Che Guevara wrote this biographical introduction to Marx and Engels after his 1965 mission to Africa. He studied the writing of the German revolutionaries intensively, and in his travels he immersed himself in the classic works of Marxism. He sought to draw lessons and inspiration from Marx and Engels, and noted: “The Cuban Revolution takes up Marx at the point where he put aside science to pick up his revolutionary rifle.”
Many of Che’s comments about Marx might also refer to Che himself, such as his observation: “Such a humane man whose capacity for affection extended to all those suffering throughout the world, offering a message of committed struggle and indomitable optimism, has been distorted by history and turned into a stone idol.”
With his tremendous grasp of theory and his own practical experience, Che observes Marx’s evolution through his own view of radical change in Cuba, considering how it might apply to other countries after they achieve their definitive liberation from colonialism.
