New Preface to the Arabic translation of 'Fanon: The Postcolonial Imagination'

New Preface to the Arabic translation of Fanon: The Postcolonial Imagination

by Nigel Gibson

It is with great pleasure and a sense of great honor that I write this introduction to the Arabic translation of Fanon: A Postcolonial Imagination.  I am particularly indebted to Dr. Fayiz Suyyagh and all those associated with the Tarjuman Unit for this opportunity; I am also cognizant of the historic context of this translation, the massive and continuing revolts popularly known as the “Arab Spring” which have helped generate renewed interest in Frantz Fanon’s ideas.

‘A Little Feu de Joie’

by Adam Shatz, London Review of Books

• Days of God: The Revolution in Iran and Its Consequences by James Buchan
  John Murray, 482 pp, £25.00, November 2012, ISBN 978 1 84854 066 8

At the end of the Second World War, an anonymous pamphlet surfaced in the seminaries of Qom, the bastion of Shia learning. The Unveiling of Secrets accused Iran’s monarchy of treason: ‘In your European hats, you strolled the boulevards, ogling the naked girls, and thought yourselves fine fellows, unaware that foreigners were carting off the country’s patrimony and resources.’ Iran, it proposed, should be ruled by an assembly of religious jurists headed by a wise man. In such a state, there would be no need for elections or a parliament, or even a standing army: a religious militia (basij) would ensure obedience to the law.