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lispectorsexual 's review for:
The Wretched of the Earth
by Frantz Fanon
challenging
informative
reflective
tense
“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.”
It is through this excerpt from the first chapter that we discover the essence of Fanon’s writing. He is brutal, unwavering, necessary, and above all, honest. We begin by examining matters concerning violence, how it emerges, how it is controlled, educated, and evidently exercised, and he expands on this by setting it apart from both perspectives of the native and settler. We must keep in mind that Fanon was a psychiatrist, thus he reminds us that colonialism and its implementations are not only physical violence but also a psychological warfare, and that the act of decolonisation is not merely the killing or removal of our colonisers but it also consists of breaking away from certain mental shackles that have sprouted during our oppression. I also think the provision of the Algerian revolution was an essential analogy and a way to better express his ideas, and I was able to resonate with it in the sense that I was also able to look at my own country and begin to think of it in the same manner — the structure of apartheid.
“Capitalist exploitation and cartels and monopolies are the enemies of under-developed countries. On the other hand the choice of a socialist regime, a regime which is completely based on the principle that man is the most precious of all possessions will allow us to go forward more quickly and more harmoniously, and thus make impossible that caricature of society where all economic and political power is held in the hands of a few who regard the nation as a with scorn contempt”
It is through the second chapter that I began to realise how much of nothing I know about politics from a philosophical realm. I’m truly clueless. There were numerous amount of terms that left me dazed and knocking on Google’s doors to give me definitions. But I was never discouraged from reading furthermore, I accepted the challenge and the density of it and fell in love with the idea of educating myself at my own pace (thus I took this long reading it). Throughout the second chapter we were observing the fundamentals of capitalism and its effects, and the mechanics of political parties during a colonial regime as well as after its reign. Fanon always amazes me with the level of insight he’s able to provide, because he always ensures to render a psychiatric evaluation of things, explaining to us why certain people end up thinking the way they do and how it not only affects them as individuals, but also as a group — as a native consciousness.
On The Pitfall of National Consciousness is a genius text indicating at the economic fall of a young nation post colonialism, the corruption that stems from European caricatures played by the African bourgeoisie, and the position that ends up standing before a nation amidst such a catastrophe. I for one, would genuinely consider it the strongest part of the book, as it is well fleshed out, easy to digest, and self-explanatory. We also examine the birth of corruption and greed, and the shells of political parties that reigned during the struggle for independence against colonialism. How they’ve fallen and how they’re shells of their former selves. The moral decay of the African bourgeoisie, and the racial prejudice placed within Africa itself, splitting it into White Africa and Black Africa. I also realised that growing up I had the psyche of let’s say “White Africa”, and so when I imagined the Western African countries I always saw filth, poverty, famine, cannibalism, and so on. And yet when I thought of the Northern African countries it was the complete opposite. I think it was due to being in the South that allowed me to do so, and this complex of thinking my country isn’t the poorest in Africa if not close to being the richest. Now that I’m older I’m happy that I’ve begun to deconstruct from such negative and racist thinking.
Fanon’s use of metaphors makes his work all the more enjoyable and easy to read. Considering that he does not speak of abstract concepts but these things are the very things that are outside of our homes (or within, in broader context), and all we need to do is open up our curtains a bit and see it for ourselves.
Political awareness and education is a necessity for the progression of a nation, especially in underdeveloped countries. And that it must not be manipulated for the support or side of a specific party.
Fanon’s emphasis on National Culture might be a small section, but that does not diverge it from its importance and value. It feels as though the complete opposite of what he speaks about in Black Skin, White Masks in regard to the black man and his need to be affirmed in white spaces. Here we examine the native and how his culture can only be suppressed or taken away by colonisers, the minute the native has no effort to fight for his liberty. Culture, is in itself, in this specific context, the unified consciousness of a people, formulating their nation.
“No one can truly wish for the spread of African culture if he does not give practical support to the creation of the conditions necessary to the existence of that culture; in other words, to the liberation of the whole continent.”
The final chapter is probably my favourite one even though Fanon would consider it not necessarily befitting of the premise of the book. But I very much enjoyed the psychological inspection of mental disorders during the colonies, and I undoubtedly learned a lot from it. So far, Fanon has yet to disappoint me, and I’m again excited to reading more of his other texts if I’m able to acquire them.
Through Fanon, I begin to think of African existentialism and take note of the African and his position in the world, as he is a concept with a fixed and already made definition — a negro. And so, he is thrown into the world with a purpose of redefining himself.
When for example, European thinkers such as Nietzsche speak of the Ubermensch in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and “man”, it would be naive to think that in his mind he’s including or thinking of the African. What he thinks of is the ideal man — the European. To him and many others the negro is nothing more than a negro. An object amidst a storm of subjects.