Two by Frantz Fanon
(33) Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Masks
Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) was born on the French colony of Martinique in the Caribbean. After serving in the French army during WWII, he moved to France, attended medical school, and became a psychaiatrist. In 1952 he published Black Skin, White Masks, a passionate work from his own personal and psychaiatric experiences, about the question "how can black men really be men?"
He discusses the psychology of a black man in Martinique where the black majority, without a race consciousness, desperately tries to emulate the white French without always being aware that this is what it is doing; and of the same man who, on going to France, suddenly becomes acutely conscious of his difference and of the racist perceptions foisted upon him by everyone whether well-meaning or hateful.
He talks about the need to be aware of power differences and then to become comfortable in one's own skin; to find some way to resist having one's identity completely formed for one by the other.
The chapter "The Fact of Blackness" is particularly moving as it follows the subject through his painfully growing awareness of racism and subsequent attempts to throw it off and become accepted simply as a human being, all of which attempts are argued away (e.g. his discovery of the history of ancient civilizations in Africa brushed off with a voice that says they aren't relevant in the modern world dominated by Europe). Ultimately he responds by defying fear and the "wearying task" of "stating reality": "But the constancy of my love had been forgotten. I defined myself as an absolute intensity of beginning. So I took up my negritude, and with tears in my eyes I put its machinery together again. ... My cry grew more violent: I am a Negro, I am a Negro, I am a Negro..."
[Feminist warning: This book is very much about the experiences of black men. Two of the chapters are about sexual relationships between black men and white women, and vice versa, and they were, from my point of view, kind of problematic. For example as he criticizes black women on Martinique for seeking out relationships with white men because of their idealization of whiteness, he doesn't really take into account how women's experiences of racism differ from men's--in fact he doesn't really seem to regard black women as actually suffering from racism at all, as though it is something only encountered by men. (I know that Fanon's mother was white, and so was his wife--I wonder if that has something to do with his lack of insight here.) What bothered me probably even more was the old-school-psychology assumption, repeated throughout the book, that women subconsciously desire to be raped. He often used this when talking about the reactions of white women to black men. (e.g. "Basically, does this fear of rape not itself cry out for rape? Just as there are faces that ask to be slapped, can one not speak of women who ask to be raped?" UGH. Just UGH.)]
(41) Frantz Fanon: The Wretched of the Earth
This one was published in 1961 and written as Fanon was dying of leukemia. I believe he dictated it to his wife, which is really impressive considering how long and intense it is!
The year after he published Black Skin, White Masks Fanon moved to Algeria to work in a psychiatric hospital. This was during the Algerian War of Independence from France and Fanon treated both Algerian colonial subjects and French colonizers. Wretched of the Earth's final chapter contains some examples from his case book that demonstrate how this work could have driven him to renounce France and join the FLN (the resistance movement). For example he treated several French policemen who tortured captured rebels or suspects as part of their job. Of one of these Fanon writes, "As he had no intention of giving up his job as a torturer [that was psychologically damaging him] he asked me in plain language to help him torture Algerian patriots without having a guilty conscience, without any behavioral problems, and with a total piece of mind."
The bulk of Wretched of the Earth is the ideas Fanon learned from his participation in the FLN and from observing similar anti-colonial revolutions all over Africa. The first and probably most famous chapter, "On Violence," argues that the only real way to decolonize is through violence by the colonized against the colonizer. He argues that this must be so because colonial dominance has been explicitly achieved and maintained with violence, and so violence is the only thing that can destroy it for good. Perhaps an even larger part of his argument is that violence is the "praxis" by which anti-colonial ideas can be put into practice and which unites all of the different colonized persons, rural, urban, intelligentsia, desperately poor.
The rest of the book is about how to create a cohesive and strong nation out of a recently decolonized people. He fears that too many revolutionary parties have neglected to worry about this, or downright refused to discuss it for fear of causing divisions, thus encouraging a belief that decolonization will be a magic solution that reverses every problem. Fanon's solution is that the people have to be educated and enabled to care about their nation as fervently as they have cared about the liberation movement. The people have to be in charge of their nation because if only a small and self-concerned minority gains power upon independence, it will be like colonization all over again for most. From what I have read about the histories of African nations in the late 20th century, Fanon seems to have predicted most of the problems well in advance.
It's a truly insightful book and I'm not doing justice to it. I think that it will inspire and educate anyone involved in radical social activism.
Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) was born on the French colony of Martinique in the Caribbean. After serving in the French army during WWII, he moved to France, attended medical school, and became a psychaiatrist. In 1952 he published Black Skin, White Masks, a passionate work from his own personal and psychaiatric experiences, about the question "how can black men really be men?"
He discusses the psychology of a black man in Martinique where the black majority, without a race consciousness, desperately tries to emulate the white French without always being aware that this is what it is doing; and of the same man who, on going to France, suddenly becomes acutely conscious of his difference and of the racist perceptions foisted upon him by everyone whether well-meaning or hateful.
He talks about the need to be aware of power differences and then to become comfortable in one's own skin; to find some way to resist having one's identity completely formed for one by the other.
The chapter "The Fact of Blackness" is particularly moving as it follows the subject through his painfully growing awareness of racism and subsequent attempts to throw it off and become accepted simply as a human being, all of which attempts are argued away (e.g. his discovery of the history of ancient civilizations in Africa brushed off with a voice that says they aren't relevant in the modern world dominated by Europe). Ultimately he responds by defying fear and the "wearying task" of "stating reality": "But the constancy of my love had been forgotten. I defined myself as an absolute intensity of beginning. So I took up my negritude, and with tears in my eyes I put its machinery together again. ... My cry grew more violent: I am a Negro, I am a Negro, I am a Negro..."
[Feminist warning: This book is very much about the experiences of black men. Two of the chapters are about sexual relationships between black men and white women, and vice versa, and they were, from my point of view, kind of problematic. For example as he criticizes black women on Martinique for seeking out relationships with white men because of their idealization of whiteness, he doesn't really take into account how women's experiences of racism differ from men's--in fact he doesn't really seem to regard black women as actually suffering from racism at all, as though it is something only encountered by men. (I know that Fanon's mother was white, and so was his wife--I wonder if that has something to do with his lack of insight here.) What bothered me probably even more was the old-school-psychology assumption, repeated throughout the book, that women subconsciously desire to be raped. He often used this when talking about the reactions of white women to black men. (e.g. "Basically, does this fear of rape not itself cry out for rape? Just as there are faces that ask to be slapped, can one not speak of women who ask to be raped?" UGH. Just UGH.)]
(41) Frantz Fanon: The Wretched of the Earth
This one was published in 1961 and written as Fanon was dying of leukemia. I believe he dictated it to his wife, which is really impressive considering how long and intense it is!
The year after he published Black Skin, White Masks Fanon moved to Algeria to work in a psychiatric hospital. This was during the Algerian War of Independence from France and Fanon treated both Algerian colonial subjects and French colonizers. Wretched of the Earth's final chapter contains some examples from his case book that demonstrate how this work could have driven him to renounce France and join the FLN (the resistance movement). For example he treated several French policemen who tortured captured rebels or suspects as part of their job. Of one of these Fanon writes, "As he had no intention of giving up his job as a torturer [that was psychologically damaging him] he asked me in plain language to help him torture Algerian patriots without having a guilty conscience, without any behavioral problems, and with a total piece of mind."
The bulk of Wretched of the Earth is the ideas Fanon learned from his participation in the FLN and from observing similar anti-colonial revolutions all over Africa. The first and probably most famous chapter, "On Violence," argues that the only real way to decolonize is through violence by the colonized against the colonizer. He argues that this must be so because colonial dominance has been explicitly achieved and maintained with violence, and so violence is the only thing that can destroy it for good. Perhaps an even larger part of his argument is that violence is the "praxis" by which anti-colonial ideas can be put into practice and which unites all of the different colonized persons, rural, urban, intelligentsia, desperately poor.
The rest of the book is about how to create a cohesive and strong nation out of a recently decolonized people. He fears that too many revolutionary parties have neglected to worry about this, or downright refused to discuss it for fear of causing divisions, thus encouraging a belief that decolonization will be a magic solution that reverses every problem. Fanon's solution is that the people have to be educated and enabled to care about their nation as fervently as they have cared about the liberation movement. The people have to be in charge of their nation because if only a small and self-concerned minority gains power upon independence, it will be like colonization all over again for most. From what I have read about the histories of African nations in the late 20th century, Fanon seems to have predicted most of the problems well in advance.
It's a truly insightful book and I'm not doing justice to it. I think that it will inspire and educate anyone involved in radical social activism.