Response Paper- Frantz Fanon

The Wretched of Earth hailed as ‘The Handbook of Black Revolution’ puts forth the idea that total revolution is the only solution to the compartmentalization existing between the colonizers and the colonized. The outset of freedom struggles and national liberation movements which occurred simultaneous to the second  World war is pointed out by Fanon. Fanon summarises the whole idea of the text in its first sentence, “Decolonization is always a violent phenomenon”.  The colonized is continually conditioned to see himself through the perspective of the colonizer. Examples can be seen in Literature where blacks are portrayed as uncivilized, savage creatures by the West. The compartmentalization of living arrangements, denial of education and other basic needs all maintain the inequality and injustice experienced in the colonized nations. The colonized person lives in an atmosphere of violence which is aimed at him. While the material violence tortures and oppresses him, psychological violence humiliates and dehumanizes him. According to Fanon, a politically arranged decolonization will fail to bring the radical changes needed for true liberation. Fanon opines that “colonialism is not a thinking machine, nor a body endowed with reasoning faculties. It is violence in its natural state, and it will only yield when confronted with greater violence”. Here, Fanon is not justifying violence but instead he enquires the source from which this violence is rooted which is colonialism itself. Fanon’s aim is to analyse the dialectic of violence and to portray violence from different perspectives. Fanon states that the violence which has ruled over the colonized is changed into his tool to fight back. If the natives are colonized through violence, then ‘violence’ is only solution to reverse power relations in such a society. Fanon comments on it so, “the last shall be first and the first shall be last”.

Fanon cites the example of the colonial experience from French Algeria, where the French colonies were not spread as that of British colonies. France always spoke of their colonies as departments and French Algeria became free in 1960’s. Fanon was born on the French West Indian island of Martinique. Fanon exposes the double standard in judging violence. How a European nation like Germany’s militant movement is not surprising or considered as violence but that of a country like Algeria or Angola is seen so. An elimination of the boundaries existing between the two groups cannot bring a solution according to Fann. He maintains the position that “The colonized man finds his freedom in and through Violence” and that it has to fought and won. Fanon sees non violent strategies as the tricks of the colonized elites to save their skins. The protest of Gandhi against Chouri- Choura incident and his explicit casteist attitude is an example.

Language is used as a tool to denounce and dehumanize the colonized. Zoological terms (names of animals) are used to call the natives. The only language the native discovers is that of force. The colonized is in a permanent state of tension and guilt. Fanon believes that colonialism is the foundation of capitalism as well which exploit a vast underclass. Here, Fanon connects his essay to a Marxian ideal. Fanon criticizes African nationalists whose political policies are fuzzy, derivative and divorced from the conditions of their countries. Fanon advocates socialism to the emerged newly independent nations as official independence does not mark the end of colonization. Fanon suggests that Marxist analysis should be stretched inorder to accommodate the economical and social conditions of the developing countries which are very different from that of the developed countries. The central disagreement between Marx and Fanon is in the terms of ‘class’ and ‘race’. Fanon considers ‘race’ as the key categorical terms in colonial situations. Fanon places “history of resistance” against the Marxian “history of class struggle”.

Fanon also points to the situation where native intellectuals are educated in colonial schools to admire colonial value system. The minutes of Macaulay where English is used as a weapon which can classify the natives can be read here. The peasants’ use of violence will be criticized by the nationalist bourgeois. Thus Fanon draws in the real picture of the colonial struggles which take part in different parts of the world. He questions the idea of ‘uniformity’ and ‘violence’ in the colonial contexts. “Concerning Violence” holds a historical significance while connecting it to the uprisals such as Mau Mau rebellion, the guerilla struggle in Portugese colonies and the Algerian revolution in which Fanon took part as a member of the Algerian National Liberation Front.