The goal
of this paper is to explore Frantz Fanon’s theory of mutation to track the
manner in which the psyche of a human has to change to such an extent that a
new meaning can be given. Though many Fanonian theorists have asserted that it
is necessary for us to explore Fanon’s writings through the geographically
space of right now, this paper will rather explain a principle of his thought
in order to take it one step further and use it in the present. The necessity
of radical mutation is crucial in order to entirely de-colonialize and for a
human society to exist alongside symbols and equal opportunities for all,
despite ontological and epistemological difference.
Fanon
sees the colonial world as Manichean, a system of violence premised on false
categories of good and evil, light and dark. Though this Manichean world is
fictional one and reality cannot have categories so definitely separate it is a
very powerful force which legitimises the heart of colonialism. Fanon uses his
theory of mutation as that which transcends Manichean categories, through a dialectic
progression achieved through daily reality. Initially in Black Skins, White Masks Fanon uses mutation negatively to
describe the change which the Black person undergoes when he leaves France, or
another ‘civilised’ nation, and returns to their homeland having mutated into a
superior way of being. This negative mutation is evident through the bourgeoisie elite which take over after
colonisation and is intrinsically linked to the desire of being associated with
that which is measured superior. He then uses the idea mutation in A Dying
colonialism as the process of radical change in attitude towards the
creation of something new- not out of nothing but rather out of the dialectical
relation between colonized and colonizer and all associated symbols.
Subsequently through the process of decolonization, the colonial ‘truths’ are
brought under scrutiny and the change which occurs is represented through
mutation. Fanon explains the process of mutation through a dialectic
relationship between the two categories. Through this process the consciousness
of the people is so radically changed and Fanon describes this change as a
mutation.
The
following fundamentally draws on Fanon’s three books[1] but the thorough
investigations of Ato Sekyi-Otu (1996) and Nigel Gibson (2003 and 2011) offer
assiduous insight of these texts and will therefore be referred throughout the
following.
Manichean Binaries:
Central to Fanonian thought, and resonate throughout his work, is
his vigorous postulation that “[t]he colonial world is a Manichean world” (Fanon,
1963: 41). He explores the Manichean binaries in Black Skins White Masks, in his phenomenological reconnoitre of the
lived experience of being black in a white world. The very nature of this
experience draws on the vehement belief that racial “white and black
[categories] represent the two poles of a world, two poles in perpetual conflict”
(1986: 31). Asserting that the fundamental building block of a racist society
and a person’s position within society is a result of person either being Black
or White and these categories exist in opposition and conflict to each other (1986:
31).
Manichean logic draws on the religious association of light being
good and dark being bad. Racist driven colonialism is legitimised by the
abstract supposition that White is good, pure, virtuous, and beautiful and
stands in direct contrast to Black which is bad, evil, contaminated, irrational
and bad. There is a polarization of spaces which confines Blackness
geographically and psychologically to a sphere set in complete opposition from
all that is white. Fanon (1963: 51) describes the power of Manichean logic
entirely interconnected into the colonial system by stating that “[t]he
immobility to which the native is condemned can only be called in question if
the native decides to put an end to the history of colonization—the history of
pillage— and to bring into existence the history of the nation—the history of
decolonization”. It becomes evident that in order to ever transcend beyond Manichean
absolutes it is necessary to eradicate the entire system which it not only
legitimises but also dominates.
Manichean lucidity in its compartments and essentialist nature
defines groups of people as wholes restricting the possibilities for difference
or transcendence beyond the binary of good and bad or Black or White. It is an
entirely abstract notion which is presented as an absolute, a truth imbedded in
religion making very little room for it to be negotiated[2]. Yet
this abstract belief presented as a theological concept has very physical and
tangible consequences on world which it dictates. The very notion of this
binary premised by a good and evil but brought into the daily lives humans
through skin colour. Race embodies Manichean logic into daily reality through
the inability of a person to escape their skin colour. The visibility of race
and its deciding factor being skin makes the inferiority of being darker an
intrinsic part of everyday banal activity, emphasised when brought into
relation with the alternate dichotomy-the white world.
Though geographically the native or black person is restricted to
spaces “with the help of the army and the police force” through direct
threatening violence, the Black person is portrayed as consummately as the
“quintessence of evil” and “insensible to ethics” representing “not only the
absence of values, but also the negation of values”(1963: 41). Fanon elegiacally
describes the extent to which the Black person is associated with evil by
stating that they are
The enemy of values, and in
this sense he is the absolute evil. He is the corrosive element, destroying all
that comes near him; he is the deforming element, disfiguring all that has to
do with beauty or morality; he is the depository of maleficent powers, the
unconscious and irretrievable instrument of blind forces (1963: 41).
The above quotation draws on the totalising nature of Manichean
driven colonialism. There is the subtly suggestion that the power of this evil
is so strong it may be contagious and consequently the separation of the races
is further reinforced. Subsequently all who are Black become the scapegoat for
white society. A society driven by “myths of progress, civilization, liberalism, education, enlightenment, [and]
refinement” (1986: 15).
The abstract religious association of light white and good is an
entire social construct which is learned but also embodied by the real and
visible nature of Race. Whereas it is not automatic to associate colour with
human nature the social learning nature of humans will immediately yet militant
postulation that what all that is black is evil becomes intrinsically embedded
into children until it is the reality of all of them. Exploring the lived
experience of a Black person in White world in Black Skins White Masks Fanon recalls the bodily consequence of
colonial racist subjugation. The development of an inferiority complex which
derives from the confining hypothesis associated with darker skin.
In Fanon’s chapter “The
Fact of Blackness” he explores the inescapable reality of being black and that
skin colour would entirely dominate social interaction wholly apart
capabilities and actual humanity. Which
reaffirms the fundamental separation of the dividing line and the essential law
dominated by “[t]he first thing the native learns is to stay in his place, and
not go beyond certain limits” (1986:40). Yet in spaces of mixed race Fanon
recalls a child pointing at him and crying “Mama, see the Negro! I’m
frightened!” (1986: 184). A different truth dictates that there is no reason to
be frightened of another human who his merely of a darker skin tone but the
repetitive and absolutist notion that black is evil leads to this automatic,
yet entirely constructed, fear trigged by the sight of brown flesh. In
describing the inescapability of Whiteness through the lived experience of
being black Fanon lyrically “all around me the white man, above the sky tears
at its navel, the earth rasps under my feet and there is a white song, a white
song. All this whiteness that burns me…” (1986: 86). The all-encompassing
awareness race superiority and inferiority results in this Manichean relation
being continuously reaffirmed and reinstated through the very visible nature of
race association with skin colour.
In challenge to the very real consequences of basing a society in
Manichean way, is that those who challenge it do not do so in a rational
manner. The person who is colonized is always “acts as a reaction” to colonial
system forced on them (Fanon, 1986: 23). Thus in an attempt to overcome the way
of being a Black or colonized person either attempts to become more White or alternatively
rejects all that which is White or associated with the oppressor. In both
instances the core problem the structure of society is not overcome but
maintained.
The automatic fear associated with Fanon for the mere colour of
skin ignites a rage which is experienced by all those subjugated by colonial
and racist prejudices. Inevitably there is a very real possibility for the
anti-colonial and anti-racist movements to be Manichean in nature. Through
the realisation experienced in the
consciousness of the Black person that white is not better there is nothing a
white person can do that a black person cannot therefore Manichean logic is
unsubstantiated. Thus initially there is a desire to be more White to speak the
language to live the civilized life and this is evident through the many people
who adopt a more white way of being. To bleach their minds, speak the civilised
language to associate them with all that which belongs to the dominant culture
(1986: 31). The superiority associated with being white leads to those who feel
inferior at every turn in every social interaction to desire that superior and
seek human recognition by associating selves with all that which is white.
Build on the belief that if the Black person is capable of being White then they
will gain human recognition. The false fabrication of Manichaeism is instigated
by the white colonial world, but that very way of being is desired by those who
are not recognised and considered less than human.
The alternate form of resistance is to entirely reject all that
which is associated with the colonized the oppressor, to group every person
belonging with White binary of Manichean logic, who are portrayed as the pinnacle
of goodness and disallow any integration and all influence. To reject technology,
medicine, language and way of being and to revive and reinforce culture and
concepts entirely disassociated from the oppressor[3].
In both forms of rejection the dualist nature of Manichean logic
is affirmed. To discover that the good people are not on one side and the bad
people are on the other, results in stomach-turning realisation that things are
more convoluted (Sekyi-Otu, 1996: 114). This realization is bewildering as
people become aware of the complexities involved in making a new society based
on freedom for all. The realisation includes “not[ing] that certain settlers do
not join in the general guilty hysteria; there are differences in the same
species (Fanon, 1963: 144). Skeyi-Otu (1996: 115) describes this process exquisitely
by stating that “the rigid simplicities and obscuring transparency of race
relations and the “dividing line” have now been cruelly displaced”. Manichean
orientations of the world and people inhibiting are exposed in their primitive
nature, and the “[t]he racial and racist standard of judgment is transcended in
both sense” (Fanon, 1963: 146 retranslated by Sekyi-Otu,1996: 115).
In form of a conclusion to Black
Skins White Masks Fanon expresses his innate desire for all of humanity to
transcend Manichaeism and create a society whereby every human is recognised
with him through, “the open door of every consciousness” (Fanon, 1986: 181).
Which is to say that every human exists beyond the compartment which they have
been restricted and confined in and is instead recognised in their humanness.
In Dying Colonialism and The Wretched of the Earth Fanon explores
the emancipatory possibilities which can be achieved through a dialectic
relation with reality in an attempt to create new truths, away from those
driven by Manichean totality and instead based on the humanity of every single
person.
Though the powerful nature of Manichean logic has driven the
powerful parasitic nature of colonialism, Fanon (1963, 1965, 1987) asserts that
in order to create a new society he claims that it is necessary for us to start
anew developing new truths and perceptions of reality that are continuously
negotiated and reflected upon. In order to this it is necessary to transgress
Manichean categories and through what I will call dialectic enlightenment, to
produce new truths a meanings for what exists. This dialectic focuses on the
individuality of humans as does not confine them to belonging to any category
but rather recognises the open door of every consciousness and readdresses
symbols belonging to any given item or utility. The following will explore the
manner Fanon’s original concept of the dialectal creation of the new.
Dialectical Enlightenment:
Beyond
Manichaenism:
Fanon
uses the dialectic principles from Hegelian and Marxist thought in order to
explain the necessary process which will enable the rigidity of Manichean
racist thought to be overcome (Bhabha, in Fanon, 1986: xxiii). This is the
process whereby race losses its power and fundamental base of society transforms
and alternate indicators underlying “the metaphysics of good and evil” are
formulated away from racial indicators (Sekyi-Otu, 1996: 116). Sekyi-Otu quotes
Hegel who states that “the battle of reason is the struggle to break up rigidity
to which the understanding has reduced everything” (1996: 115). Which leads us
to a dialectic process which comes about through the rigorous destruction of
all that is absolute and confining especially the manner in which racist
incentives infiltrate into every aspect of reality.
Fanon’s
dialectic draws on experience it is not neat and theoretically mapped out but
rather an actional process whereby
new meaning is created through collective acknowledgement of what is worthy is
formulated into existence through praxis. For Fanon truth and reality is not
formulated in absolutes or definite situations but are rather circumstantial
and need to be continuously questioned. Gibson (2003: 30) declares the Fanonian
dialectic ‘untidy’ because his postulation that the process of defining new
concepts should exist within reality, a space which cannot be neat.
Fanon
further asserts that “[t]his new reality which the colonized will now come to
know exists only in action. It is the struggle which by exploding the old
colonial reality reveals unknown facets, brings out new meanings and pinpoints
contradiction camouflaged by that [colonial] reality” (1963: 147). They are not
entirely new formulations and meanings but echo the very real nature of what
once was- the old reality. The very nature of racist colonialism has
infiltrated into the reality of daily existence to omit or forget about it
would be not only be an impossibility but it would also be impertinent to the
violence experienced by the oppressed and marginalised. Consequently Fanon asserts
that a change must occur, the starting point being entirely unrecognisable by
the end.
Loyal
to Hegel, Fanon promotes the use of contradictory forces in order to develop a
new truth. Through the acknowledgement of the colonial society and all that may
be useful about it stands in contrast to the desire to entirely eradicate
colonialism and the oppression of people. The best example of this is the
intellectual who has been educated solely because of the colonial regime but
uses what was taught to him or her in order to improve discussion and alternate
was of irradiating colonialism (1963: 46-47). The discourse of race governing
life is the initial point for societies to expose the truths which colonialism
represses or mask developing new truths through collective action and
discussion, these truths will continue to be renegotiated in different spaces
and social times. Sekyi-Otu (1996: 119) reiterates this by proclaiming that any
symbolic meaning attached to social practices when revived pertains to that
singular circumstance. The process aims to entirely reconstruct reality, and to
ensure that resistance does not in any way uphold Manichean tendencies.
Fanon’s
dialectic process is a crucial part of decolonisation and early development. It
essentially draws on the critical judgment of all that which is presented as
absolute (Seky-Otu, 1996: 112). The untidy nature of Fanon’s dialectic exits in
the conversation and the development of new concepts through the struggle. I
find it simple to look at Fanonian thought and theory to be an encouragement to
question as opposed to a step by step guide to decolonisation or creation of a
world based on recognition of every persons humanity. What works in one
revolution may not work in another however similar the goals may be. The
crucial factor which he does encourage is the involvement of the people from
below to work out new ideas and create a fundamental change. A change which will result “with a call for
the interweaving of “political; and social consciousness” into the fabric of a
new “humanism” (WE 204 in
Sekyi-Otu, 118). The continuous involvement of the people from the grassroots
from the bottom serves as a critical assessment of any elite form, in that they
need to continuously need to check that they are representing the people and do
not evolve into self-serving power hungry individuals completely detached from
the original liberatory goals.
Self-Acknowledgement:
The
importance of self-acknowledgment or retreat into the individual consciousness
becomes important in order to avoid any motionless dialectic. Gibson (2003: 75)
quotes Hegel who states that the submissive consciousness is a “consciousness
forced back into itself and be transformed into a truly independent
consciousness”. Fanon sees Black Consciousness, particular
self-acknowledgement, as a necessary part of the dialectic process, as it
enables the person who is continuously deemed inferior to regain personal value
in their very being (1986: 134). The lived reality of being Black is that one
is only Black in relation to White, one can only be recognised as a human in
relation to their race through the recognition of others- particularly the
superior race (1986: 82-83). Fanon is critical of Hegel in his slave/master
dialect as the recognition in which Hegel refers to relies on the admittance of
the Black person’s humanity through language (Fanon, 1986: 101-102 and Gibson,
2003: 29-35). However, Fanon asserts that the language whereby a conversation
of recognition will occur will always be the language of the superior never the
creole or multiple native languages. Subsequently the Black person is stripped
of their being as they as there is a necessity to be more White in order to be
more human (1986: 44). Thus Fanon (1966: 169) condones the Black conscious as a
“quest of absoluteness”, the recognition of self without adhering to rules
stipulated by Manichean logic on what it means to be white.
Fanon’s
assertion that self-acknowledgement is a crucial part of the decolonisation
overrides the risk of the new concepts being defined being dominated by
colonial and western effects. He makes this explicit in is chapter on the “fact
of blackness”, by stating:
The dialectic that brings necessity into the foundation of
my freedom drives me out of myself. It shatters my unreflected position. Still
in terms of consciousness, black consciousness is immanent in its own eyes. I
am not a potentiality of something, I am wholly what I am. I do not have to
look for the universal. No probability has any place inside me. My Negro
consciousness does not hold itself out as a lack. It is its own follower. (1986:
103).
Through
the above quotation Fanon also touches on the importance of specificity and the
fact that Manichean racist logic restricts all people to belonging to
absolutes, whereas within both categories there needs to be space for there to
be diversity of selves. Furthermore the retreat to the self creates space for
process to freedom to begin with self-value, not recognition in relation to any
other group of people[4]. Thus he promotes Hegel’s
use of the negative, but vehemently asserts that the retreat into the negative
exists in absoluteness and restoration self-value. Perhaps it is important to
note that the retreat back into the self is a sense a Manichean reaction to
colonial thought as it focuses on the Blacking being separate from all that
which is White (Gibson, 2003: 30). This regression to self-certainty is a
process of obtaining freedom apart from anyway formulated by the dominating
civilising cultures (Gibson, 2003: 31).
The
essential goal of this process is to formulate a synthesis of both worlds and
contradictory truths. A synthesis between opposing worlds is not an easy possibility
and needs to occur in reality in order for the development to have actual
effect on the lives of the oppressed. Fanon claims that this synthesis is a
possibility through a radical mutation. His theory of radical mutation takes
the dialect a step further and goes “beyond life towards a supreme good that is
the transformation of subjective certainty of my own worth into a universally
valid objective truth” (1986: 218).
Negative Mutation:
“Out of the blackest
part of my soul, across the zebra striping of my mind, surges this desire to be
suddenly white” (Fanon, 1986:45).
Black Skins, White Masks,
directly explores the lived experience of being black in white world and how
this seeming leads to a seemingly innate desire to be more White. Fanon draws
on his personal experience of being Black in France, the Motherland and the
manner in which he personally had to confront the fact that his skin colour
meant he was entirely exempt from reason and was automatically deemed less than
human. In is phenomenological exploration of the Black person’s experience he
also bears witness to many other Black people in similar situation.
The
idea of mutation makes its first appearance when Fanon proclaims that “[t]he
Black man who has live in France for a length of time returns radically
changed. To express it in genetic terms, his phenotype undergoes a definite and
absolute mutation” (1986: 10). I initially understood this to be related to the
inevitable change a person experiences when living away from home and in
contact with an alternate way of life they will inevitably return changed.
Though there is an element of truth in my initial response the change in which
Fanon is drawing on is blatantly, if not ferociously, is explained in his
footnote where he simply states that “Negroes who return to their original
environments convey the impression that they have completed full of themselves
something that was lacking. They return
literally full of themselves” (1987: 10, my emphasis).
Fanon
points to the manner that the returning native associates themselves with all
that which is considered superior. In Martinique, for example, France is seen
as the Mother land or the Tabernacle, thus when the Black person returns to
their home land they associate themselves with the opera, even if they have
never seen it, and talk only in French forgetting about the creole or original
language which occupied their way of being before contact with the superior
land (1987: 13). According to Fanon the process of mutation begins to happen
before the journey to France even begins, claiming, that whilst waiting on the
dock “the amputation of his being diminishes as the silhouette of the ship
grows clearer” (1987: 13). All association with that which is superior is part
of the performance of being superior. Yet for a White person superiority is
immediately given at birth it is never earned but is merely automatic. For a
Black person the inferiority of black is so intrinsic that it becomes necessary
to prove themselves before they are able to be acknowledged never mind treated
in a superior manner. To a large extent then to prove that one is able to be
superior in accordance to White existence similarly to a white person, through
language, clothes or culture, is the process of the poles coming into direct
contact with each other. The mutation in this instance is the Black person
changing their old way of being and existing to being more White. It is not a
complete transformation but rather an amalgamation of a Black person adopting a
White way of being but still being that Black person.
The
use of the word mutation draws on genetic terminology in order to emphasise the
extensive alteration and change which occurs. The fact that the contact with
France results in a fundamental change in the phenotype of all those who return
to their homeland is not the important element of the negative conception of
mutation. For Fanon the element of importance lies in the reasons why such solid
and radical changes seem to inevitably occur. In his contemplation of the
change Fanon notes that the change is independent of any “thematic pattern” and
the persons “structure changes independently of any reflexive process” (1986: 12).
This seemingly implies that the change is automatic there is an intrinsic
desire to associate one’s self with a more superior way of being. This
superiority is not one which can be compared to royalty and commoners or a
manager and worker, rather, white superiority is the recognition of being
human. Subsequently a Black person is not only inferior but they are less than
human (1986: 90).
The
mutation is able to occur because the black person transcends out of the
homeland where they are the native and into the space where the colonizers come
from. The transgression of the physical confinement of Manichean racism enables
the psyche to change in the most fundamental way. As previously stipulated Manichaeism
is the polarisation of Black and White on a physical and psychological level.
Consequently when a Black person leaves the confinement of their assigned
geographical location the possibility for transcending the psychological
confinement loses its rigidity. The identity of the travelled person is
mutated, through the interaction with a space which has yet to be encountered,
stepping out of social norms into a world which may not be better but
represents all that is good.
A
similar mutation occurs in the native elite who develops as a consequence of
colonial rule as part of the process of totalitarian imperialism. Fanon
explains the initial mutation of the bourgeoisie elite is create directly and
intentionally. By stating that:
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
(1963: 7).
Does
not depict the extent to which the created elite is mutated. Yet the very fact
that they were chosen to be changed and the fact that they still echo the
fundamental essence of who they once were, suggests a mutation similar to the
one experienced by the returning native. The bourgeoisie class is created from
this building block but remains part of the decolonization process all the way
through. The promising individuals who
are picked to be transformed keep a dialogue throughout the decolonization
process and therefore the dominating presence of the oppressor remains (1963:
43).
Sekyi-Otu
(1996: 124) draws on Gramsci to explain the manner in which the bourgeoisie
regain power through the decolonisation process and into independence. He
proclaims that the on independences all that which is “universal becomes the
index of … adequacy and authenticity”. Which is to say that the once colonised
country is proved adequate if it measures up to universal standards. Fanon
stipulates that on independence “the middle class has neither sufficient
material nor intellectual resources to live up to this universal standard” (1963:
152). Consequently “[t]he national bourgeoisie steps into the shoes of the
former European settlement: doctors, barristers, traders, commercial travelers,
general agents, and transport agents” (1963: 152). The similarity between the
formation of this bourgeoisie and the mutation experienced by returning native
is blatant. Both desire the superior status associated with being White or the
colonizer and the manner in which perform this is by adopting a way of being
disassociated with the lifestyle which represents their inferiority or reduced
humanity.
Negative
mutation occurs as the desire to be associated with a superior existence
results in the dismissal of an alternate way of being. This association becomes
a manner of mimicking a lifestyle which is disassociated with ones origins.
However the visible nature of race results in the fact that this mimicry of
such lifestyle will never be an complete transformation. The very element which
deems a person to inferior human status is embodied in their skin. Thus no
matter the car one drives or the dialect one speaks the alteration in the mind
will only serve as a mutation. The following will explore Fanon’s radical
mutation theory as it apprears in A Dying
Colonialism. His use of mutation and in the context of the Algerian
revolution represents the fundamental change which occurs in the psyche of the
oppressed as a necessary process to true liberation.
Radical Mutation:
Let us decide not to
imitate Europe; let us combine our muscles and our brains in a new direction.
Let us try to create the whole man, whom Europe has been incapable of bringing
to triumphant birth (Fanon, 1963: 315)
The
crux of Fanon’s concept of mutation changes drastically in direction, A Dying Colonialism. The world comes to
represent the fundamental change which occurs through the actional process of
decolonisation, or rather the praxis of the revolution. This process involves
the direct engagement with Fanon’s dialectic and the desire to work out new
truths completely disassociated from initial thought. Nigel Gibson to a large
extent has explored what he terms Fanon’s Radical Mutation theory especially
with regard to the radio and the veil. Expanding from Gibson’s engagement with
the mutation theory I will explore the manner the intricacies and necessity of
mutation in the manner in which it underscores the quintessence of Fanon’s new
humanism which transcends Manichean binaries.
Sekyi-Otu
pronounces “A Dying Colonialism [to
be] a visionary narrative of the "radical mutations" that bring into
being a free postcolonial subject” (1996: 185). Which summaries Fanon’s
postulation that the pages of his revolution narrative explore the
“transformations the consciousness of the Algerian has undergone” subsequently
representing the supposition that “the power of the Algerian revolution resides
in the radical mutation that the Algerian has undergone” (1965: 37). The
evidence of this mutation is made explicit through the utility of the Radio and
the transformation of a women’s role in the society.
A driving voice of mutation:
In
initial resistance to colonialism the radio represented a utility used by the
coloniser, embodying the French language but also the French culture. However,
the fluidity induced by revolutionary action resulted in the radio becoming a
crucial means of irradiating colonial oppression. The role of the radio in the
revolution of Algeria represents a step beyond the mutation previously
discussed. The step beyond exits in the dialectical process where the use of a
colonial utility extends beyond mimicry of alternate way of being and is
mutated into represented something entirely different.
In
accordance to on form of Manichean resistance families who had the
socio-economic ability to purchase a radio did not, because it represented the
very essence of French elitist superiority, domination and culture (1965: 70).
Fanon affirms that “there was no rational decision to refuse this instrument”,
yet the irrationality governed the decision in reality (1965: 69).The radio in
the Algerian revolution works similarly to literacy in Cuba and transmitter
radio’s in Bolivia, (1965: 07) and instead of being a symbol which represents
colonial domination instead becomes a means to over throwing that very system.
The
radio became an instrument to over throw colonial domination completely
distinctive from military equipment and strategies. In contrast to firearms the
radio seems relatively harmless. Yet the power of the device existed not in brute
strength but rather in the manner which it unified those against colonialism
entirely separate from the binaries stipulated by Manichean thought. Fanon makes this transformation explicit by
stating that “[s]ince 1956 the purchase of a radio in Algeria” has become to
represent “the only means of entering communication with Revolution, of living
with it” (1965: 83).
The
radio became the means for the military aspect of the revolution to communicate
with the masses – to directly involve them in the conflict. The involvement of
the masses through the use of the Radio relied on heavily on imagination and
the collective translation of static sounds when Radio signal was not possible
or interrupted. Gibson (2003: 128)
asserts that the imaginative process was provoked the discussion the static
from the radio induced. The discussion not only included the masses in the
revolution forcing military action to become politicised and accountable to the
people, but also begin the formation of the new nation. Gibson (2003: 128)
notes, that during a revolution usually a small amount of people have access to
military action. By listening to the Radio the action of the military does not
become common knowledge but the discussion encouraged by the static actively
listened to invoked imagination that would not only formulate “only words, but
concrete battles” (1965: 88).
When
the voice of the radio was heard it was in French the language entirely
associated with colonial domination. Yet the collective unity induced by
collectively listening resulted in the “language of the occupier assum[ing] a
friendly character of support, of protection” (1965: 90). The adoption of the
colonised language in the Algerian revolution is different from the returning
native who ‘forgets’ creole and only speaks French. This difference lies in the
fact that the French voice heard on the radio is adopted as the power to be involved
in the revolution takes over at a very fundamental level. It is entirely
separate from the desire to be associated with superiority but rather rests in
the desire to create a new reality. Not only did the French language transform
from the voice of the occupier to the voice which indirectly involved the
masses in the revolution but the collective nature of listening to the radio
and the discussions which followed significantly contributed to the development
of a new national consciousness (Gibson, 2003: 168).
Placing
the negotiating of the new national consciousness in the hands of the people
decentralizes the process. Consequently the construction of reality depends on
and directly involves the masses (Fanon, 1965: 197). In the Wretched of the Earth Fanon appeals to
the people to realise that “there is no famous man who will take the
responsibility for everything, but that the demiurge is the people themselves
and the magic hands are finally only the hands of the people” (1965: 197). The
renegotiation of reality from bellow is a reality which has never been a
possibility due to parasitic nature of colonialism, infiltrating into all space
and modes of being. The radio enables the people to take the revolution into
their own hands, and come to the realisation that the reality is dependent on
them. This realisation brings Manichean reality into dialectic progression
through action enabling new truths to emerge. The crucial element of this
mutation is the fact that the radio existing one as a symbol of an oppressive
culture is transformed into a means of eradicating the very institution which
it once symbolised. The irrational symbolism of Manichean reality is eradicated
as a new story is told (Sekyi-Otu, 1996). Furthermore, this transformation was
not negotiated or enforced from above but conceived of through the reality of
the revolution. This reality is made possible is directly a consequence of the
people’s action and participation.
The
power of the revolution therefore does not lie in the violence inflicted on the
oppressor. Rather, the power lies in the manner in which the space creates room
for a new culture to emerge. Gibson (2003: 128) claims that the power of the
revolution sets the stage for “the radical mutation of consciousness” and
subsequent development of genuine national consciousness”. The mutation invoked
by the Radio negotiates a new political space where the ordinary masses are
actively involved, through the collective interpretation of the voice heard. The
Radio becomes the instrument containing the voice which provokes the mutation
and subsequent emergence of national consciousness. Fanon discusses the
Algerian response to western medicine and the change in family structure as a
means to measure mutation. The following will explore the manner in which
family structures are mutated as women become active agents in the revolution
and surpass their usual gender role stipulated by Arab culture and the
incorporation of western medicine as a viable way of healing.
Indicators of Mutation:
Arab
culture customarily dictates that a women’s role is confined to the private
realm, where she is subservient to either her husband or her parents. Fanon
goes so far as to say that women feel heightened oppression by men in the
colonial contexts as the men grasp onto ways which they can retain a level of
authority. However the atmosphere of a revolutionary creates a space for the
reality of women to be altered, as daily absolutes brought into question.
The
mutation of women’s role is directly indicated through the use of her veil to
hide weapons in revolutionary combat. Manichean resistance to colonialism
perceives the veil as means to assert cultural value. The wearing of the veil
is promoted as a means to resist colonial tendencies to dictate the appropriate
way of life for colonized societies. More specifically, the colonial tendency
to vehemently dictate that the veil is a primitive means to imprison women and
should be done away with (Fanon, 1965: 63). The dismissal of any aspect of
Algerian culture exists as a measure of colonial domination and disregard for
any form diversity. Thus the wearing of the veil represented resistance to
further colonial subversion and as a means to assert value independent of
colonial culture and a means to prevent the imperial cultural tendencies of the
occupier to entirely take over.
Though
many Algerian women had stopped wearing the veil by the time of the
revolution, as women are called to the
forefront of revolutionary battle and in the process are re-veiled. The use of
the veil transforms to meet the needs of the revolution. It becomes a means for
women to hide their involvement by concealing weapons which will aid the
revolution. A traditional symbol negotiating gender relations is transformed
into actively contributing to the liberation struggle. The veil indicates the
mutated consciousness of the Algerian people through women process whereby
women became active and independent agents. This mutation is made possible
through the revolution as Fanon stipulates that the liberation process “sets
culture moving and opens to it the doors of creation” (1963: 243).
The
veil which once concealed women making Algerian society seem somewhat womanless
becomes the mechanism to assert a very real presence of women. Transcending
Manichean resistance the courageous women send the colonisers into confusion as
the radical mutation exists entirely in contrast to what was always perceived
(1965: 67). To revert back to Fanon’s untidy dialect this process directly transforms
the initial aspect and the women is entirely unrecognisable through dialectical
progression. Though the revolutionary sphere may conceal this transformation as
unconscious the confusion of the occupier indicates the extent of the
change.
The
new role of the veil indicates the extent of the radical mutation in the social
relations and family structures which negotiated the daily way of being. The
veil enables the Algerian women to emerge “into the agitated area of history”, negotiated
that her “father to undergo a kind of mutation” (1965: 109). This mutation
became necessary as the reality of the militant women “in adopting new patterns
of conduct, could not be judged by traditional standards” (1965: 110). Though
the cultural aspects related to gender roles mutated in the very real sense,
this mutation occurred in terms stipulated by the Algerian themselves. There
was no external force, who self-appointed their way of being as better and dictated
these assumptions onto the native group. Rather a very real engagement with the
present situation stipulated the mutation of traditional values and relations
dictated on their own terms, to represent what was really valued. Through this
process the Algerian women gain agency whilst the men are no longer perceived
as absolute authorities governed by fundamental value of authentic freedom.
Another
indicator of the mutation experienced during the Algerian revolution was the
change in attitude towards western medicine. Western medicine and experts are
rejected because admitting to their worth would be admitting to their being an
element of worth in the colonial regime (1965: 122). Furthermore doctors can
easily be categorised alongside trained professionals such as policemen who
directly inflict the violent and penetrative force of colonial rule. This is
especially due to the fact that colonial doctors misdiagnoses and maltreat
Native patients. In the process they reaffirm the belief that they are of
lesser human value (1965: 137). However the revolution resulted in many
injuries which could not be readily treated by traditional doctors.
Subsequently the revolutionary force incorporated doctors to assist with the
injuries gained in the struggle. As doctors are incorporated into the struggle
they are removed from the occupiers’ space. Though educated by the colonised
world they use their knowledge to assist the struggle attempting to over
through it, subsequently the confinement of Manicheans are bought into question
as the doctor aiding the revolution becomes to represent the mutation of
opposing forces.
Whilst
writing A Dying Colonialism Fanon
believed, at least to an extent, that the transformation of Algerian society
was irreversible. However, the radical mutations of the consciousness which
came about as a dialectic progression during the dynamic sphere of the
revolution did not last into post-colonial society. The following will briefly
explore the necessity of lasting mutation in order for a true human society to
ever exist.
Mutation of
politics into being the will of the people:
Though Fanon talks of the power of the
Algerian revolution resting in the radical mutation of the consciousness, the
real power of this theory rests in truths constructed to transcend beyond the
revolution and into the postcolonial society. The truths never being absolute
but rather continuously evolving through discussion produced and reiterated
through the politics of the people. In light of Algeria’s disappoint
independence Fanon explores the necessity of lasting mutation in The Wretched of the Earth. He states
that in the postcolonial society “finds itself in the hands of new managers;
but the fact is that everything needs to be reformed and everything thought out
anew” (1963: 100). The fight for independence created an atmosphere where
radically new possibilities and modes of being were easily cultivated. Away
from the heat of the battle it becomes easy to settle into an unquestioning way
of life- where reality is once again negotiated from above.
To encourage a politics of the people it
becomes very necessary to negotiated realities in “language
other than that of race and racial divide” (Sekyi-Otu, 1996: 111). However, as
the previously stipulated through the discussion on the mutated bourgeoisie
this language does not change the fundamental nature of society rather a divide
continues to exists but orientates itself around class difference and unequal
economic possibilities.
Thus
the necessity of mutation to have any real and lasting power rests in the
continuous practice of a progressive dialect orientated around all aspects of
society being involved in the political. According to Fanon this process will
occur “through the effort to recapture the self and to scrutinize the self; it
is through the lasting tension of their freedom that men [and women] will be
able to create the ideal conditions of existence for a human world” (Fanon, 1986:
181).
Conclusion:
By
outlining Fanon’s Manichean perception of racist colonial reality and his
dialectic process which enable the transcendence such polarization I have attempted
to lay the foundations which make his understanding of mutation possible. The
stagnant dialect which is evident through the negative mutation of the
returning native and new bourgeoisie do not create a create the possibility of
creating a society based on human prospect but rather reiterates a dividing
line of superiority and inferiority.
It
becomes clear that the radio transforms into a utility to create mutation, not
in the way certain colonial technologies are perceived but through the
collective manner the ordinary masses become involved in shaping society, encompassing
themselves in the politics of the revolution. Subsequently the role of the veil
and the incorporation of the Western medicine into the struggle come to
represent the ability of the “native” to “accept a compromise with colonialism,
but never a surrender of principle” (1963: 143). The principle which must never
surrender is the direct involvement of the people all decision making and the
basis of this decision making resting on a prospect which draws on the humanity
of every individual regardless of race, class or gender.
Bibliography:
Fanon, F., 1963, The Wretched of
the Earth, New York: Grove Press.
Fanon, F., 1987, Black Skins, White Mask, London: Pluto
Press.
Fanon, F. 1965, A Dying Colonialism, New York: Grove
Press.
Gibson, N., 2003, The Postcolonial Imagination, Oxford:
Polity Press.
Gibson, N. 2011, Fanonian
Practices in South Africa: From Steve Biko to
Abahali baseMjondolo, Scottsville South Africa: The University of
KwaZulu Natal Press.
Gordon, L. R. 2007, “Problematic People and Epistemic Decolinization:
Toward the Postcolonial in Africana Political Thought”, In: Postcolonialism and Political Thought,
Edited by Nalini Persram, United Kingdom: Lexington Books.
Sekyi-Otu, A., 1996, Fanon’s
Dialectic of Experience, Cambridge Massachusetts London England: Harvard
University Press.
[1] These being Black Skins,
White Masks (1986), originally published Peau noire, masques
blanes.(1952); A
Dying Colonialism (1965) originally
published as
Sociologie d~une
revolution
(1959). The
Wretched of the Earth (1963) originally published as and Les Damnes de la terre
(1961).
[2] Lewis Gordon explores the absolute nature of colonialism through
theodician logic. He asserts that the absolute nature of colonialism is similar
to explanations which tackle the existence of evil in a world alongside to an
all-powerful all good God. Both are maintained is through the standardized
response to opposing thought. For example, if one where to ask how God can be
all powerful and all good if evil exists in the world? For if God is all good
he would not want evil to exist and if he is all powerful he would be able to
destroy it. The question exposes a prominent irregularity within in theodician
logic. The authority of theodicy and the all-powerful and good god is
maintained by asserting that a) evil is a result of the freewill in which God
gave humanity, problematizing humanity not theodicy. Or b) God is all powerful
and subsequently knows better, and humans, who are far from omnipotent, cannot
question the existence of evil because God knows better. The same occurs with
any query into the fundamental nature of Manichean colonial racism.
[3] This form of resistance is evident throughout Fanon’s work but it
is very explicit in Dying Colonialism (1965) as he explores the Algerian
Revolution.
[4] Steve Biko extensively expands on the process of self-realisation
and value through his Black Consciousness movements. See Gibson’s Fanonian Practices in South Africa, for
a more extensive exploration.
