The Afro-Caribbean
psychiatrist, philosopher and revolutionary, Frantz Fanon was a political
radical, and a Marxist humanist. The national liberation of the colonial people
and the emancipation of the oppressed through radical measures was the major
concerns of Fanon. His Black Skin, White Masks (1952) reflected his
personal grudgery and frustration against the racist consciousness of the
Eurocentric world. The Wretched of the Earth, published in his late
years is conceived to be the magnum opus and the “social gospel that urged the
colonial peoples to purge themselves of their degradation in collective
catharsis to be achieved by violence against the European Oppressors” (Marxist
Internet Archive).
The book trails the development of culture and emergence of nationalism from
the colonial domination. Fanon also reminds the apparent dangers of being free
without achieving the developmental maturity of one’s own culture, pointing to
the United States as the apt example (Marxist Internet Archive).
The Wretched of the Earth
analyses the dehumanizing effects of colonialism. The individual, nation and in
broader sense, the social, cultural, and political implications emerging from
these basic concepts undergo the same principles of dehumanization. For Fanon,
the decolonization of the minds from the oppressiveness can be possible only
through a mobilized social movement.
Fanon begins the essay
with a very subtle but power statement, “decolonization is always a violent
event” (Fanon 1). In whatever
substitutive terms we used (national liberation, national reawakening,
restoration of the nation etc.) it is simply the “subtituion of one ‘species’
of mankind by another” (1). It is
unconditional, absolute, total and seamless. Fanon observes that the successful
social change is always from the inside. It must begin from the basic claims of
the colonized. It is the beginning stage of decolonialism. But this change can
also be turned to be more dangerous in the future, in “the consciousness of
another ‘species’ of men and women: the colons, the colonists” (1).
Fanon warns that
decolonization changes the order of the things. The locus of its agenda is the
total disorder, the dismantling of the very antagonistic forces of the
colonization; the colonist and the colonized. Decolonization is a historical
process since, the colonist-colonized dialectic is always poised on violence.
The colonized is fabricated by the colonist and his ‘validity’ is derived from
this colonial system.
Decolonization is not an
involuntary, unnoticed process, it is “truly the creation of new men” (2). Through
decolonization the very status of the colonized from “thing” transform to human
through the very process of liberation. So, decolonization presses for the
urgent need to question the authorial position of colonial system. Fanon
defines this process with a biblical allusion that “the last shall be first” (2).
According to Fanon, this
completeness of the decolonization can only achieved through the complete
shattering of the colonial system which is based on violence. So, the violence
against the violence is the only possible solution to counter the colonist’s
straightjacket.
Fanon argues that the
colonial world is a compartmentalized world. This world is divided into two.
The dividing line or the boundaries of this division is marked by barracks and
police stations. The police or the soldier is the agent of oppression or the
spokespersons for the colonizer. In the capitalist society the education also
work as an agent of submission which perennially teaches the significance of
submission and obedience. There are also different “sermonizers, counsellors,
and ‘confusion-monger’” (4) who take the job of
intervening between the colonizer and the colonized. But in the colonial world
the intervention of the police or soldiers as controllers are direct and they
are keen to keep the colonized under close scrutiny. The government’s agent
uses “the language of pure violence” (4)
The native sector and the
European sector in the colonies are totally antagonistic to each other. Though
they confront each other both are not complimentary. Both are governed by
purely Aristotelian logic. The colonist’s sector is built to last with stone and
steel. It is filled with luxuries since it is white folks sector.
The colonized’s sector on
the other hand is “native” quarters. They are shanty, or the reservation area.
It is a place inhabited by “disreputable” people. It is a famished sector,
“hungry for bread, meat, shoed, coal, and light” (4).
This sector of “niggers” gaze at the colonist’s sector with envy and lust.
Fanon finds out that the “colonized man is an envious man” (5).
Fanon argues that in the
colonies even the economic infrastructure is also a superstructure. Because, if
you are rich, you are a white and if you are white, you are rich. In the
colonies, the colonist, always remain foreigner. He imposes himself using
violence. The colonized is always treated as “other” and their position never
changes.
Just an elimination of
the boundaries between the two sectors can never bring equality among the
colonists and the colonized. According to Fanon, the equality can be possible
only through the same violence (through which the colonist imposed his rule),
to destroy and burry down the colonist’s sector from the earth.
Fanon overserves that the
colonial world is a “Manichaean world” (6). The colonizer turn
the colonized as the replica of evil. Fanon points out “the ‘native’ is
declared impervious to ethics, representing not only the absence of values but
also the negation of values. He is . . . the enemy of values. In other words,
absolute evil” (6). The customs,
traditions, myths of the colonized are the very manifestations of paganism and
evilness. The Church in the colonies do not teaches the ways of God, it is
white man’s Church. It is foreigner’s church. It teaches the ways of white man.
The Manicheanism, in its
most apt example can be visible in the dehumanization of the colonized by the
colonists through their language. Through the language, the colonized is often
reduced to animals. The use of zoological terms to refer the colonized goes
beyond the humanitarian concerns and plunges in the deep chasms of bestiary.
Whenever there is a
threat by the colonized on the colonists, they assign someone to proclaim the
beauty and richness of the Western values. The supremacy of the white values
are stated with violence and they are aggressively imposed on the colonized.
Fanon, warns that during the time of the decolonization, the colonized masses
“thumb their noses at these values, shower them with insults and vomit them up”
(8).
Fanon points out that
during the decolonization, a number of colonized intellectuals will establish a
dialogue with the bourgeois of the colonizing country. During this period the
indigenous population is seen as “a blurred mass” (8).
During the liberation, the colonialist bourgeois seek contact with the
colonized “elite” and the famous dialogue on values is established. Through the
campaign of culture, values, technology, etc. the colonialist bourgeois again
tries to dominate the colonized. But for the colonized, the most essential
value is land, which provides bread. But Fanon, reminds that this has nothing
do with human dignity. Human dignity will only be possible when the colonized
is ready to declare himself that he is equal to the colonist. And to be
further, when the colonized is determined to “fight to be more than the
colonist” (10). This will shatter
an entire moral and material universe which was based on the interests of the
colonist. But what is more interesting is that, the colonist will not be
interested in staying on and coexisting once the colonial context has disappeared.
Because, they fear that the world without their dominance is dangerous. And
thus, the colonized discovers that his heartbeats are the same as the colonists
and “the skin of a colonist is not worth more than the ‘native’s’” (10).
During the
decolonization, the early Manicheanism again persists. It brands the foreigner
as the enemy number 1. The truth for the fellow nationals is different for the
foreigners. There will be honesty between the fellow national but not with the
colonists or the foreigners.
Fanon observes that the
colonist makes history. His prideful claim “We made this land” can be seen in
his history making. But his historiography is not the history of the country,
on the other hand, he writes “the history of his own nation’s looting, raping
and starving to death” (15).
Colonisation teaches the
colonized not to overstep his limits. So, the dreams of colonized is muscular
because of his limitations and restraints. They are the dreams of action,
dreams of aggressive vitality. So, a minute spark can bring out the
aggressiveness of the colonized even if it is against his own people.
Under the colonial order,
the colonized is in a permanent state of tension. He is always presumed guilty,
though he does not accept it. The colonized is always under the authority, but
he does not acknowledges any authority. Though he is dominated, he is not
domesticated. Though he is made to feel inferior, in no means he is convinced
of his inferiority. So, fanon reminds that the colonized is always looking for
a chance to reverse this politics of power.
The religion is another
method of suppression. With the religion, the colonial subject is always taught
to be submissive to fate. They teaches about the fate of being colonized. So,
“the individual thus accepts the devastation decreed by God, grovels in front
of the colonist, bows to the hand of fate, and mentally readjusts to acquire
the serenity of stone” (18).
Myths and dance are very
important aspects of the colonized’s life. The myths and spirits like snake
men, six-legged dogs, zombies etc. part of the native men and their libido. The
rituals and the dance are the ways of channelizing the aggressiveness and
sorrows of the native people. The energy and ecstasy of dance is also a
liberating aspect. The colonized’s sorrows and misery get transformed in the
ritual dances and their aggressiveness get channelized in the ritual war dance
and ritual killings.
During the period of
decolonization, the colonized intellectual become part of the process for
nothing but to replace colonist’s place. There is dream is to grab the status
of the colonist’ place and replace it. Another notable movement that can be
seen during the period of decolonization is the advent of colonialist bourgeois
with the slogan of ‘nonviolence’. It is a concept by the colonialist bourgeois
to negotiate with the colonial system.
Fanon confronts the
question, how they are going to fight the colonists with the highlighting of
the importance of the instruments of violence. He points out that the
instruments of violence is very important in the process of decolonization.
Fanon observes the
drastic changes to the colonies. In the earlier Phase the colonies was the
source for the raw materials which were unloaded to European market. But in the
later stage, the colony itself became a market, where the European goods flowed
freely and the colonized were compelled to be the consumers. Fanon observes
that “capitalism therefore objectively colludes with the forces of violence
that erupt in colonial territories” (27).
Fanon points out the
progressive nation of the political parties in the process of decolonization.
The political parties “name” the nation through their speeches. So, through the
process of naming they could pacify some of the demands of the colonized. But
these are only just marginal gains, and there is no political and social
agenda. They stimulate the concept of nationalism and the ethnic language is
used. The imaginations and expectations of the common men are raised through
their speeches and they give hope to the people.
When the political
parties summons people, they creates an impression that something is impeding,
and there will be a somersaulting of the social order. To maintain their
stamina and revolutionary spirit, the next thing they do is no narrate and
retell certain episodes from the life of the community. There will be stories
of role models, ‘heroes’, adventures etc.
There will be also a new
interest in the old leaders of freedom and old fighters against colonialism.
They will be remembered again highlighting the impending social revolution
against the colonial order. They indicate that the emerging social revolution
for decolonization. Fanon points out that the emergence of the new nation and
the destruction of the colonial order is the result of either a violent
struggle or due to the influence of other colonized peoples who could create an
inhibiting effect on the colonial regime.
Fanon, points out the
depth of colonial violence in the international context. After the independence
of the colonial nations, the greatest challenge they have to overcome is to
catch up with other nations. Fanon points out the fallacy in the claim that
there is a widespread belief that the European nations have reached their
present stage due to the result of their labours. The European nations
“achieved their national unity at a time when the national bourgeois bad
concentrated most of the wealth in their hands” (52-53). But the greatest
challenge for the developing nations is that, they lack infrastructure, the
masses still suffers from poverty and unemployment, and they are without
doctors, engineers, without even administrators. Whenever there is a news of
decolonization, the European bourgeois withdraw their investment from the
colonial nations. And they are left with the risk of building a nation from the
beginning despite their perished conditions.
Fanon points out that the
development and wellbeing of Europe is the result of the “sweat and corpses of
blacks, Arabs, Indians and Asians” (53). When the colonial
nations demand for independence, they give independence without any further
help. In other words, they let the new nations to suffer the consequences of
independence. When the new nations struggle in nation building, the Europe
remains as a sleeping beauty with contempt.
It the third world
country refuses to “suffer the consequence of independence” and agree with the
terms of former colonial power, it becomes an economically dependent nations.
The former colonizer continues his exploitation.
The most important thing
for the development of world, in Fanon’s concept, is the redistribution of
wealth. During, the time of independence, the developing nations was the under
pressure to choose whether the capitalist of socialist economy system. Fanon is
in the view that, before choosing any of them, the nation must be conscious
about “their very own values as well as methods and style specific to them” (55). Fanon supports the
socialist system as a regime that entirely devoted to people. He observes that
socialist system will “allow [the developing nations] to progress faster in
greater harmony, consequently ruling out the possibility of a caricature of
society where a privileged few hold the reins of political and economic power
without a thought for the nation as a whole” (56).
With only the socialist
regime a nation cannot progress. The human investment, the only thing the new
nations possess will not save them. They need capital, technicians and
engineers. They need mechanics and technology.
The improvement of working conditions is very important thing.
The Europe today is the
result of the plundering form the colonies. Its wealth and development is the
result of colonialism. So, any help from the European side need not be seen as
the Big Charity from the West. The major challenge before the young nations is
that they cannot attract investment from outside. Even if they found it, if
will be short term investment. The European monopolies do not like the economic
planning programs of the developing countries.
Even if a few countries
met the conditions demanded by the monopolies, the capital remained blocked in
the Europe. The “capital no longer circulates or else is considerably reduced” (60). Fanons condemns
that the third world is often abandoned and condemned to regression by the
selfishness and immorality of the West.
Fanon observes that it is
their duty to tell the capitalist counties to stop thinking that the
fundamental issue is the war between the socialist regimes. Fanon points out
that the nuclear arms race and the cold war must be stopped. What is needed for
the world is the generous investments and technical aid for the developing
nations. Fanon concludes that “in order to do this, the European masses must
first of all decide to wake up, put on their thinking caps and stop playing the
irresponsible game of Sleeping Beauty” (62).
