 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 so had enormous revolutionary potential . Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser , who had fraternal relations with Che since his 1959 visit , saw Guevara 's plan to fight in Congo as " unwise " and warned that he would become a " Tarzan " figure , doomed to failure . Despite the warning , Guevara traveled to Congo using the alias Ramón Benítez . He 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 Congo on April 24 , 1965 and a contingent of approximately 100 Afro @-@ Cubans joined them soon afterward . For a time , they collaborated with guerrilla leader Laurent @-@ Désiré Kabila , who had helped supporters of the overthrown president Patrice Lumumba to 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 " showed the same respect to black people as he did to whites " . However , Guevara soon became disillusioned with the poor discipline of Kabila 's troops and later dismissed him , stating " nothing leads me to believe he is the man of the hour " . 
