You may have come across a youth in the streets of Nakuru wearing a T-shirt with a monochrome graphic indicating face of a man with long hair flowing from a cap. Most of the times beneath the T-shirt image or above it are words, ‘Che Guevara’.
Josiah Mwangi, a resident of Nakuru and a college student is a fan of the T-shirts.
He admitted he owns three of them at a cost of Sh1,500. After pressing him for information concerning the image printed on the T-shirt, Mwangi believes the guy was once a freedom fighter in Spain or one of the Latin American countries.
This T-shirt, though in terms of design can be compared to the campaign T-shirts that are usually printed during the general election dished out for free with the objective to publicise or gain support for a particular candidate. But immediately the campaigns are over, the T-shirts are dumped which is contrast to the particular T-shirts we are discussing here.
To know the identity of the man behind the world’s most universally merchandised and objectified images found on endless array of items such as T-shirts, posters, hats, and even the public transport the 14 seater matatus, the Cuban Embassy in Kenya came in handy.
According to the embassy, the image belongs to a revolutionist known as Ernesto Guevara born in Argentina in 1928. As a young boy, he learned vowels, consonants and numbers from a rural teacher and amazingly understood them in a short time. Their home contained more than 3,000 books which allowed him to be an enthusiastic reader. He preferred literature and science.
In 1948, Guevara enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina to study medicine, later in 1951, he took a year off from studies and embarked on a trip traversing South America on a motorcycle with his friend Alberto Granado. They spent weeks volunteering at San Pablo leper colony in Peru.
Upon returning home, the young enthusiastic Guevara wrote dozens of monographs and essays on Allergy, Asthma, tropical diseases and lepers. He completed studies and received his medical degree in June 1953 officially becoming Dr. Ernesto Guevara. He later remarked that, through his travels of Latin America, he came in close contact with poverty, hunger, disease and the inability to treat a child due to lack of money. Stupefaction provoked by the continual hunger and punishment were the experiences Guevara cited as convincing him to leave the realm of medicine.
As Mwandawiro Mganga, chairman of Kenya-Cuba Friendship Society asserted that, “At 25, he could have been a famous and outstanding medical doctor, but put into practice his revolutionary thoughts and decided to fight imperialism wherever it was.’’
He threw his weight into the turbulent political arena of armed struggle and moved to Guatemala. It is here that he obtained his famous nickname, ‘Che’ due to his frequent use of the Argentine interjection a casual speech similar to English word ‘Eh.’
After a short stay at Guatemala, he moved to Mexico where he married Gadea in September 1955. At the time, he met Raul Castro the current President of Cuba who subsequently introduced him to his elder brother, Fidel Castro.
Fidel had formed the July 26 revolutionary movement, plotting to overthrow the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, welcomed Guevara to become the movement doctor.
Fidel Castro became the first on the list of the expeditionary force of a pleasure yacht that was converted into a warship amid the stormy seas to free Cuba. A shipwreck rather than a landing brought them to Cuba. A surprise by the enemy and baptism of gunfire left many of Castro men dead.
Faced by a dilemma to carry the back pack of medicines or the rifle, Guevara chooses the latter. The homes now became the mountains. There was no turning back as Guevara became an integral part of the rebel army, convinced Castro with competence, diplomacy and patience.
Setting up factories to make grenades, built ovens to bake bread, taught the illiterate recruits how to read, write and the fighting tactics. At this point he was promoted by Fidel Castro to commander, the only other ranked commander besides Fidel Castro.
He described Guevara as intelligent, daring and an exemplary leader who had great moral authority over his troops.
On January 8 1959 Castro’s army rolled victoriously into Havana stopping the advancing enemy which marked the end of Batista rule. Castro formed the government and proclaimed Guevara a Cuban citizen appointing him the commander of the La Cabana Fortress prison. Later on November he was made president of National Bank of Cuba.
On March 4, 1960, a French freighter carrying ammunition exploded while been unloaded in Havana Harbor killing over one hundred people, Guevara provided first Aid to the injured ones. It was at the memorial service for the victims of the explosion the following day, that Alberto Korda took the famous photograph known as ‘Guerrillero Heroico’.
The photographed image has traveled all over the world including the streets of Nakuru. To some of the clothes vendor along the streets of Nakuru , the che t-shirts as they are popularly known are a hot cake in the market. ‘If I hang the che t-shirt here in the morning by 12noon it will be gone, for che T-shirts we do not bargain with customers we just state the price and they buy.’’ ‘’The shirt goes for Ksh. 500.” Comments, Peter Mubea, a clothes vendor along Mburu Gichua Road.
As Che T-shirts continue to trade, all over the world, he remains a beloved national hero to many in Cuba longer after he was killed by the Bolivian Authority after leading a catastrophic Bolivia Guerrila force to liberate the people of Bolivia.
Apart from the T-shirts alone, his image adorns the Cuban 3 peso coin.