The Wretched of the Earth (Penguin Modern Classics) [Paperback]

Fanon was born in Martinique in 1925 and trained as a doctor (specializing in psychiatry) in France. He was assigned to a hospital in Algeria during the uprising against the French. He chose to throw in his lot with the "rebels" and became one of their most articulate spokesmen. He did not live to see the French leave Algeria as he died of leukaemia at the age of thirty-six.

In this book, Fanon provides an insight into the true nature of imperialism. He details the mental, economic and physical degradations that characterize the relationship between "the settler" and "the native" and how violence is a central feature of this relationship. Fanon explains how violence is central to the de-colonization process and the forging of a unifying consciousness amongst the colonized populace. He provides further insights into the organization of colonial struggle, the different roles played by town "elites" and rural people and also, very interestingly, the impact of the violence that characterized the colonial order on the mental health of everyone involved.

I found this a fascinating read. The evils of imperialism are often glossed over in many accounts and Fanon majors on destroying this myth. These are the considered opinions of a man not afraid to call it as he sees it. Colonial struggles are a thing of the past now. However, Fanon's analysis of the relationship between the "First" and the "Third" World is still quite relevant.

...Sarte's introduction had me hooked and I couldn't wait to begin reading Fanon's comments. I was a bit disappointed at first, but as I got into the text I began to realize that I couldn't put it down. Fanon is very insightful as to what happens during an anti-colonial struggle. He explains how the anti-colonial struggle is divided between the rural areas and the towns, whereas most Westerners see the movement as a coherent body. In Fanon's opinion, violence is the way forward. Many are quick to criticize this opinion, citing Gandhi as an example of how a non-violent movement can work. However, violent and non-violent movements must be examined on a case by case basis and Fanon shows how violence is important to the nation to establish itself as a truly independent nation that will not endure Neo-Colonialism. It is also essential towards building a national solidatory, something difficult when the area is usually composed of different tribal groups that have different cultures and who have been encouraged to fight each other by the colonial authorities.

In conclusion, you should read this book if you want to gain an insight into the philosophy of the anti-colonial struggle. This book has truths that are still relevant to this day and which will continue to be relevant for some time to come.

...which should certainly be viewed as an appropriate response. Frantz Fanon was a Black psychiatrist who was born on the French island of Martinique. During the Algerian War of Independence (1954-62) he worked in Algerian hospitals, and developed a strong sympathy for the struggle of the native Algerians (who were not of European origins!). Fanon died in 1961, far too young, at 36, stricken by leukemia. Alistair Horne wrote the classic, dispassionate account of the Algerian War, entitled A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962 (New York Review Books Classics). Fanon wrote his own classic masterpiece, a cri de coeur, literally on his death bed. This book would be an essential inspirational text for those who fought in the remaining anti-colonial wars as well as the Black civil rights movement in the United States. The book also contains an introduction from Jean-Paul Sartre.

In the introduction, Sartre says in his indubitable style: "The European elite undertook to manufacture a native elite. They picked out promising adolescents; they branded them, as with a red-hot iron, with the principles of Western culture; they stuffed their mouths full with high-sounding phrases, grand glutinous words that stuck to the teeth. After a short stay in the mother country they were sent home, whitewashed. These walking lies had nothing left to say to their brothers; they only echoed." Sartre is utterly oblivious. Willfully oblivious? How many of those "natives" who were educated in European "rights of man" values went back to lead the revolts against their colonial masters? A minority, for sure, but surely a majority of those who actually revolted, from Ho Chi Minh to Pol Pot. And is Frantz Fanon himself a "walking lie"? Clearly he was one of the natives who benefited from a European education, and could see the hypocrisy in the proclamations of universal rights and then hear the clearing of the throat, the er.. ah.., of course I mean for whites, even leaving the distaff side "in their place." Fanon himself does not address his somewhat ironic situation of utilizing his European education to denounce the European "world order." Perhaps if Fanon had lived longer, he would have addressed this matter.

But STILL, this is an excellent book, because that is not really the issue. Fanon is simply scathing in his denunciation of the injustices and hypocrisy of colonial rule. For example, in speaking of the colonialist: "...he shows them up and puts them into practice with the clear conscience of an upholder of the peace; yet he is the bringer of violence into the home and into the mind of the native." Or: "The Church in the colonies is the white people's Church..." Or: "Leave this Europe where they are never done talking of Man, yet murder men everywhere they find them, at the corner of every one of their own streets, in all corners of the globe. For centuries they have stifled almost the whole of humanity in the name of a so-called spiritual experience."

Fanon also does denounce his fellow natives who have been educated, and are Sartre's "walking lies": "It (the native bourgeoisie) follows the Western bourgeoisie along its path of negation and decadence without ever having emulated it in its first stage of exploration and invention..." The word "bourgeoisie" is one of those flags that confirms a "Marxist analysis" which is obviously quite dated today, aside from connoting prose that drifts into the opaque.

But again, STILL, even with that `dated' flaw, it does not diminish insights such as: "Those literally astronomical sums of money which are invested in military research, those engineers who are transformed into technicians of nuclear war, could in the space of fifteen years raise the standard of living of underdeveloped countries by 60 per cent." Even more dramatically (and only partially correct): "The people come to understand that wealth is not the fruit of labor but the result of organized, protected robbery."

Despite the heavy prose, and the lack of ironic introspection, this is a classic critique of the essential injustice of the colonial "world order"; it is a book which has inspired many. Ah, if he were only alive today to render such a critique of "globalization." 5-stars.

(Note: Review first published at Amazon, USA, on September 13, 2010)