Frantz Fanon Fifty Years On
A post-graduate course in the Department of Political Studies & International Relations at Rhodes University, to be taught by Richard Pithouse as part of the Thinking Africa project During the Second Semester, 2011
Frantz Fanon died in 1961. In the fifty years that have passed since his death he has become a canonical thinker in a number of academic fields including postcolonial studies and critical race theory. His ideas continue to animate some of the most compelling theoretical innovation that is being produced in the South African academy and in Africana studies more generally.
The course will give students an opportunity to engage with Fanon’s key writings as well as the most important critical literature developed in response to his work. Any student that completes this course will have developed a real expertise on Fanon and the key debates in the best secondary literature on Fanon.
The course will run in the second semester and will be part of the Thinking Africa project. Because it is part of the Thinking Africa project it will include a three day roundtable meeting with leading Fanon scholars and a one week winter school on Fanon, taught by some of these visiting scholars.
Compulsory Reading in Advance of the Thinking Africa Frantz Fanon Roundtable and Winter School
Students will be expected to read all papers presented to the colloquium in advance of their presentation as well as the following three books.
- Alice Cherki Frantz Fanon: A Portrait
- Frantz Fanon Black Skin, White Masks
- Frantz Fanon The Wretched of the Earth
The Frantz Fanon Fifty Years On Colloquium 6- 9 July 2011
The Frantz Fanon Fifty Years On colloquium will begin on the 6th of July with a public lecture by Valentin Yves Mudimbe. It will then run from 9 till 4 from the 7th to the 9th of July. Students are warmly welcomed to participate in the discussions. The academic presenters will be:
- Grant Farred
- Nomboniso Gasa
- Nigel Gibson
- Lewis Gordon
- Pumla Gqola
- Mandisi Majavu
- Siphiwe Ndlovu
- David Ntseng
- Ato Sekyi-Otu
The discussants will be:
- Gillian Hart
- Mazibuko Jara
- Mabogo More
There will also be presentations on the reception of Fanon in struggle from:
- Ayanda Kota
- Barney Pityana
- Nosigqibo Soxujwa
- S'bu Zikode
The Frantz Fanon Winter School 11 – 15 July 2011
The Frantz Fanon Winter School will run every morning from 9 till 12 in the Politics Seminar room. Students will be required to read a text in advance of each session. There will be no written work required but students will be expected to participate actively in the discussions. The schedule is as follows:
- Monday 11 July: Lewis Gordon Requiem on a Life Well Lived: In Memory of Frantz Fanon
- Tuesday 12 July: Mabogo More Fanon and the Land Question in (Post) Apartheid South Africa
- Wednesday 13 July: Nigel Gibson The Rationality of Revolt
- Thursday 14 July: Ato Sekyi-Otu Fanon and the Possibility of Postcolonial Critical Imagination
- Friday 15 July: Lewis Gordon Living Fanon
The Frantz Fanon Fifty Years On Postgraduate Course
The course will take the form of a weekly seminar. Each student will be expected to submit the following written work over the course of the semester:
- A thousand word newspaper op-ed piece on the theme Frantz Fanon Fifty Years On
- A book review of two to three thousand words on one of the prescribed texts on Fanon.
- A two to four thousand word blog post on Fanon.
- The manuscript for an eight to ten thousand word journal article on Fanon.
We will publish the first three submissions on the course blog, seek publication for some of the newspaper op-ed pieces in the Mail & Guardian special issue on Fanon, and, possibly elsewhere too, and students will be encouraged to submit their manuscripts for journal articles for consideration for publication in an academic journal of their choice.
Third Term (25 July – 9 September)
- Seminar One - 25 July: There will be no seminar this week as some students will be participating in the post-grad proposal workshop with Prof. David Szanton.
- Seminar Two – 1 August: (1) A reflection on the colloquium and the winter school (2) Allocation of books to students (3) A discussion on how to write a newspaper op-ed piece. (Your draft Op-Ed pieces of between 800 and 1000 thousand words must be submitted via the google group before noon on Friday the 5th of August.)
- Seminar Three – 8 August: Presentation of student responses to T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting’s Frantz Fanon: Conflicts and Feminisms followed be a general discussion (Students electing to review this book must submit a 1 000 word review the day before the seminar via the google group.)
- Seminar Four – 15 August: Presentation of student responses to Lewis Gordon’s Fanon and the Crisis of European Man followed by a general discussion (Students electing to review this book must submit a 1 000 word review the day before the seminar via the google group.)
- Seminar Five – 22 August: Presentation of student responses to Ato Sekyi-Otu’s Fanon’s Dialectic of Experience followed by a general discussion (Students electing to review this book must submit a 1 000 word review the day before the seminar via the google group.)
- Seminar Six – 29 August: Presentation of student responses to Michael Necosmos’s From "Foreign Natives" to "Native Foreigners" Explaining Xenophobia in Post-apartheid South Africa followed by a general discussion (Students electing to review this book must submit a 1 000 word review the day before the seminar via the google group.)
- Seminar Seven – 5 September: Presentation of student responses to Nigel Gibson’s Fanonian Practices in South Africa followed by a general discussion (Students electing to review this book must submit a 1 000 word review the day before the seminar via the google group.)
Fourth Term (19 September – 28 October)
- Seminar Eight 19 September: Presentation by a first group of four students of their blogs posts on Frantz Fanon Fifty Years On. These blog posts will later be developed into a journal article. (The four students presenting at this seminar must submit a first draft of the two to four thousand word blog post by noon on Friday the 23rd of September via the google group. A final version of the blog post should be submitted directly to Richard Pithouse before the following week's seminar.)
- Seminar Nine 26 September: Presentation by a second group of four students of their blog posts on Frantz Fanon Fifty Years On. These blog posts will later be developed into a journal article. (The four students presenting at this seminar must submit a first draft of the two to four thousand word blog post by noon on Friday the 3rd of October via the google group. A final version of the blog post should be submitted directly to Richard Pithouse before the following week's seminar.)
- Seminars Ten – Thirteen: No collective meetings. Students should be working on their eight to ten thousand word academic papers. Richard Pithouse will be available for consultation throughout this period. Final drafts of the papers are due at noon on Friday 28 October.
Compulsory Reading
- Alice Cherki Frantz Fanon: A Portrait (2000)
- Frantz Fanon Black Skin, White Masks (1952)
- Frantz Fanon The Wretched of the Earth (1961)
- Nigel Gibson Fanonion Practices in South Africa (2011)
- Lewis Gordon Fanon and the Crisis of European Man (1995)
- Michael Neocosmos From "Foreign Natives" to "Native Foreigners"
Explaining Xenophobia in Post-apartheid South Africa (2010) - T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting Frantz Fanon: Conflicts and Feminisms (1999)
- Ato Sekyi-Otu Fanon’s Dialectic of Experience (1996)
Recommended Reading
- Steve Biko I Write What I Like (1978)
- Hussein Abdilahi Bulhan Frantz Fanon And The Psychology Of Oppression (1985)
- Patrick Ehlen Frantz Fanon a Spiritual Biography (2000)
- Aimé Césaire Notebook of a Return to my Native Land (1939)
- Aimé Césaire Discourse on Colonialism (1955)
- Frantz Fanon A Dying Colonialism (1959)
- Frantz Fanon Towards the African Revolution (1969)
- Paulo Freire Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1968)
- Irene Gendzier Frantz Fanon: A Critical Study (1974)
- Nigel Gibson (ed). Rethinking Fanon: The Continuing Legacy (1999)
- Nigel Gibson Frantz Fanon: The Post-Colonial Imagination (2003)
- Nigel Gibson (ed.) Living Fanon (2011)
- Lewis Gordon Bad Faith and Antiblack Racism (1995)
- Lewis Gordon (ed. with T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting and Renée T. White) Fanon: A Critical Reader (1996)
- Lewis Gordon (ed.) Existence in Black: An Anthology of Black Existential Philosophy (1997)
- Lewis Gordon Existentia Africana: Understanding Africana Existential Thought (2000)
- Paget Henry Caliban’s Reason: Introducing Afro-Caribbean Philosophy (2000)
- George Jackson Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson (1970)
- Moeletsi Mbeki Architects of Poverty (2009)
- Kristin Ross Fast Cars, Clean Bodies: Decolonization and the Reordering of French Culture (1995)
- Kristin Ross May ’68 and its Afterlives (2002)
- James Yaki Sales Meditations on Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth (2010)
- Jean-Paul Sartre Being and Nothingness (1943)
- Jean-Paul Sartre Anti-Semite and Jew (1943)
