Author:
Nigel Gibson
(MENAFN- The Conversation)
Franz Fanon, the Martiniquan born psychiatrist, committed Algerian revolutionary and Pan-African thinker, died 60 years ago on December 6, 1961 just after the publication of his last book, The Wretched of the Earth. To mark this 60th anniversary, Nigel C. Gibson has just published his collection, Fanon Today: The Reason and Revolt of the Wretched of the Earth . He discusses some important quotes from Fanon's global classic.
Space
In the first chapter of The Wretched of the Earth, 'On Violence,' Fanon describes colonialism as a system of absolute violence that can only be opposed through violence. He references South Africa as he powerfully describes the colonial world expressed in space:
In contrast, the colonised sector,
He then adds an important measure of decolonisation,
Fanon rocked the All-African Peoples Conference in December 1958 when he raised the issue of violence in contrast to Kwame Nkrumah's nonviolent“positive action” agreed upon by many delegates. The following year Fanon became ambassador to Ghana and by then the crucial problem for Fanon was the the lack of ideological clarity among leaders, regardless of their position on violence and nonviolence.
The rationality of revolt and the philosophy of organisation
The centrality of the“rationality of revolt” to a“new politics” is highlighted by these two quotes, from the end of chapter 2 and the beginning of chapter 3.
If the rationality of revolt becomes the material force of revolution where“violence represents the absolute line of action,” the“new politics is in the hands of…[those] who use their muscles and their brains to lead the struggle for liberation”.
But it is the cowardice and apathy of the“elite” and their“incapacity” to“rationalise popular practice” and“attribute it any reason” that leads to the postcolonial tragedy.
It was not only the leaders who were subject to Fanon's anger. He was brutally honest in his criticism of the revolutionary militant:
He calls the militant's logic shocking and inhuman.
The nationalist bourgeoisie and their organisation
Given that he was writing at a moment when more than half of Africa had recently gained independence, his critique of the nationalist middle class and nationalist parties reads like a script which has been repeated over and over:
At the same time, wary of the rising xenophobia and chauvinism in newly independent West African nations, Fanon argues that national consciousness is not in fact nationalism. Rather, national consciousness“enriched and deepened into humanism…is the only thing that will give us an international dimension.” For him the building of a nation has to be“accompanied by the discovery and encouragement of universalising values.”
A new humanism
Those universal values are expressed in the four-page conclusion to The Wretched of he Earth:
Fully cognisant of the fact that neocolonialism can wear a Black or Arab face, Fanon is critical of how newly independent African countries, even when they uses the language of socialism, didn't do much more than follow Europe's model, looking to take over the colonial apparatus – its states and institutions – for their own interests. Fanon considered this a product of the crisis of thought, the lack of a philosophy of liberation.
Fanon rejects the humanism proclaimed in Europe. Based on colonisation, exploitation, slavery and violence, European humanism dehumanises. And so“We must find something different”. He rejects what is central to European humanism, profit and the reduction of the human to outputs in production.
“If conditions of work are not modified,” he adds,“centuries will be needed to humanise this world which has been forced down to animal level by imperial powers”. He's saying, humanising the world means rethinking everything,“work[ing]out new concepts… and setting afoot a new humanity”.
Time as the space for human development
Fanon envisioned time akin to Karl Marx's great phrase, as“space for human development”.
Humanising the world means creating a new conception of time, the time to create a new society.
Rather than top-down the plan should come from“the muscles and the brains of the citizens” because“people must know where they are going, and why”. In the early pages of The Wretched of the Earth Fanon speaks of those dehumanised beings who become historical protagonists through the struggle.
This is just the beginning, the work of humanising the world does not end there, in fact by the end of the book it is clear that while this remains a crucial turning point because consciousness, let alone material reality, are not changed overnight. Mental and physical liberation has to be ongoing after the colonists had been kicked out. The“new society”, the liberated“new person” – collectively, socially, and individually – has to be consciously and intentionally developed.
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