Time magazine''.

Dorschner, John and Roberto Fabricio (1980). ''The Winds of December: The Cuban Revolution of 1958''. New York: Coward, McCann & Geoghegen. ISBN 0-698-10993-7.

Dumur, Jean (interviewer) (1964). ''L'interview de Che Guevara'' (Video clip; 9:43; with English subtitles).

Gálvez, William (1999). ''Che in Africa: Che Guevara's Congo Diary''. Melbourne: Ocean Press, 1999. ISBN 1-876175-08-7.

Gómez Treto, Raúl (Spring 1991). "Thirty Years of Cuban Revolutionary Penal Law". ''Latin American Perspectives'' 18(2), Cuban Views on the Revolution. 114–125.

Gott, Richard (August 11, 2005). "Bolivia on the Day of the Death of Che Guevara". ''Le Monde diplomatique''. Accessed February 26, 2006.

Grant, Will (October 8, 2007). "CIA man recounts Che Guevara's death". ''BBC News''. Accessed February 29, 2008.

Guevara, Ernesto "Che" (1995). ''Motorcycle Diaries''. London: Verso Books.

Guevara, Ernesto "Che" (editor Waters, Mary Alice) (1996). ''Episodes of the Cuban Revolutionary War 1956–1958''. New York: Pathfinder. ISBN 0-87348-824-5.

Guevara, Ernesto "Che" (1965). "Che Guevara's Farewell Letter".

Guevara, Ernesto "Che" (1967a). "English Translation of Complete Text of his ''Message to the Tricontinental''"

Guevara, Ernesto "Che" (1967b). ''"Diario (Bolivia)"''. Written 1966–1967.

Guevara, Ernesto "Che" (editors Bonachea, Rolando E. and Nelson P. Valdés; 1969). ''Che: Selected Works of Ernesto Guevara'', Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-52016-8

Guevara, Ernesto "Che" (1972). ''Pasajes de la guerra revolucionaria''.

Guevara, Ernesto "Che" (translated from the Spanish by Patrick Camiller; 2000). ''The African Dream''. New York: Grove Publishers. ISBN 0-8021-3834-9.

Guevara, Ernesto "Che" (2005). "Socialism and man in Cuba" (First published March 12, 1965 as "From Algiers, for Marcha. The Cuban Revolution Today"). ''Che Guevara Reader''. (1997). Ocean Press. ISBN 1-875284-93-1

Guevara Lynch, Ernesto (2000). ''Aquí va un soldado de América''. Barcelona: Plaza y Janés Editores, S.A. ISBN 84-01-01327-5.

Hall, Kevin (2004). "In Bolivia, Push for Che Tourism Follows Locals' Reverence". ''Common Dreams''. commondreams.org. Accessed November 15, 2008.

Haney, Rich (2005). ''Celia Sánchez: The Legend of Cuba's Revolutionary Heart''. New York: Algora Pub. ISBN 0-87586-395-7.

Hari, Johann (October 6, 2007). "Johann Hari: Should Che be an icon? No". ''The Independent''.

Hart, Joseph (2004). ''Che: The Life, Death, and Afterlife of a Revolutionary''. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 1-56025-519-6.

Ireland's Own (August 12, 2000). ''From Cuba to Congo, Dream to Disaster for Che Guevara''. Accessed January 11, 2006.

Kornbluh, Peter (1997). ''Electronic Briefing Book No. 5''. National Security Archive. Accessed March 25, 2007.

Lacey, Mark (October 26, 2007). "Lone Bidder Buys Strands of Che's Hair at U.S. Auction". ''New York Times''.

Lacey, Mark (October 9, 2007). "A Revolutionary Icon, and Now, a Bikini". ''The New York Times''.

Lago, Armando M (September 2005). "". ''Cuba: the Human Cost of Social Revolution''. (Manuscript pending publication.) Summit, New Jersey: Free Society Project. |page=5}}

Mittleman, James H (1981). ''Underdevelopment and the Transition to Socialism – Mozambique and Tanzania''. New York: Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-500660-8

Moynihan, Michael. "Neutering Sartre at Dagens Nyheter". ''Stockholm Spectator''. Accessed February 26, 2006.

Murray, Edmundo (November–December 2005). "Guevara, Ernesto [Che (1928–1967)]". ''Irish Migration Studies in Latin America'' (www.irlandeses.org).

Che Guevara, by Frank Niess, Haus Publishers Ltd, 2007, ISBN 1-904341-99-3.

O'Hagan, Sean (July 11, 2004). "Just a pretty face?". ''The Guardian''. Accessed October 25, 2006.

Ramonez, Ignacio (2007). Translated by Andrew Hurley. ''Fidel Castro: My Life'' London: Penguin Books. ISBN 9780141026268

Rodriguez, Félix I. and John Weisman (1989). ''Shadow Warrior/the CIA Hero of a Hundred Unknown Battles''. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-66721-1.

Ryan, Henry Butterfield (1998). ''The Fall of Che Guevara: A Story of Soldiers, Spies, and Diplomats''. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511879-0.

Sanati, Kimia (October 3, 2007). "Islamist, Socialist Revolutions Don't Mix". IPS News. (Reporting from Tehran, Iran). Accessed October 13, 2010.

Schipani, Andres (September 23, 2007). "The Final Triumph of Saint Che". ''The Observer''. (Reporting from La Higuera.)

Selvage, Major Donald R. – USMC (April 1, 1985). ''Che Guevara in Bolivia''. Globalsecurity.org. Accessed January 5, 2006.

Time Magazine (October 12, 1970). "Che: A Myth Embalmed in a Matrix of Ignorance".

Time Magazine cover story (August 8, 1960). "Castro's Brain".

U.S. Army (April 28, 1967). ''Memorandum of Understanding Concerning the Activation, Organization and Training of the 2d Ranger Battalion – Bolivian Army''. Accessed June 19, 2006.

Vargas Llosa, Alvaro (July 11, 2005). "The Killing Machine: Che Guevara, from Communist Firebrand to Capitalist Brand". ''The Independent Institute''. Accessed November 10, 2006.

"World Combined Sources" (October 2, 2004). "Che Guevara remains a hero to Cubans". ''People's Weekly World''.

External links

BBC Audio Archive: Profile of Che Guevara

BBC News – Che Guevara Images:   Set 1, Set 2, Set 3

Central Intelligence Agency: Reports on Che Guevara

Che Guevara Internet Archive: Speeches, Images

Democracy Now: "Life & Legacy of Che Guevara"

Discovery Channel: ''Ernesto "Che" Guevara''

Documentary: ''Che Guevara: Guerrilla to the End''

Documentary: ''Che Guevara, The Body & The Legend''

History International: ''Tracing Che: A Motorcycle Journey''

In Defense of Marxism: 40th Anniversary Part 1 --- Part 2

Life Magazine Gallery: Che Guevara, Revolutionary Life

MSNBC Slideshow: "In Cuba, Che Still Sells Revolution"

National Security Archive: The Death of Che Guevara

New York Post: Ernesto "Che" Guevara Photo Gallery

NPR Audio Report: Che Guevara

NY Times Interactive Gallery: "A Revolutionary Afterlife"

Slate Magazine: Picture Essay of Che

Slideshow: ''Fidel and Che: A Revolutionary Friendship''

State of Nature: Interview on Che with Jon Lee Anderson

The Guardian: "Making of a Marxist" ~ Che's Early Journals

The History Channel: ''The True Story of Che Guevara''

Wall Street Journal Gallery: "The Ubiquitous Che"

Category:1928 births Category:1967 deaths Category:Anti-fascists Category:Anti-imperialism Category:Argentine academics Category:Argentine activists Category:Argentine atheists Category:Argentine communists Category:Anti-Revisionists Category:Argentine diplomats Category:Argentine educators Category:Argentine essayists Category:Argentine expatriates Category:Argentine guerrillas Category:Argentine non-fiction writers Category:Argentine people of Basque descent Category:Argentine people of Irish descent Category:Argentine people of Spanish descent Category:Argentine physicians Category:Argentine poets Category:Argentine political scientists Category:Argentine political writers Category:Argentine rugby union players Category:Argentine travel writers Category:Deaths by firearm in Bolivia Category:Executed revolutionaries Category:Guerrilla warfare theorists Category:Guerrillas killed in action Category:Indigenous activists Category:Marxist theorists Category:Marxist writers Category:Motorcycling writers Category:National liberation movements Category:People from Rosario, Santa Fe Category:Revolutionaries Category:Revolution theorists Category:University of Buenos Aires alumni

rue:Че Ґевара

af:Che Guevara ab:Ернесто Че Гевара ar:تشي جيفارا an:Ernesto Guevara ast:Ernesto Guevara de la Serna gn:Che Guevara ay:Che Guevara az:Ernesto Çe Gevara bn:চে গুয়েভারা zh-min-nan:Che Guevara be:Эрнэста Гевара be-x-old:Чэ Гевара bar:Ernesto Che Guevara bs:Che Guevara br:Che Guevara bg:Че Гевара ca:Che Guevara cv:Эрнесто Че Гевара cs:Che Guevara cy:Che Guevara da:Che Guevara de:Che Guevara et:Che Guevara el:Ερνέστο Τσε Γκεβάρα eml:Ernesto Che Guevara es:Ernesto Guevara eo:Che Guevara eu:Che Guevara fa:چه‌گوارا hif:Che Guevara fr:Che Guevara fy:Che Guevara ga:Che Guevara gd:Che Guevara gl:Che Guevara gu:ચે ગૂવેરા ko:체 게바라 hy:Չե Գևարա hi:चे ग्वेरा hsb:Ernesto Che Guevara hr:Che Guevara io:Che Guevara ilo:Che Guevara id:Che Guevara ia:Che Guevara os:Че Гевара, Эрнесто is:Che Guevara it:Che Guevara he:ארנסטו צ'ה גווארה jv:Ernesto Che Guevara kn:ಚೇ ಗುವಾರ ka:ერნესტო ჩე გევარა kk:Гевара, Че sw:Che Guevara ku:Ernesto Che Guevara la:Ernestus Guevara lv:Če Gevara lb:Che Guevara lt:Che Guevara jbo:tces.gevaras lmo:Che Guevara hu:Che Guevara mk:Че Гевара ml:ചെ ഗുവേര mt:Che Guevara mr:शे गवारा mzn:چه گوارا ms:Che Guevara mwl:Che Guevara mn:Че Гевара my:ချေဂွေဗားရား nah:Ernesto Guevara nl:Che Guevara ne:चे ग्वेवारा ja:チェ・ゲバラ no:Che Guevara nn:Che Guevara oc:Che Guevara mrj:Че Гевара, Эрнесто uz:Ernesto Che Guevara pnb:چی گویرا ps:چې ګوارا pl:Ernesto Guevara pt:Che Guevara ro:Che Guevara qu:Ernesto Guevara ru:Че Гевара, Эрнесто sah:Че Гевара sa:चे ग्वेएरा sco:Che Guevara sq:Ernesto Che Guevara scn:Che Guevara si:චේ ගුවේරා simple:Che Guevara sk:Che Guevara sl:Che Guevara szl:Ernesto Guevara so:Che Guvara ckb:چێ گیڤارا sr:Че Гевара sh:Che Guevara fi:Che Guevara sv:Che Guevara tl:Che Guevara ta:சே குவேரா te:చే గెవారా th:เช เกบารา tr:Ernesto Che Guevara uk:Ернесто Че Гевара ur:چی گویرا vec:Che Guevara vi:Che Guevara fiu-vro:Che Guevara war:Che Guevara yi:טשע געווארא yo:Che Guevara zh-yue:哲古華拉 bat-smg:Čė Gėvara zh:切·格瓦拉

Name	Filiberto Ojeda Ríos
Birth date	April 26, 1933
Birth place	Naguabo, Puerto Rico
Death date	September 23, 2005
Death place	Hormigueros, Puerto Rico
Known for	Leader of the Macheteros Founder of FALN Founder of MIRA Former FBI's Most Wanted Fugitives
Nationality	Puerto Rican }}

Filiberto Ojeda Ríos (April 26, 1933 – September 23, 2005) was the commander-in-chief ("''Responsable General''") of the Boricua Popular Army (''Ejército Popular Boricua, a.k.a., Los Macheteros''), a clandestine paramilitary organization that considers United States rule over Puerto Rico to be oppressive colonization and advocates the latter's independence.

Ojeda Ríos was a fugitive from 1990 to 2005, wanted by the FBI for his role in the 1983 Wells Fargo depot robbery in West Hartford, Connecticut as well as a bail bond default in September 1990. He was killed on 23 September 2005, a date that coincided with ''Los Macheteros'''s venerable anniversary of a Puerto Rican pro-independence uprising known as El Grito de Lares, when members of the FBI, claiming an attempt to serve an arrest warrant on him, surrounded a house in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, where Ojeda Rios was hiding. The FBI operation, still not entirely laid clear, was questioned by both local Puerto Rican authorities as well as international organizations.

The killing of Ojeda Ríos has been mourned by members of the Puerto Rican Independence movement and by Puerto Ricans in general, who have expressed their indignation through repeated protests. Members of the statehood movement and supporters of the Commonwealth have also joined in the criticism of the federal and local handling of the FBI's shooting incident. In late March 2006, the Puerto Rico Department of Justice sued federal authorities, including FBI Director Robert Mueller and US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, seeking an injunction to force the federal government authorities to provide the Commonwealth government with information related to the operation in which Ojeda Ríos died, as well as another one in which the FBI searched the homes of independence supporters affiliated with Los Macheteros. The lawsuit was dismissed in the summer of 2007. However, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico Civil Rights Commission forged on with its own investigation of the incident. Their investigation has been ongoing for several years and a report was due out on December 31, 2009.

Biography

Ojeda Ríos was born on April 26, 1933 in Naguabo, Puerto Rico. Ojeda entered college when he was fifteen years old and was described as having an "engaging intelligence".

As a child he played the trumpet and guitar. He joined a renowned Salsa band from the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico, "La Sonora Ponceña", performing on both instruments.

In 1961, he moved his family from Puerto Rico to Cuba and was recruited into the General Intelligence Directorate, the Cuban intelligence service.

In 1967 he founded and led the very first of Puerto Rico's new militant political groups, the Armed Revolutionary Independence Movement (Movimiento Independentista Revolucionario Armado). MIRA was disbanded by police in the early 1970s and Ríos was arrested. He subsequently skipped bail and moved to New York, where he cofounded the Armed Forces of National Liberation (Fuerzas Armadas de Liberación Nacional) (FALN) with former MIRA members as a membership base. In 1976, Ojeda Ríos founded the Boricua Popular Army (Ejército Popular Boricua), also known as Los Macheteros (The Machete Wielders), named after the sugar cane harvesters, who use machetes to cut the canes. Los Macheteros have been alleged to be either directly or indirectly responsible for numerous acts of terrorism and bombings in Puerto Rico and the mainland United States. The group has claimed responsibility for several incendiary and explosive incidents, including an explosion at Fraunces Tavern, a historical tavern located in New York City, which killed those inside the building and injured other bystanders. The group was involved in the killing of a Puerto Rican policeman who refused to surrender his car. The group was responsible for nearly 120 bombings in the United States between 1974 and 1983. ''Los Macheteros'' is described by U.S. law enforcement agencies as a terrorist organization. It is a political group based in Puerto Rico with branches in the mainland United States and in other countries.

On September 12, 1983, Los Macheteros stole approximately US$7 million from a Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford, Connecticut. The money obtained from this operation was allegedly used to help fund the Puerto Rican independence movement, but there is ample evidence that a significant portion of the stolen funds—a minimum of $2–$3 million—was funnelled to Cuba through their embassy in Mexico City by one of the members of Los Macheteros.

In 1985, 19 members of Los Macheteros were indicted for offenses associated with the Wells Fargo heist. Ojeda Ríos was captured as part of an FBI operation that took place following two years of surveillance on the group. In the operation a group of twenty-four agents protected by bulletproof vests, entered the building where Ojeda Ríos had his residence. The agents received assistance from a group of snipers located on adjacent buildings and a helicopter. When Ojeda noticed the presence of the agents he fired a sub-machine gun at them and threatened to kill anyone that tried to reach the building's second floor. In the meanwhile Ojeda's wife Blanca Iris Serrano burned documents in the apartment's bathroom. When the agents tried to climb the ladder to reach the building's second floor Filiberto opened fire against them injuring one of them, at this moment one of the snipers disarmed him with a bullet giving the other agents enough time to arrest him.

Ojeda Ríos was released on bond after his attorneys successfully argued he had been denied a speedy trial, although the delay in bringing him to trial was largely the result of defense motions. On 23 September 1990, the anniversary of the Grito de Lares, Ojeda Ríos cut off the electronic tag that had been placed on his ankle as a condition of his release, and became a fugitive. Fourteen of the 19 defendants were convicted after trial; one was acquitted. Charges against another were dismissed. Three, including Ojeda and Victor Manuel Gerena, were able to elude authorities. In July 1992, Ojeda Ríos was sentenced in absentia to 55 years in prison and fined $600,000 for his role in the Wells Fargo heist.

In 1998, Ojeda Ríos recorded a public statement where he accepted responsibility for an explosion on the construction site of a public project. In this statement he declared that the Macheteros were the authors of the incident, and that they accepted all responsibility for their actions. Ojeda expressed that they accepted responsibility for the explosion directly because in the past the police has supposedly created false evidence against the organization. On July 18, 1998, Ojeda Ríos admitted that the Macheteros planted bombs at several banks throughout the course of the 1998 Puerto Rican General Strike. The interview was broadcast on WKAQ-AM, a local radio station. Reporters conducting the interview declared they were blindfolded and transported to Ojeda Ríos' hideout where the interview took place. Filiberto warned the United States Navy that if the military practices on the island of Vieques continued, the group would take action. This was made public on an interview with WIAC (AM) on 7 December 1999. In the interview he declared that the Macheteros "were going to pay close attention to what happened in Vieques" and that the US government "knew they were serious".

Death

On September 23, 2005, Ojeda Ríos was surrounded in his home in the outskirts of the town of Hormigueros, Puerto Rico, by members of the FBI's San Juan field office and shot fatally. The FBI recounted the incident in a press release. According to this document, the FBI was performing surveillance of the area driven by reports that Ojeda had been spotted in the home. The FBI determined its surveillance team had been detected, and decided to proceed with serving an arrest warrant against Ojeda. As the agents approached the home, Ojeda opened fire. One agent was wounded. Filiberto's wife says that the "FBI entered the house shooting with no warning." The FBI denies these accounts, stating Ojeda opened fire as agents approached. An investigation by the Office of the Inspector General concluded that "this daylight assault was extremely dangerous and not the best option available to the FBI."

According to Ojeda's wife, Elma Beatriz Rosado Barbosa, as well as neighbor Héctor Reyes, it was the FBI agents who initiated the shooting at 3:00 pm. The Office of the Inspector General report determined that an FBI agent detonated a non-lethal "flash bang" grenade outside the house as a diversionary tactic when the FBI approached the house, before any gunfire began, and Rosado may have thought this explosion was gunfire initiated by the FBI. The FBI press release, however, claims that "as the FBI agents approached the front of the farm house at approximately 4:28 p.m., Ojeda-Rios opened the front door to the residence and opened fire on the FBI agents. In response to the gunfire from Ojeda-Rios, the FBI returned fire and established a defensive perimeter in order to contain the environment."

Rosado has alleged that Ojeda offered to turn himself in to journalist Jesús Dávila, but that his offer was rebuffed by the agents. The Office of the Inspector General report concluded that "although the FBI utilized a negotiator from its San Juan office during the standoff, the FBI did not comply with its own policies regarding the integration of negotiators into operations planning or the use of multiple negotiators."

The FBI did not enter the house until shortly after noon the next day, at which time the agents found Ojeda dead on the floor from a single bullet wound that had punctured his lung. A coroner's autopsy concluded that Ojeda bled to death over the course of several hours.

The FBI was criticized for failing to notify Commonwealth of Puerto Rico officials in advance of the Ojeda arrest operation. The OIG report also found that the "FBI missed opportunities to provide accurate information to the public and to Commonwealth officials regarding the reasons for the delay in entering Ojeda's residence."

Politicians across party lines criticized the handling of this altercation. Among the aspects objected to are the very date of September 23. On this date in 1868, at the village of Lares, a group of Puerto Rican revolutionaries launched a rebellion called the Grito de Lares against the then-ruling Spanish colonial authorities. The anniversary of the uprising is commemorated every year by the independence movement. Ojeda Ríos was renowned for selecting anniversaries of the Grito de Lares to make statements to his followers from undisclosed hideouts.

Governor Aníbal Acevedo Vilá criticized the FBI assault as "improper" and "highly irregular" and demanded to know why his government was not informed of it. The FBI refused to release information beyond the official press release, citing security and agent privacy issues. The Puerto Rico Justice Department filed suit in federal court against the FBI and the US Attorney General, demanding information crucial to the Commonwealth's own investigation of the incident. The case was dismissed by the U.S Supreme Court.

Ojeda Rios funeral was attended by the highest authority of the Roman Catholic Church in Puerto Rico, Archbishop Roberto Octavio González Nieves, ex-Governor Rafael Hernández Colón, and numerous other dignitaries and personalities.

In the aftermath of his death, the United Nations created a Draft Resolution urging a "probe of [the] pro-independence killing, human rights abuses", after "Petitioner after petitioner condemned the assassination of Mr. Ojeda Rios by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)".

See also

List of famous Puerto Ricans

Boricua Popular Army

White Eagle: the Wells Fargo depot robbery

References

External links

DOJ/OIG Review of the September 2005 Shooting Incident Involving the FBI and Filiberto Ojeda Ríos

Filiberto Ojeda Rios: A Puerto Rican Life, by Ari Paul

''Portraits of Notable Individuals in the Struggle for Puerto Rican Independence''

FBI Agent Involved

Category:1933 births Category:2005 deaths Category:Deaths by firearm in Puerto Rico Category:Puerto Rican nationalists Category:Puerto Rican socialists Category:Puerto Rican activists

ca:Filiberto Ojeda Ríos de:Filiberto Ojeda Ríos es:Filiberto Ojeda Ríos fr:Filiberto Ojeda Ríos no:Filiberto Ojeda Ríos ru:Охеда Риос, Филиберто tr:Filiberto Ojeda Rios wa:Filiberto Ojeda Ríos

Name	Malcolm X
Birth date	May 19, 1925
Birth place	Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Death date	February 21, 1965
Death place	New York City, U.S.
Other names	Malcolm Little, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz
Movement	Black nationalism, Pan-Africanism
Organization	Nation of Islam, Muslim Mosque, Inc., Organization of Afro-American Unity
Religion	Sunni Islam
Influences	Elijah Muhammad, Marcus Garvey
Influenced
Signature	Malcolm X Signature.svg }}

Malcolm X (; May 19, 1925 February 21, 1965), born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (), was an African-American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist. To his admirers, he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans. His detractors accused him of preaching racism, black supremacy, antisemitism, and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history, and in 1998, ''TIME'' named ''The Autobiography of Malcolm X'' one of the ten most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.

Malcolm X was born in Omaha, Nebraska. The events of his childhood, including his father's lessons concerning black pride and self-reliance, and his own experiences concerning race played a significant role in Malcolm X's adult life. By the time he was thirteen, his father had died and his mother had been committed to a mental hospital. After living in a series of foster homes, Malcolm X became involved in a number of criminal activities in Boston and New York City. In 1946, Malcolm X was sentenced to eight to ten years in prison.

While in prison, Malcolm X became a member of the Nation of Islam, and after his parole in 1952 he became one of the Nation's leaders and chief spokesmen. For nearly a dozen years he was the public face of the controversial group. Tension between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam, led to Malcolm X's quitting the organization in March 1964. He subsequently traveled extensively throughout Africa and the Middle East and founded Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization, and the secular Organization of Afro-American Unity, which advocated Pan-Africanism. Less than a year after he left the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X was assassinated by three members of the group while giving a speech in New York.

The beliefs expressed by Malcolm X changed during his lifetime. As a spokesman for the Nation of Islam he taught black supremacy and deified the leaders of the organization. He also advocated the separation of black and white Americans, which put him at odds with the civil rights movement, which was working towards integration. After he left the Nation of Islam in 1964, Malcolm X became a Sunni Muslim, made the pilgrimage to Mecca and disavowed racism, while remaining a champion of black self-determination, self defense, and human rights. He expressed a willingness to work with civil rights leaders and described his previous position with the Nation of Islam as that of a "zombie".

Early years

Malcolm Little was born on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska, the fourth of seven children to Earl Little and Louise Norton. His father was an outspoken Baptist lay speaker. He supported Pan-African activist Marcus Garvey and was a local leader of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). Malcolm never forgot the values of black pride and self-reliance that his father and other UNIA leaders preached. Malcolm X later said that three of Earl Little's brothers, one of whom was lynched, died violently at the hands of white men. Because of Ku Klux Klan threats, the family relocated in 1926 to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and shortly thereafter to Lansing, Michigan.

Earl Little, who was dark-skinned, was born in Reynolds, Georgia. He had three children from his first marriage: Ella, Mary, and Earl Jr.—and seven with his second wife, Louise: Wilfred, Hilda, Philbert, Malcolm, Reginald, Yvonne, and Wesley. Louise Norton Little was born in Grenada. Because her father was Scottish, she was so light-skinned that she could have passed for white. Malcolm inherited his light complexion from his mother and maternal grandfather. Initially he felt his light skin was a status symbol, but he later said he "hated every drop of that white rapist's blood that is in me." Malcolm X later remembered feeling that his father favored him because he was the lightest-skinned child in the family; however, he thought his mother treated him harshly for the same reason. One of Malcolm's nicknames, "Red", derived from the tinge of his hair. According to one biographer, at birth he had "ash-blonde hair ... tinged with cinnamon", and at age four, "reddish-blonde hair". His hair darkened as he aged, yet he also resembled his paternal grandmother, whose hair "turned reddish in the summer sun." The issue of skin and hair color took on very significant implications later in Malcolm's life.

In December 1924, Louise Little was threatened by klansmen while she was pregnant with Malcolm. She recalled that the klansmen warned the family to leave Omaha, because Earl Little's activities with UNIA were "spreading trouble". After they moved to Lansing, their house was burned in 1929; however, the family escaped without physical injury. On September 8, 1931, Earl Little was fatally struck by a streetcar in Lansing. Authorities ruled his death an accident. The police reported that Earl Little was conscious when they arrived on the scene, and he told them he had slipped and fallen under the streetcar's wheels. The black community in Lansing disputed the cause of death, believing there was circumstantial evidence of assault. His family had frequently been harassed by the Black Legion, a white supremacist group that his father accused of burning down their home in 1929. Some blacks believed the Black Legion was responsible for Earl Little's death. One of the adults at the funeral told eight-year-old Philbert Little that his father had been hit from behind and shoved under the streetcar.

Though Earl Little had two life insurance policies, his family received death benefits solely from the smaller policy. The insurance company of the larger policy claimed that his father had committed suicide and refused to issue the benefit. The payout from the insurance policy was $1,000 (comparable to about $15,000 in 2010 dollars), and the probate court awarded Louise Little a monthly "widow's allowance" of $18. She rented space in the garden to raise more money, and her sons would hunt game for supper.

In 1935 or 1936, Louise Little began dating an African-American man. A marriage proposal seemed a possibility, but the man disappeared from their lives when Louise became pregnant with his child in late 1937. In December 1938, Louise Little had a nervous breakdown and was declared legally insane. The Little siblings were split up and sent to different foster homes. The state formally committed Louise Little to the state mental hospital at Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she remained until Malcolm and his siblings secured her release 24 years later.

Malcolm Little was one of the best students in his junior high school, but he dropped out after a white eighth-grade teacher told him that his aspirations of being a lawyer were "no realistic goal for a nigger." Years later, Malcolm X would laugh about the incident, but at the time it was humiliating. It made him feel that there was no place in the white world for a career-oriented black man, no matter how smart he was. After living with a series of white foster parents, Malcolm moved to Boston in February 1941 to live with his older half-sister, Ella Little Collins.

Young adult years

Collins lived in Roxbury, a predominantly African-American middle-class neighborhood of Boston. It was the first time Little had seen so many black people. He was drawn to the cultural and social life of the neighborhood. In Boston, Little held a variety of jobs and found intermittent employment with the New Haven Railroad. Between 1943 and 1946, he drifted from city to city and job to job. He left Boston to live for a short time in Flint, Michigan. He moved to New York City in 1943. Living in Harlem, he became involved in drug dealing, gambling, racketeering, robbery, and pimping. According to recent biographies, Little occasionally engaged in sex with other men, usually for money.

In 1943, the U.S. draft board ordered Little to register for military service. He later recalled that he put on a display to avoid the draft by telling the examining officer that he could not wait to "steal us some guns, and kill us [some] crackers." Military physicians classified him as "mentally disqualified for military service". He was issued a 4-F card, relieving him of his service obligations. In late 1945, Little returned to Boston. With a group of associates, he began a series of elaborate burglaries targeting the residences of wealthy white families. On January 12, 1946, Little was arrested for burglary while trying to pick up a stolen watch he had left for repairs at a jewelry shop. The shop owner called the police because the watch was very expensive, and the police had alerted all Boston jewelers that it had been stolen. Little told the police that he had a gun on his person and surrendered so the police would treat him more leniently. Three days later, Little was indicted for carrying firearms. On January 16, he was charged with larceny and breaking and entering, and eventually sentenced to eight to ten years in prison.

On February 27, Little began serving his sentence at the Charlestown State Prison in Charlestown, Boston. While in prison, Little earned the nickname of "Satan" for his hostility toward religion. Little met a self-educated man in prison named John Elton Bembry (referred to as "Bimbi" in ''The Autobiography of Malcolm X''). Bembry was a well-regarded prisoner at Charlestown, and Malcolm X would later describe him as "the first man I had ever seen command total respect ... with words." Gradually, the two men became friends and Bembry convinced Little to educate himself. Little developed a voracious appetite for reading, and he frequently read after the prison lights had been turned off. In 1948, Little's brother Philbert wrote, telling him about the Nation of Islam. Like the UNIA, the Nation preached black self-reliance and, ultimately, the unification of members of the African diaspora, free from white American and European domination. Little was not interested in joining until his brother Reginald wrote, saying, "Malcolm, don't eat any more pork and don't smoke any more cigarettes. I'll show you how to get out of prison." Little quit smoking, and the next time pork was served in the prison dining hall, he refused to eat it.

When Reginald came to visit Little, he described the group's teachings, including the belief that white people are devils. Afterward, Little thought about all the white people he had known, and he realized that he'd never had a relationship with a white person or social institution that wasn't based on dishonesty, injustice, greed, and hatred. Little began to reconsider his dismissal of all religion and he became receptive to the message of the Nation of Islam. Other family members who had joined the Nation wrote or visited and encouraged Little to join. In February 1948, mostly through his sister's efforts, Little was transferred to the Norfolk Prison Colony, an experimental prison in Norfolk, Massachusetts, that had a much larger library. In late 1948, he wrote a letter to Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam. Muhammad advised him to atone for his crimes by renouncing his past and by humbly bowing in prayer to Allah and promising never to engage in destructive behavior again. Little, who always had been rebellious and deeply skeptical, found it very difficult to bow in prayer. It took him a week to bend his knees. Finally he prayed, and he became a member of the Nation of Islam. For the remainder of his incarceration, Little maintained regular correspondence with Muhammad. On August 7, 1952, Little was paroled and was released from prison. He later reflected on the time he spent in prison after his conversion: "Months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I had never been so truly free in my life."

Nation of Islam

When Little was released from prison in 1952, he had more than a new religion. He also had a new name. In a December 1950 letter to his brother Philbert, Little signed his name as Malcolm X for the first time. In his autobiography, he explained why: "The Muslim's 'X' symbolized the true African family name that he never could know. For me, my 'X' replaced the white slavemaster name of 'Little' which some blue-eyed devil named Little had imposed upon my paternal forebears."

Shortly after his release from prison, Malcolm X visited Elijah Muhammad in Chicago, Illinois. In June 1953, Malcolm X was named assistant minister of the Nation of Islam's Temple Number One in Detroit. Soon, he became a full-time minister. By late 1953, Malcolm X established Boston's Temple Number 11. In March 1954, he expanded Temple Number 12 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Two months later Malcolm X was selected to lead Temple Number Seven in Harlem, and he rapidly expanded its membership.

The FBI had opened a file on Malcolm X in 1950 after he wrote a letter to President Truman stating his opposition to the Korean War and declaring himself to be a communist. It began surveillance of him in 1953, and soon the FBI turned its attention from concerns about possible Communist Party association to Malcolm X's rapid ascent in the Nation of Islam.

During 1955, Malcolm X continued his successful recruitment efforts on behalf of the organization. He established temples in Springfield, Massachusetts (Number 13); Hartford, Connecticut (Number 14); and Atlanta, Georgia (Number 15). Hundreds of African Americans were joining the Nation of Islam every month. Beside his skill as a speaker, Malcolm X had an impressive physical presence. He stood tall and weighed about . One writer described him as "powerfully built", and another as "mesmerizingly handsome ... and always spotlessly well-groomed".

Johnson Hinton incident

Malcolm X first came to the attention of the general public after the police beating of a Nation of Islam member named Johnson Hinton. On April 26, 1957, two police officers were beating an African-American man with their nightsticks when three passersby who belonged to the Nation of Islam tried to intervene. They shouted: "You're not in Alabama or Georgia. This is New York!" One of the officers began to beat one of the passersby, Johnson Hinton. The blows were so severe, a surgeon later determined, that they caused brain contusions, subdural hemorrhaging, and scalp lacerations. All four men were arrested and taken to the police station.

A woman who had seen the assault ran to the Nation of Islam's restaurant. Within a few hours, Malcolm X and a small group of Muslims went to the police station and demanded to see Hinton. The police captain initially said no Muslims were being held there, but as the crowd grew to about 500, he allowed Malcolm X to speak with Hinton. After a short talk, Malcolm X demanded that Hinton be taken to the hospital, so an ambulance was called and Hinton was taken to Harlem Hospital.

Hinton was treated and released into the custody of the police, who returned him to the police station. By this point, about 4,000 people had gathered; the police realized there was the potential for a riot and called for backup. Malcolm X went back into the police station with an attorney and made bail arrangements for the other two Muslims. The police said Hinton could not go back to the hospital until he was arraigned the following day. Malcolm X realized things were at a stalemate. He stepped outside the station house and gave a hand signal. The Nation of Islam members in the crowd silently walked away. The rest of the crowd dispersed minutes later. One police officer told the editor of the ''New York Amsterdam News'': "No one man should have that much power."

The following month, the Bureau of Special Services and Investigation of the New York Police Department (NYPD) began its surveillance of Malcolm X. The NYPD's Chief Inspector asked for information from the police department in every city where Malcolm X had lived, and from the prisons where he had served his sentence. In October, when a grand jury declined to indict the officers who had beaten Hinton, Malcolm X wrote an angry telegram to the police commissioner. In response, undercover NYPD officers were placed inside the Nation of Islam.

Marriage and family

Malcolm X met Betty Sanders in 1955. She had been invited to listen to his lecture, and she was very impressed by him. They met again at a dinner party. Soon Sanders was attending all of Malcolm X's lectures at Temple Number Seven. In mid 1956, she joined the Nation of Islam.

Malcolm X and Betty X did not have a conventional courtship. One-on-one dates were contrary to the teachings of the Nation of Islam. Instead, the couple shared their "dates" with dozens, or even hundreds of other members. Malcolm X frequently took groups to visit New York's museums and libraries, and he always invited Betty X.

Although they had never discussed the subject, Betty X suspected that Malcolm X was interested in marriage. On January 12, 1958, he called from Detroit and asked her to marry him, and they were married two days later in Lansing, Michigan.

The couple had six daughters. Their names were Attallah, born in 1958 and named after Attila the Hun; Qubilah, born in 1960 and named after Kublai Khan; Ilyasah, born in 1962 and named after Elijah Muhammad; Gamilah Lumumba, born in 1964 and named after Patrice Lumumba; and twins, Malikah and Malaak, born in 1965 after their father's assassination and named for him.

''The Hate That Hate Produced''

After a 1959 television broadcast in New York City about the Nation of Islam, ''The Hate That Hate Produced'', Malcolm X became known to white Americans. Representatives of the print media, radio, and television frequently asked him for comments on issues. By the late 1950s, Malcolm X had acquired a new name, Malcolm Shabazz or Malik el-Shabazz, although he was still widely referred to as Malcolm X.

In September 1960, Fidel Castro arrived in New York to attend the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly. He and his entourage stayed at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem. Malcolm X was a prominent member of a Harlem-based welcoming committee made up of community leaders who met with Castro. Castro was so impressed by Malcolm X that he requested a private meeting with him. At the end of their two-hour meeting, Castro invited Malcolm X to visit him in Cuba. During the General Assembly meeting, Malcolm X was also invited to many official embassy functions sponsored by African nations, where he met heads of state and other leaders, including Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Ahmed Sékou Touré of Guinea, and Kenneth Kaunda of the Zambian African National Congress.

From his adoption of the Nation of Islam in 1952 until he left the organization in 1964, Malcolm X promoted the Nation's teachings. He taught that black people were the original people of the world, and that white people were a race of devils. In his speeches, Malcolm X said that black people were superior to white people, and that the demise of the white race was imminent. While the civil rights movement fought against racial segregation, Malcolm X advocated the complete separation of African Americans from white people. He proposed the establishment of a separate country for black people as an interim measure until African Americans could return to Africa. Malcolm X also rejected the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence, and instead advocated that black people use any necessary means of self-defense to protect themselves. Malcolm X's speeches had a powerful effect on his audiences, generally African Americans who lived in the Northern and Western cities, who were tired of being told to wait for freedom, justice, equality and respect. Many blacks felt that he articulated their complaints better than the civil rights movement did.

Many white people, and some blacks, were alarmed by Malcolm X and the things he said. He and the Nation of Islam were described as hatemongers, black supremacists, violence-seekers, and a threat to improved race relations. Civil rights organizations denounced Malcolm X and the Nation as irresponsible extremists whose views were not representative of African Americans. Malcolm X was accused of being antisemitic.

Malcolm X was equally critical of the civil rights movement. He described its leaders as "stooges" for the white establishment, and said that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a "chump". He criticized the 1963 March on Washington, which he called "the farce on Washington". He said he did not know why black people were excited over a demonstration "run by whites in front of a statue of a president who has been dead for a hundred years and who didn't like us when he was alive". Malcolm X has been widely considered the second most influential leader of the Nation of Islam after Elijah Muhammad. He was largely credited with increasing membership of the group; from 500 in 1952 to 25,000 in 1963 by one author's estimate, or from 1,200 in 1953 to 50,000 or 75,000 in 1961 by another's. He inspired the boxer Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali) to join the Nation of Islam. Ali later left the group and became a Sunni Muslim, as did Malcolm X.

In early 1963, Malcolm X started collaborating with Alex Haley on ''The Autobiography of Malcolm X''. In 1964, he told Haley, "If I'm alive when this book comes out, it will be a miracle." The book was not finished when Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965. Haley completed it and published it later that year. In 1998, ''TIME'' named ''The Autobiography of Malcolm X'' one of the ten most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.

Leaving the Nation

On December 1, 1963, when he was asked for a comment about the assassination of President Kennedy, Malcolm X said that it was a case of "chickens coming home to roost". He added that "chickens coming home to roost never did make me sad; they've always made me glad." ''The New York Times'' wrote, "in further criticism of Mr. Kennedy, the Muslim leader cited the murders of Patrice Lumumba, Congo leader, of Medgar Evers, civil rights leader, and of the Negro girls bombed earlier this year in a Birmingham church. These, he said, were instances of other 'chickens coming home to roost'." The remarks prompted a widespread public outcry. The Nation of Islam, which had issued a message of condolence to the Kennedy family and ordered its ministers not to comment on the assassination, publicly censured their former shining star. Although Malcolm X retained his post and rank as minister, he was prohibited from public speaking for 90 days.

On March 8, 1964, Malcolm X publicly announced his break from the Nation of Islam. He said that he was still a Muslim, but he felt the Nation of Islam had "gone as far as it can" because of its rigid religious teachings. Malcolm X said he was going to organize a black nationalist organization that would try to "heighten the political consciousness" of African Americans. He also expressed his desire to work with other civil rights leaders and said that Elijah Muhammad had prevented him from doing so in the past.

One reason for the separation was growing tension between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad because of Malcolm X's dismay about rumors of Muhammad's extramarital affairs with young secretaries, actions that were against the teachings of the Nation. Although at first Malcolm X had ignored the rumors, after speaking with Muhammad's son Wallace and the women making the accusations, he came to believe that they were true. Muhammad confirmed the rumors in 1963 but tried to justify his actions by reference to precedents set by Biblical prophets. Another reason for the separation was growing resentment by people within the Nation. As Malcolm X had become a favorite of the media, many in the Nation's Chicago headquarters felt that he was over-shadowing Muhammad. Louis Lomax's 1963 book about the Nation of Islam, ''When the Word Is Given'', featured a picture of Malcolm X on its cover and included five of his speeches, but only one of Muhammad's, which greatly upset Muhammad. Muhammad was also envious that a publisher was interested in Malcolm X's autobiography. After leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X founded Muslim Mosque, Inc., a religious organization, and the Organization of Afro-American Unity, a secular group that advocated Pan-Africanism. On March 26, 1964, he met Martin Luther King, Jr. in Washington, D.C., after a press conference held when both men attended the Senate to hear the debate on the Civil Rights bill. This was the only time the two men ever met and their meeting lasted only one minute—just long enough for photographers to take a picture. In April, Malcolm X made a speech titled "The Ballot or the Bullet" in which he advised African Americans to exercise their right to vote wisely. Several Sunni Muslims encouraged Malcolm X to learn about Islam. Soon he converted to Sunni Islam, and decided to make his pilgrimage to Mecca (''hajj'').

International travel

Pilgrimage to Mecca

On April 13, 1964, Malcolm X departed JFK Airport in New York for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. His status as an authentic Muslim was questioned by Saudi authorities because of his United States passport and his inability to speak Arabic. Since only confessing Muslims are allowed into Mecca, he was separated from his group for about 20 hours.

According to his autobiography, Malcolm X saw a telephone and remembered the book ''The Eternal Message of Muhammad'' by Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam, which had been presented to him with his visa approval. He called Azzam's son, who arranged for his release. At the younger Azzam's home, he met Azzam Pasha, who gave Malcolm his suite at the Jeddah Palace Hotel. The next morning, Muhammad Faisal, the son of Prince Faisal, visited and informed Malcolm X that he was to be a state guest. The deputy chief of protocol accompanied Malcolm X to the Hajj Court, where he was allowed to make his pilgrimage.

On April 19, Malcolm X completed the Hajj, making the seven circuits around the Kaaba, drinking from the Zamzam Well, and running between the hills of Safah and Marwah seven times. After completing the Hajj, he was granted an audience with Prince Faisal. Malcolm X said the trip allowed him to see Muslims of different races interacting as equals. He came to believe that Islam could be the means by which racial problems could be overcome.

Africa

Malcolm X visited Africa on three separate occasions, once in 1959 and twice in 1964. During his visits, he met officials, gave interviews to newspapers, and spoke on television and radio in Egypt, Ethiopia, Tanganyika (now Tanzania), Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Sudan, Senegal, Liberia, Algeria, and Morocco. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, and Ahmed Ben Bella of Algeria invited Malcolm X to serve in their governments.

In 1959, Malcolm X traveled to Egypt (then known as the United Arab Republic), Sudan, Nigeria, and Ghana to arrange a tour for Elijah Muhammad. The first of the two trips Malcolm X made to Africa in 1964 lasted from April 13 until May 21, before and after his Hajj. On May 8, following his speech at the University of Ibadan, Malcolm X was made an honorary member of the Nigerian Muslim Students' Association. During this reception the students bestowed upon him the name "Omowale", which means "the son who has come home" in the Yoruba language. Malcolm X wrote in his autobiography that he "had never received a more treasured honor."

On July 9, 1964, Malcolm X returned to Africa. On July 17, he was welcomed to the second meeting of the Organization of African Unity in Cairo as a representative of the Organization of Afro-American Unity. By the time he returned to the United States on November 24, 1964, Malcolm had met with every prominent African leader and established an international connection between Africans on the continent and those in the diaspora.

France and the United Kingdom

On November 23, 1964, on his way home from Africa, Malcolm X stopped in Paris, where he spoke at the Salle de la Mutualité. A week later, on November 30, Malcolm X flew to the United Kingdom, and on December 3 participated in a debate at the Oxford Union. The topic of the debate was "Extremism in the Defense of Liberty is No Vice; Moderation in the Pursuit of Justice is No Virtue", and Malcolm X argued the affirmative. Interest in the debate was so high that it was televised nationally by the BBC.

On February 5, 1965, Malcolm X went to Europe again. On February 8, he spoke in London, before the first meeting of the Council of African Organizations. The next day, Malcolm X tried to go to France, but he was refused entry. On February 12, he visited Smethwick, near Birmingham, which had become a byword for racial division after the 1964 general election, when the Conservative Party won the parliamentary seat after rumors that their candidate's supporters had used the slogan "If you want a nigger for your neighbour, vote Labour."

In the United States

After leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X spoke before a wide variety of audiences in the United States. He spoke at regular meetings of Muslim Mosque, Inc., and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. He was one of the most sought-after speakers on college campuses, and one of his top aides later wrote that he "welcomed every opportunity to speak to college students." Malcolm X also spoke before political groups such as the Militant Labor Forum.

Tensions increased between Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam. As early as February 1964, a member of Temple Number Seven was given orders by the group to wire explosives to Malcolm X's car. In September 1964, ''Ebony'' published a photograph of Malcolm X holding an M1 Carbine and peering out a window. The photo was intended to illustrate his determination to defend himself and his family against the death threats he was receiving.

The Nation of Islam and its leaders began making both public and private threats against Malcolm X. On March 23, 1964, Elijah Muhammad told Boston minister Louis X (later known as Louis Farrakhan) that "hypocrites like Malcolm should have their heads cut off." The April 10 edition of ''Muhammad Speaks'' featured a cartoon in which his severed head was shown bouncing. On July 9, John Ali, a top aide to Muhammad, answered a question about Malcolm X by saying that "anyone who opposes the Honorable Elijah Muhammad puts their life in jeopardy." The December 4 issue of ''Muhammad Speaks'' included an article by Louis X that railed against Malcolm X, saying "such a man as Malcolm is worthy of death."

Some threats were made anonymously. During the month of June 1964, FBI surveillance recorded two such threats. On June 8, a man called Malcolm X's home and told Betty Shabazz to "tell him he's as good as dead." On June 12, an FBI informant reported getting an anonymous telephone call from somebody who said "Malcolm X is going to be bumped off."

In June 1964, the Nation of Islam sued to reclaim Malcolm X's residence in Queens, New York, which they claimed to own. The suit was successful, and Malcolm X was ordered to vacate. On February 14, 1965, the night before a scheduled hearing to postpone the eviction date, the house burned to the ground. Malcolm X and his family survived. No one was charged with any crime.

Assassination

On February 21, 1965, in Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom, Malcolm X began to speak to a meeting of the Organization of Afro-American Unity when a disturbance broke out in the crowd of 400. A man yelled, "Nigger! Get your hand outta my pocket!" As Malcolm X and his bodyguards moved to quiet the disturbance, a man rushed forward and shot him in the chest with a sawed-off shotgun. Two other men charged the stage and fired handguns, hitting him 16 times. Furious onlookers caught and beat one of the assassins as the others fled the ballroom. Malcolm X was pronounced dead at 3:30 pm, shortly after he arrived at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Talmadge Hayer, a Nation of Islam member also known as Thomas Hagan, was arrested on the scene. Eyewitnesses identified two more suspects, Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson, also members of the Nation. All three were charged. At first Hayer denied involvement, but during the trial he confessed to having fired shots at Malcolm X. He testified that Butler and Johnson were not present and were not involved in the assassination, but he declined to name the men who had joined him in the shooting. All three men were convicted.

Butler, now known as Muhammad Abdul Aziz, was paroled in 1985. He became the head of the Nation of Islam's Harlem mosque in 1998. He continues to maintain his innocence. Johnson, who changed his name to Khalil Islam, was released from prison in 1987. During his time in prison, he rejected the teachings of the Nation of Islam and converted to Sunni Islam. He maintained his innocence until his death in August 2009. Hayer, now known as Mujahid Halim, was paroled in 2010.

Funeral

A public viewing was held at Harlem's ''Unity Funeral Home'' from February 23 through February 26, and it was estimated that between 14,000 and 30,000 mourners attended. The funeral was held on February 27 at the Faith Temple Church of God in Christ in Harlem. The church was filled to capacity with more than 1,000 people. Loudspeakers were set up outside the Temple so the overflowing crowd could listen and a local television station broadcast the funeral live.

Among the civil rights leaders attending were John Lewis, Bayard Rustin, James Forman, James Farmer, Jesse Gray, and Andrew Young. Actor and activist Ossie Davis delivered the eulogy, describing Malcolm X as "our shining black prince".

There are those who will consider it their duty, as friends of the Negro people, to tell us to revile him, to flee, even from the presence of his memory, to save ourselves by writing him out of the history of our turbulent times. Many will ask what Harlem finds to honor in this stormy, controversial and bold young captain—and we will smile. Many will say turn away—away from this man, for he is not a man but a demon, a monster, a subverter and an enemy of the black man—and we will smile. They will say that he is of hate—a fanatic, a racist—who can only bring evil to the cause for which you struggle! And we will answer and say to them: Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch him, or have him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him? Did he ever do a mean thing? Was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance? For if you did you would know him. And if you knew him you would know why we must honor him.

Malcolm X was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. At the gravesite after the ceremony, friends took the shovels from the waiting gravediggers and completed the burial themselves. Actor and activist Ruby Dee (wife of Ossie Davis) and Juanita Poitier (wife of Sidney Poitier) established the Committee of Concerned Mothers to raise funds to buy a house and pay educational expenses for Malcolm X's family.

Responses to assassination

Reactions to Malcolm X's assassination were varied. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. sent a telegram to Betty Shabazz, expressing his sadness over "the shocking and tragic assassination of your husband."

While we did not always see eye to eye on methods to solve the race problem, I always had a deep affection for Malcolm and felt that he had a great ability to put his finger on the existence and root of the problem. He was an eloquent spokesman for his point of view and no one can honestly doubt that Malcolm had a great concern for the problems that we face as a race.

Elijah Muhammad told the annual Savior's Day convention on February 26, "Malcolm X got just what he preached." "We didn't want to kill Malcolm and didn't try to kill him," Muhammad said. "We know such ignorant, foolish teachings would bring him to his own end."

''The New York Times'' wrote that Malcolm X was "an extraordinary and twisted man" who "turn[ed] many true gifts to evil purpose" and that his life was "strangely and pitifully wasted". The ''New York Post'' wrote that "even his sharpest critics recognized his brilliance—often wild, unpredictable and eccentric, but nevertheless possessing promise that must now remain unrealized."

The international press, particularly that of Africa, was sympathetic. The ''Daily Times of Nigeria'' wrote that Malcolm X "will have a place in the palace of martyrs." The ''Ghanaian Times'' likened him to John Brown and Patrice Lumumba among "a host of Africans and Americans who were martyred in freedom's cause". ''Guangming Daily'', published in Beijing, stated that "Malcolm was murdered because he fought for freedom and equal rights", while in Cuba, ''El Mundo'' described the assassination as "another racist crime to eradicate by violence the struggle against discrimination".

Allegations of conspiracy

Within days of the assassination, questions were raised about who bore ultimate responsibility. On February 23, James Farmer, the leader of the Congress of Racial Equality, announced at a news conference that local drug dealers, and not the Nation of Islam, were to blame. Others accused the NYPD, the FBI, or the CIA, citing the lack of police protection, the ease with which the assassins entered the Audubon Ballroom, and the failure of the police to preserve the crime scene.

In the 1970s, the public learned about COINTELPRO and other secret FBI programs directed towards infiltrating and disrupting civil rights organizations during the 1950s and 1960s. John Ali, national secretary of the Nation of Islam, was identified as an FBI undercover agent. Malcolm X had confided in a reporter that Ali exacerbated tensions between him and Elijah Muhammad. He considered Ali his "archenemy" within the Nation of Islam leadership. On February 20, 1965, the night before the assassination, Ali met with Talmadge Hayer, one of the men convicted of killing Malcolm X.

In 1977 and 1978, Talmadge Hayer submitted two sworn affidavits re-asserting his claim that Butler and Johnson were not involved in the assassination. In his affidavits Hayer named four men, all members of the Nation of Islam's Newark Temple Number 25, as having participated with him in the crime. Hayer asserted that a man, later identified as Wilbur McKinley, shouted and threw a smoke bomb to create a diversion. Hayer said that another man, later identified as William Bradley, had a shotgun and was the first to fire on Malcolm X after the diversion. Hayer asserted that he and a man later identified as Leon Davis, both armed with pistols, fired on Malcolm X immediately after the shotgun blast. Hayer also said that a fifth man, later identified as Benjamin Thomas, was involved in the conspiracy. Hayer's statements failed to convince authorities to reopen their investigation of the murder.

Some, including the Shabazz family, have accused Louis Farrakhan of being involved in the plot to assassinate Malcolm X. In a 1993 speech, Farrakhan seemed to boast of the assassination:

Was Malcolm your traitor or ours? And if we dealt with him like a nation deals with a traitor, what the ''hell'' business is it of yours? A nation has to be able to deal with traitors and cutthroats and turncoats.

In a ''60 Minutes'' interview that aired during May 2000, Farrakhan stated that some of the things he said may have led to the assassination of Malcolm X. "I may have been complicit in words that I spoke", he said. "I acknowledge that and regret that any word that I have said caused the loss of life of a human being." A few days later Farrakhan denied that he "ordered the assassination" of Malcolm X, although he again acknowledged that he "created the atmosphere that ultimately led to Malcolm X's assassination." No consensus on who was responsible has been reached.

Philosophy

Except for his autobiography, Malcolm X left no published writings. His philosophy is known almost entirely from the myriad speeches and interviews he gave from 1952 until his death in 1965. Many of those speeches, especially from the last year of his life, were recorded and have been published.

Beliefs of the Nation of Islam

Before he left the Nation of Islam in 1964, Malcolm X taught its beliefs in his speeches. His speeches were peppered with the phrase "The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that...". It is virtually impossible to discern whether Malcolm X's beliefs diverged from the teachings of the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X once compared himself to a ventriloquist's dummy who could only say what Elijah Muhammad told him.

Malcolm X taught that black people were the original people of the world, and that white people were a race of devils who were created by an evil scientist named Yakub. The Nation of Islam believed that black people were superior to white people, and that the demise of the white race was imminent. When he was questioned concerning his statements that white people were devils, Malcolm X said that "history proves the white man is a devil." He enumerated some of the historical reasons that, he felt, supported his argument: "Anybody who rapes, and plunders, and enslaves, and steals, and drops hell bombs on people... anybody who does these things is nothing but a devil."

Malcolm X said that Islam was the "true religion of black mankind" and that Christianity was "the white man's religion" that had been imposed upon African Americans by their slave-masters. He said that the Nation of Islam followed Islam as it was practiced around the world, but the Nation's teachings varied from those of other Muslims because they were adapted to the "uniquely pitiful" condition of black people in America. He taught that Wallace Fard Muhammad, the founder of the Nation, was Allah incarnate, and that Elijah Muhammad was his Messenger, or prophet.

While the civil rights movement fought against racial segregation, Malcolm X advocated the complete separation of African Americans from white people. The Nation of Islam proposed the establishment of a separate country for black people in the Southern or Southwestern United States as an interim measure until African Americans could return to Africa. Malcolm X suggested the United States government owed reparations to black people for the unpaid labor of their enslaved ancestors. He also rejected the civil rights movement's strategy of nonviolence and instead advocated that black people should protect themselves by any necessary means.

Independent views

After leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X announced his willingness to work with leaders of the civil rights movement, though he felt that it should change its focus to human rights. So long as the movement remained a fight for ''civil rights'', its struggle would remain a domestic issue, but by framing the struggle as a fight for ''human rights'', it would become an international issue, and the movement could bring its complaint before the United Nations. Malcolm X said the emerging nations of the world would add their support to the cause of African Americans.

Malcolm X declared that he and the other members of the Organization of Afro-American Unity were determined to defend themselves from aggressors, and to secure freedom, justice and equality "by whatever means necessary", arguing that if the government was unwilling or unable to protect black people, they should protect themselves.

Malcolm X stressed the global perspective he gained from his international travels. He emphasized the "direct connection" between the domestic struggle of African Americans for equal rights with the liberation struggles of Third World nations. He said that African Americans were wrong when they thought of themselves as a minority; in a global context, black people were a majority, not a minority.

In his speeches at the Militant Labor Forum, which was sponsored by the Socialist Workers Party, Malcolm X criticized capitalism. After one such speech, when he was asked what political and economic system he wanted, he said he didn't know, but that it was no coincidence the newly liberated countries in the Third World were turning toward socialism. Malcolm X still was concerned primarily with the freedom struggle of African Americans. When a reporter asked him what he thought about socialism, Malcolm X asked whether it was good for black people. When the reporter told him it seemed to be, Malcolm X told him, "Then I'm for it."

Although he no longer called for the separation of black people from white people, Malcolm X continued to advocate black nationalism, which he defined as self-determination for the African-American community. In the last months of his life, however, Malcolm X began to reconsider his support of black nationalism after meeting northern African revolutionaries who, to all appearances, were white.

After his Hajj, Malcolm X articulated a view of white people and racism that represented a deep change from the philosophy he had supported as a minister of the Nation of Islam. In a famous letter from Mecca, he wrote that his experiences with white people during his pilgrimage convinced him to "rearrange" his thinking about race and "toss aside some of [his] previous conclusions". In a 1965 conversation with Gordon Parks, two days before his assassination, Malcolm said:

[L]istening to leaders like Nasser, Ben Bella, and Nkrumah awakened me to the dangers of racism. I realized racism isn't just a black and white problem. It's brought bloodbaths to about every nation on earth at one time or another.

Brother, remember the time that white college girl came into the restaurant—the one who wanted to help the [Black] Muslims and the whites get together—and I told her there wasn't a ghost of a chance and she went away crying? Well, I've lived to regret that incident. In many parts of the African continent I saw white students helping black people. Something like this kills a lot of argument. I did many things as a [Black] Muslim that I'm sorry for now. I was a zombie then—like all [Black] Muslims—I was hypnotized, pointed in a certain direction and told to march. Well, I guess a man's entitled to make a fool of himself if he's ready to pay the cost. It cost me 12 years.

That was a bad scene, brother. The sickness and madness of those days—I'm glad to be free of them.

Legacy

Malcolm X has been described as one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history. He is credited with raising the self-esteem of black Americans and reconnecting them with their African heritage. He is largely responsible for the spread of Islam in the black community in the United States. Many African Americans, especially those who lived in cities in the Northern and Western United States, felt that Malcolm X articulated their complaints concerning inequality better than the mainstream civil rights movement did. One biographer says that by giving expression to their frustration, Malcolm X "made clear the price that white America would have to pay if it did not accede to black America's legitimate demands."

In the late 1960s, as black activists became more radical, Malcolm X and his teachings were part of the foundation on which they built their movements. The Black Power movement, the Black Arts Movement, and the widespread adoption of the slogan "Black is beautiful" can all trace their roots to Malcolm X.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a resurgence of interest in Malcolm X among young people fueled, in part, by his use as an icon by hip hop groups such as Public Enemy. Images of Malcolm X could be found on T-shirts and jackets. Pictures of him were on display in hundreds of thousands of homes, offices, and schools. This wave peaked in 1992 with the release of ''Malcolm X'', a much-anticipated film adaptation of ''The Autobiography of Malcolm X''.

Portrayals in film and on stage

The 1992 film ''Malcolm X'' was directed by Spike Lee and based on ''The Autobiography of Malcolm X''. It starred Denzel Washington, with Angela Bassett as Betty Shabazz and Al Freeman, Jr., as Elijah Muhammad. Critic Roger Ebert and director Martin Scorsese both named the film one of the ten best of the 1990s. Washington had previously played the part of Malcolm X in the 1981 Off Broadway play ''When the Chickens Came Home to Roost''. Other actors who have portrayed Malcolm X include: James Earl Jones, in the 1977 film ''The Greatest''. Dick Anthony Williams, in the 1978 television miniseries ''King'' and the 1989 ''American Playhouse'' production of the Jeff Stetson play ''The Meeting''. Al Freeman, Jr., in the 1979 television miniseries ''Roots: The Next Generations''. Morgan Freeman, in the 1981 television movie ''Death of a Prophet''. Ben Holt, in the 1986 opera ''X, The Life and Times of Malcolm X'' at the New York City Opera. Gary Dourdan, in the 2000 television movie ''King of the World''. Joe Morton, in the 2000 television movie ''Ali: An American Hero''. Mario Van Peebles, in the 2001 film ''Ali''.

Memorials and tributes

The Malcolm X House Site, at 3448 Pinkney Street in North Omaha, Nebraska, marks the place where Malcolm Little first lived with his family. The house where the Little family lived was torn down in 1965 by owners who did not know of its connection with Malcolm X. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and a historic marker identifies the site because of the importance of Malcolm X to American history and national culture. In 1987 the site was added to the Nebraska register of historic sites and marked with a state plaque.

Lansing, Michigan, where Malcolm Little spent his early, formative years, is home to a Michigan Historical Marker erected in 1975 marking his homesite. The city is also home to El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz Academy, a public charter school with an Afrocentric focus. The Academy is located in the building where Little attended elementary school.

In cities around the world, Malcolm X's birthday (May 19) is commemorated as Malcolm X Day. The first known celebration of Malcolm X Day took place in Washington, D.C., in 1971. The city of Berkeley, California, has recognized Malcolm X's birthday as a citywide holiday since 1979.

Many cities have renamed streets after Malcolm X; in 1987, New York mayor Ed Koch proclaimed Lenox Avenue in Harlem to be Malcolm X Boulevard. The name of Reid Avenue in Brooklyn, New York, was changed to Malcolm X Boulevard in 1985. In 1997, Oakland Avenue in Dallas, Texas, was renamed Malcolm X Boulevard. Main Street in Lansing, Michigan, was renamed Malcolm X Street in 2010.

There have been dozens of schools named after Malcolm X, including Malcolm X Shabazz High School in Newark, New Jersey, Malcolm Shabazz City High School in Madison, Wisconsin, and Malcolm X College in Chicago, Illinois. Meanwhile, the Malcolm X Library and Performing Arts Center of the San Diego Public Library system opened in 1996. It is the first library named after Malcolm X.

The U.S. Postal Service issued a Malcolm X postage stamp in 1999. In 2005, Columbia University announced the opening of the Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center. The memorial is located in the Audubon Ballroom, where Malcolm X was assassinated.

Published works

''The Autobiography of Malcolm X''. With the assistance of Alex Haley. New York: Grove Press, 1965. . ''Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements''. George Breitman, ed. New York: Merit Publishers, 1965. . ''Malcolm X Talks to Young People''. New York: Young Socialist Alliance, 1965. . ''Two Speeches by Malcolm X''. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1965. . ''Malcolm X on Afro-American History''. New York: Merit Publishers, 1967. . ''The Speeches of Malcolm X at Harvard''. Archie Epps, ed. New York: Morrow, 1968. . ''By Any Means Necessary: Speeches, Interviews, and a Letter by Malcolm X''. George Breitman, ed. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1970. . ''The End of White World Supremacy: Four Speeches by Malcolm X''. Benjamin Karim, ed. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1971. .

''The Last Speeches''. Bruce Perry, ed. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1989. ISBN 978-0-87348-543-2.

''Malcolm X Talks to Young People: Speeches in the United States, Britain, and Africa''. Steve Clark, ed. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1991. ISBN 978-0-87348-962-1.

''February 1965: The Final Speeches''. Steve Clark, ed. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1992. ISBN 978-0-87348-749-8.

References

Footnotes

Works cited

Further reading

External links

;Interviews

;Speeches

;Other links

Category:1925 births Category:1965 deaths Category:20th-century African-American activists Category:African American Muslims Category:African American religious leaders Category:African American life in Omaha, Nebraska Category:African Americans' rights activists Category:American autobiographers Category:American burglars Category:American people of Grenadian descent Category:American people of Scottish descent Category:American Sunni Muslims Category:Assassinated American civil rights activists Category:Assassinated religious leaders Category:Black supremacy Category:Burials at Ferncliff Cemetery Category:COINTELPRO targets Category:Converts to Islam from Protestantism Category:Deaths by firearm in New York Category:Deaths onstage Category:Former Nation of Islam members Category:Murdered African-American people Category:Muslim activists Category:Pan-Africanism Category:People from Boston, Massachusetts Category:People from Lansing, Michigan Category:People from North Omaha, Nebraska Category:People from Omaha, Nebraska Category:People from Queens Category:People murdered in New York Category:Racism in the United States

ar:مالكوم إكس ast:Malcolm X az:Malkolm X bn:ম্যালকম এক্স zh-min-nan:Malcolm X bs:Malcolm X br:Malcolm X bg:Малкълм Екс ca:Malcolm X cs:Malcolm X cy:Malcolm X da:Malcolm X de:Malcolm X et:Malcolm X es:Malcolm X eo:Malcolm X eu:Malcolm X fa:مالکوم ایکس fr:Malcolm X ga:Malcolm X gl:Malcolm X ko:맬컴 엑스 hr:Malcolm X ig:Malcolm X id:Malcolm X is:Malcolm X it:Malcolm X he:מלקולם אקס jv:Malcolm X ka:მალკოლმ იქსი ky:Малколм Икс lv:Malkolms X lt:Malcolm X hu:Malcolm X ms:Malcolm X nl:Malcolm X ja:マルコムX no:Malcolm X nn:Malcolm X uz:Malkolm X pl:Malcolm X pt:Malcolm X ro:Malcolm X ru:Малкольм Икс sc:Malcolm X sco:Malcolm X sq:Malcolm X simple:Malcolm X sk:Malcolm X sr:Malkolm Iks sh:Malcolm X fi:Malcolm X sv:Malcolm X ta:மல்கம் எக்ஸ் th:แมลคัม เอ็กซ์ tr:Malcolm X uk:Малколм Ікс ur:میلکم ایکس ug:مالكولم X vi:Malcolm X yo:Malcolm X diq:Malcolm X zh:麥爾坎·X

Ahmed Sékou Touré (var. Ahmed Seku Ture) (January 9, 1922 – March 26, 1984) was an African political leader and President of Guinea from 1958 to his death in 1984. Touré was one of the primary Guinean nationalists involved in the independence of the country from France.

Early life

Sékou Touré was born on January 9, 1922 into a poor Mandinka family in Faranah, French Guinea, while a colonial possession of France. He was an aristocratic member of the Mandinka ethnic group and was the great-grandson of Samory Touré, who had resisted French rule until his capture.

Touré's early life was characterized by challenges of authority, including during his education. Touré was obliged to work to take care of himself. He began working for the Postal Services (PTT), and quickly became involved in Labor Union activity. During his youth and after becoming president, Touré studied the works of communist philosophers, especially those of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin.

Politics

Touré's first work in a political group was in the Postal Workers Union (PTT). In 1945, he was one of the founders of their labour Union, becoming the general secretary of the postal workers' union in 1945. In 1952, he became the leader of the Guinean Democratic Party which was local section of the RDA (''African Democratic Rally'', French: ''Rassemblement Démocratique Africain'') , a party agitating for the decolonization of Africa. In 1956 he organized the Union Générale des Travailleurs d'Afrique Noire, a common trade union centre for French West Africa. He was a leader of the RDA, working closely with a future rival, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who later became the president of the Côte d'Ivoire. In 1956 he was elected Guinea's deputy to the French national assembly and mayor of Conakry, positions he used to launch pointed criticisms of the colonial regime

Touré is remembered as a charismatic figure and while his legacy as president is often disdained in his home country, he remains an icon of liberation in the wider African community. Touré served for some time as a representative of African groups in France, where he worked to negotiate for the independence of France's African colonies.

In 1958 Touré's RDA section in Guinea pushed for a "No" in the French Union referendum sponsored by the French government, and was the only one of France's African colonies to vote for immediate independence rather than continued association with France. Guinea became the only French colony to leave the French Community. In the event the rest of Francophone Africa gained its independence only two years later in 1960, but the French were extremely vindictive against Guinea: withdrawing abruptly, taking files, destroying infrastructure, and breaking political and economic ties.

As President of Guinea

In his home country, Touré was a strong president. In 1960, he declared his PDG to be the only legal party, though the country had effectively been a one-party state since independence.

During his presidency Touré led a strong policy based on Marxism, with the nationalization of foreign companies and strong planned economics. He won the Lenin Peace Prize as a result in 1961. Most of the opposition to his socialist regime was arrested and jailed or exiled. His early actions to reject the French and then to appropriate wealth and farmland from traditional landlords angered many powerful forces, but the increasing failure of his government to provide either economic opportunities or democratic rights angered more. While still revered in much of Africa and in the Pan-African movement, many Guineans, and activists of the Left and Right in Europe, have become critical of Touré's failure to institute meaningful democracy or free media.

Opposition to single party rule grew slowly, and by the late 1960s those who opposed his government faced fear of detention camps and secret police. His detractors often had two choices—say nothing or go abroad. From 1965 to 1975 he ended all his relations with France, the former colonial power. Touré argued that Africa had lost much during colonization, and that Africa ought to retaliate by cutting off ties to former colonial nations. Only in 1978, as Guinea's ties with the Soviet Union soured, President of France Valéry Giscard d'Estaing first visited Guinea as a sign of reconciliation.

Throughout his dispute with France, Guinea maintained good relations with several socialist countries. However, Touré's attitude toward France was not generally well received, and some African countries ended diplomatic relations with Guinea over the incident. Despite this, Touré's move won the support of many anti-colonialist and Pan-African groups and leaders.

Touré's primary allies in the region were Presidents Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Modibo Keita of Mali. After Nkrumah was overthrown in a 1966 coup, Touré offered him a refuge in Guinea and made him co-president. As a leader of the Pan-Africanist movement, he consistently spoke out against colonial powers, and befriended leaders from the African diaspora such as Malcolm X and Stokely Carmichael, to whom he offered asylum (and who took the two leaders names, as Kwame Ture). He, with Nkrumah, helped in the formation of the All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party, and aided the PAIGC guerrillas in their fight against Portuguese colonialism in neighboring Portuguese Guinea. The Portuguese launched an attack upon Conakry in 1970 in order to rescue Portuguese Prisioners of War (POW), overthrow Touré's regime and destroy PAIGC bases. Only the POWs were freed.

Relations with the United States fluctuated during the course of Touré's reign. While Touré was unimpressed with the Eisenhower administration's approach to Africa, he came to consider President John F. Kennedy a friend and an ally. He even came to state that Kennedy was his "only true friend in the outside world". He was impressed by Kennedy's interest in African development and commitment to civil rights in the United States. Touré blamed Guinean labor unrest in 1962 on Soviet interference and turned to the United States.

Relations with Washington soured, however, after Kennedy's death. When a Guinean delegation was imprisoned in Ghana, after the overthrow of Nkrumah, Touré blamed Washington. He feared that the Central Intelligence Agency was plotting against his own regime. Over time, Touré's increasing paranoia led him to arrest large numbers of suspected political opponents and imprison them in camps, such as the notorious Camp Boiro National Guard Barracks. Some 50,000 people are believed to have been killed under the regime of Touré in concentration camps like Camp Boiro. Tens of thousands of Guinean dissidents sought refuge in exile. Once Guinea's rapprochement with France began in the late 1970s, another section of his support, Marxists, began to oppose his government's increasing move to capitalist liberalisation. In 1978 he formally renounced Marxism and reestablished trade with the West.

Single-list elections for an expanded National Assembly were held in 1980. Touré was elected unopposed to a fourth seven-year term as president on 9 May 1982. A new constitution was adopted that month, and during the summer Touré visited the United States as part of an economic policy reversal that found Guinea seeking Western investment to develop its huge mineral reserves. Measures announced in 1983 brought further economic liberalization, including the relegation of produce marketing to private traders.

Touré died on 26 March 1984 while undergoing cardiac treatment at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio; he had been rushed to the United States after being stricken in Saudi Arabia the previous day. Prime Minister Louis Lansana Béavogui then became acting president, pending elections that were to be held within 45 days. On 3 April, however, just as the Political Bureau of the ruling Guinea Democratic Party (PDG) was about to name its choice as Touré's successor, the armed forces seized power, denouncing the last years of Touré's rule as a "bloody and ruthless dictatorship." The constitution was suspended, the National Assembly dissolved, and the PDG abolished. The leader of the coup, Col. Lansana Conté, assumed the presidency on 5 April, heading the Military Committee for National Recovery (''Comité Militaire de Redressement National''—CMRN). About 1,000 political prisoners were freed.

In 1985 Conté took advantage of an alleged coup attempt to execute several of Sekou Touré's close associates, including Ismael Touré, Seydou Keita, Siaka Touré, former commander of Camp Boiro, and Moussa Diakité.

Works by Touré (partial)

Ahmed Sékou Touré. 8 novembre 1964 (Conakry) : Parti démocratique de Guinée, (1965)

Ahmed Sékou Touré. A propos du Sahara Occidental : intervention du président Ahmed Sékou Touré devant 1e 17e sommet de l'OUA, Freetown, 1e 3 juillet 1980. (S.l. : s.n., 1980)

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Address of President Ahmed Sékou Touré, President of the Republic of Guinee (sic) : suggestions submitted during the West Africa consultative regional meeting held at Conakry, during 19 and 20 November 1971. (Cairo : Permanent Secretariat of the Afro-Asian Peoples' Solidarity Organization, 1971)

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Afrika and imperialism. Newark, N.J. : Jihad Pub. Co., 1973.

Ahmed Sékou Touré. (Conférences, discours et rapports .). Conakry : Impr. du Gouvernement, (1958-

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Congres général de l'U.G.T.A.N. (Union général des travailleurs de l'Afrique noire) : Conakry, 15-18 janvier 1959 : rapport d'orientation et de doctrine. (Paris) : Présence africaine, c1959.

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Discours de Monsieur Sékou Touré, Président du Conseil de Gouvernement des 28 juillet et 25 aout 1958, de Monsieur Diallo Saifoulaye, Président de L'Assemblée territoriale et du Général de Gaulle, Président du Gouvernement de la Républ (Conakry) : Guinée Française, (1958)

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Doctrine and methods of the Democratic Party of Guinea (Conakry 1963).

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Expérience guinéenne et unité africaine. Paris, Présence africaine (1959)

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Guinée-Festival / commentaire et montage, Wolibo Dukuré dit Grand-pére. Conakry : Commission Culturelle du Comité Central, 1983.

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Guinée, prélude à l'indépendance (Avant-propos de Jacques Rabemananjara) Paris, Présence africaine (1958)

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Hommage a la révolution Cubaine ; Message du camarade Ahmed Sekou Toure au peuple Cubain a l'occasion du 20e anniversaire de l'attaque de la Caserne de Moncada (Juillet 1973). Conakry : Bureau de Presse de la Presidence de la Republique, (1975).

Ahmed Sékou Touré. International policy and diplomatic action of the Democratic Party of Guinea; extracts from the report on doctrine and orientation submitted to the 3d National Conference of the P.D.G. (Cairo, Société Orientale de Publicité-Press, 1962)

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Opening speech of the Summit of Heads of State and Government by President Ahmed Sékou Touré, chairman of the Summit (November 20, 1980). (S.l. : s.n., 1980)

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Poemes militants. (Conakry, Guinea) : Parti démocratique de Guinée, 1972

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Political leader considered as the representative of a culture. (Newark, N. J. : Jihad Productions, 19--)

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Pour l'amitié algéro-guinéenne. (Conakry, Guinea : Parti démocratique de Guinée, 1972)

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Rapport de doctrine et de politique générale. Conakry : Imprimerie Nationale, 1959.

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Strategy and tactics of the revolution. Conakry, Guinea : Press Office, 1978.

Ahmed Sékou Touré. Unité nationale. Conakry, République de Guinée (B.P. 1005, Conakry, République de Guinée) : Bureau de presse de la Présidence de la République, 1977.

See also

Politics of Guinea

Notes

References

Henry Louis Gates, Anthony Appiah (eds). Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African. '''Ahmed Sékou Touré'' pp1857–58. Basic Civitas Books (1999). ISBN 0465000711

Molefi K. Asante, Ama Mazama. Encyclopedia of Black Studies. Sage Publications (2005) ISBN 076192762X

Ibrahima Baba Kake. Sékou Touré. Le Héros et le Tyran. Paris, 1987, JA Presses. Collection Jeune Afrique Livres. 254 p

Lansiné Kaba. From Colonialism to Autocracy: Guinea under Sékou Touré, 1957–1984; in Decolonization and African Independence, the Transfers of Power, 1960-1980. Prosser Gifford and William Roger Louis(eds). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.

Phineas Malinga. Ahmed Sékou Touré: An African Tragedy

Baruch Hirson. Communalism and Socialism in Africa: The Misdirection of C.L.R . James. Communalism and Socialism in Africa, 1989.

John Leslie. Towards an African socialism, International Socialism (1st series), No.1, Spring 1960, pp. 15–19.

Alpha Mohamed Sow, ''Conflits ethnique dans un État révolutionnaire (Le cas Guinéen)'', in Les ethnies ont une histoire, Jean-Pierre Chrétien, Gérard Prunier (ed), pp. 386–405, KARTHALA Editions (2003) ISBN 2845863896

Parts of this article were translated from French Wikipedia's :fr:Ahmed Sékou Touré.

News articles

New West Africa Union Sealed By Heads of Ghana and GuineaBy THOMAS F. BRADY Special to The New York Times. May 2, 1959, Saturday Page 2, 339

GUINEA SHUNS TIE TO WORLD BLOCS; But New State Gets Most Aid From East—Toure Departs for a Visit to the U. S. By JOHN B. OAKES, The New York Times, October 25, 1959, Sunday Page 16, 576 words

Red Aid to Guinea Rises By HOMER BIGART Special to The New York Times. March 6, 1960, Sunday Page 4, 608 words

HENRY TANNER. REGIME IN GUINEA SEIZES 2 UTILITIES; Toure Nationalizes Power and Water Supply Concerns—Pledges Compensation, Special to The New York Times. February 2, 1961, Thursday, Page 3, 336 words

TOURE SAYS REDS PLOTTED A COUP; Links Communists to Riots by Students Last Month. (UPI), New York Times. December 13, 1961, Wednesday, Page 14, 247 words

Toure's Country--'Africa Incarnate'; Guinea embodies the emphatic nationalism and revolutionary hopes of ex-colonial Africa, but its energetic President confronts handicaps that are also typically African. Toure's Country--'Africa Incarnate' By David Halberstam July 8, 1962, Sunday The New York Times Magazine, Page 146, 3783 words

GUINEA RELAXES BUSINESS CURBS; Turns to Free Enterprise to Rescue Economy. (Reuters), The New York Times, December 8, 1963, Sunday Page 24, 333 words

U.S. PEACE CORPS OUSTED BY GUINEA; 72 Members and Dependents to Leave Within a Week By RICHARD EDER Special to The New York Times, November 9, 1966, Wednesday, Page 11, 655 words

Guinea Is Warming West African Ties, The New York Times, January 26, 1968, Friday Page 52, 578 words

ALFRED FRIENDLY Jr. TOURE ADOPTING A MODERATE TONE; But West Africa Is Skeptical of Guinean's Words. New York Times. April 28, 1968, Sunday, Page 13, 525 words

Ebb of African 'Revolution' , The New York Times, December 7, 1968, Saturday Page 46, 305 words

Guinea's President Charges A Plot to Overthrow Him, (Agence France-Presse), The New York Times, January 16, 1969, Thursday Page 10, 139 words

Guinea Reports 2 Members Of Cabinet Seized in Plot, (Reuters), The New York Times, March 22, 1969, Saturday Page 14, 146 words

12 FOES OF REGIME DOOMED IN GUINEA Special to The New York Times May 16, 1969, Friday Page 2, 213 words

Guinea Reports Invasion From Sea by Portuguese; Lisbon Denies Charge U.N. Council Calls for End to Attack Guinea Reports an Invasion From Sea by Portuguese By The Associated Press, The New York Times, November 23, 1970, Monday Page 1, 644 words

Guinea: Attack Strengthens Country's Symbolic Role, The New York Times, November 29, 1970, Sunday, Page 194, 717 words

GUINEAN IS ADAMANT ON DEATH SENTENCES, The New York Times, January 29, 1971, Friday. Page 3, 145 words

Guinea Wooing the West In Bauxite Development; GUINEA IS SEEKING HELP ON BAUXITE, The New York Times, February 15, 1971, Monday Section: BUSINESS AND FINANCE, Page 34, 897 words

Political Ferment Hurts Guinea , The New York Times, January 31, 1972, Monday Section: SURVEY OF AFRICA'S ECONOMY, Page 46, 464 words

GUINEAN, IN TOTAL REVERSAL, ASKS MORE U.S. INVESTMENT By BERNARD WEINRAUB, The New York Times, , ; Foreign Desk July 2, 1982, Friday Late City Final Edition, Section A, Page 3, Column 5, 592 words

GUINEA IS SLOWLY BREAKING OUT OF ITS TIGHT COCOON By ALAN COWELL, The New York Times, , ; Foreign Desk, December 3, 1982, Friday, Late City Final Edition, Section A, Page 2, Column 3, 1098 words

IN REVOLUTIONARY GUINEA, SOME OF THE FIRE IS GONE By ALAN COWELL, The New York Times, , ; Foreign Desk, December 9, 1982, Thursday, Late City Final Edition, Section A, Page 2, Column 3, 1181 words

GUINEA'S PRESIDENT, SEKOU TOURE, DIES IN CLEVELAND CLINIC By CLIFFORD D. MAY, The New York Times, , ; Obituary, March 28, 1984, Wednesday, Late City Final Edition, Section A, Page 1, Column 1, 1253 words

THOUSANDS MOURN DEATH OF TOURE By CLIFFORD D. MAY The New York Times, ; Foreign Desk, March 29, 1984, Thursday, Late City Final Edition, Section A, Page 3, Column 1, 591 words

AHMED SEKOU TOURE, A RADICAL HERO By ERIC PACE The New York Times, ; Obituary, March 28, 1984, Wednesday, Late City Final Edition, Section A, Page 6, Column 1, 1249 words

IN POST-COUP GUINEA, A JAIL IS THROWN OPEN. CLIFFORD D. MAY. Special to The New York Times. Foreign Desk, April 12, 1984, Thursday, Late City Final Edition, Section A, Page 1, Column 4, 1336 words.

TOPICS; HOW TO RUN THINGS, OR RUIN THEM, The New York Times, March 29, 1984.

Guinea Airport Opens; Capital Appears Calm, The New York Times, April 7, 1984.

Guinea Frees Toure's Widow, REUTERS, The New York Times, January 3, 1988.

How France Shaped New Africa, HOWARD W. FRENCH, The New York Times, February 28, 1995.

Conversations/Kwame Ture; Formerly Stokely Carmichael And Still Ready for the Revolution, KAREN DE WITT, The New York Times, April 14, 1996.

Stokely Carmichael, Rights Leader Who Coined 'Black Power,' Dies at 57, MICHAEL T. KAUFMAN, The New York Times, November 16, 1998.

'Mass graves' found in Guinea. BBC, 22 October 2002.

Stokely Speaks (Book Review), ROBERT WEISBROTThe New York Times Review of Books, November 23, 2003.

Other secondary works

Jean-Paul Alata. Prison d'Afrique

Jean-Paul Alata. Interview-témoignage de Jean-Paul Alata sur Radio-France Internationale

Herve Hamon, Patrick Rotman L'affaire Alata

Ladipo Adamolekun. Sekou Toure's Guinea: An Experiment in Nation Building. Methuen (August 1976). ISBN 0416778402

Koumandian Kéita. Guinée 61: L'École et la Dictature. Nubia (1984).

Ibrahima Baba Kaké. Sékou Touré, le héros et le tyran. Jeune Afrique, Paris (1987)

Alpha Abdoulaye Diallo. La vérité du ministre: Dix ans dans les geôles de Sékou Touré. (Questions d'actualité), Calmann-Lévy, Paris (1985). ISBN 978-2702113905

Kaba Camara 41. Dans la Guinée de Sékou Touré : cela a bien eu lieu.

Kindo Touré. Unique survivant du Complot Kaman-Fodéba

Adolf Marx. Maudits soient ceux qui nous oublient.

Ousmane Ardo Bâ. Camp Boiro. Sinistre geôle de Sékou Touré. Harmattan, Paris (1986) ISBN 978-2858026494

Mahmoud Bah. Construire la Guinée après Sékou Touré

Mgr. Raymond-Marie Tchidimbo. Noviciat d'un évêque : huit ans et huit mois de captivité sous Sékou Touré.

Amadou Diallo. La mort de Telli Diallo

Almamy Fodé Sylla. L'Itinéraire sanglant

Comité Telli Diallo. J'ai vu : on tue des innocents en Guinée-Conakry

Alsény René Gomez. Parler ou périr

Sako Kondé. Guinée. Le temps des fripouilles

André Lewin. Diallo Telli. Le Destin tragique d'un grand Africain.

Camara Laye. Dramouss

Dr. Thierno Bah. Mon combat pour la Guinée

Nadine Bari. Grain de sable

Nadine Bari. Noces d'absence

Nadine Bari. Chroniques de Guinée (1994)

Nadine Bari. Guinée. Les cailloux de la mémoire (2004)

Maurice Jeanjean. Nadine Bari. Sékou Touré, Un totalitarisme africain

Collectif Jeune Afrique. Sékou Touré. Ce qu'il fut. Ce qu'il a fait. Ce qu'il faut défaire.

Claude Abou Diakité. La Guinée enchaînée

Alpha Condé. Guinée, néo-colonie américaine ou Albanie d'Afrique

Lansiné Kaba. From colonialism to autocracy. Guinea under Sékou Touré: 1957-1984

Charles E. Sory. Sékou Touré, l'ange exterminateur

Charles Diané. Sékou Touré, l'homme et son régime : lettre ouverte au président Mitterrand

Emile Tompapa. Sékou Touré : quarante ans de dictature

Alpha Ousmane Barry. Pouvoir du discours et discours du pouvoir : l'art oratoire chez Sékou Touré de 1958 à 1984

External links

1959 Time Magazine cover story about Sékou Touré

WebGuinee - Sekou Toure Publishes full text of books and articles as well photos of Sekou Toure

Camp Boiro Memorial. Extensive list of reports and articles on the notorious political prison where thousands of victims of the dictatorship of Sekou Toure disappeared between 1960 and 1984.

More information about Ahmed Sékou Touré (French)

BBC Radio: President Sekou Toure Defends One-Party Rule (1959).

Conflict history: Guinea, 11 May 2007. International Crisis Group.

1st page on the French National Assembly website

2nd page on the French National Assembly website

Category:Guinean politicians Category:1922 births Category:1984 deaths Category:Pan-Africanism Category:Lenin Peace Prize recipients Category:French West Africa Category:Presidents of Guinea Category:Cold War leaders Category:Democratic Party of Guinea – African Democratic Rally politicians Category:African Democratic Rally politicians Category:People from Faranah Category:Members of the National Assembly of France

ar:أحمد سيكو توري br:Ahmed Sékou Touré cs:Ahmed Sékou Touré da:Ahmed Sékou Touré de:Ahmed Sékou Touré es:Ahmed Sékou Touré eo:Seku Ture fr:Ahmed Sékou Touré ko:아메드 세쿠 투레 hr:Ahmed Sékou Touré id:Ahmed Sekou Toure it:Ahmed Sékou Touré la:Ahmed Sékou Touré hu:Sékou Ahmad Touré ml:അഹമ്മദ് സെക്കൂ ടൂറെ nl:Ahmed Sékou Touré ja:セク・トゥーレ no:Ahmed Sékou Touré pl:Ahmed Sekou Touré pt:Ahmed Sékou Touré ru:Секу Туре, Ахмед sq:Séko Touré sl:Ahmed Sékou Touré sr:Ахмед Секу Туре sh:Ahmed Sékou Touré fi:Ahmed Sékou Touré sv:Ahmed Sékou Touré tr:Ahmed Sékou Touré yo:Sékou Touré