Samir Amin, Pambazuka
Fanon was a person with a wide-ranging mind, a bright man with great
qualities be it through the rationality of his ideas or for his courage
to tell the truth. Specialised in psychiatry, he possessed all what was
needed to be a very good psychiatrist. His publications, ‘Black Skin,
White Masks’ among others, dealing with the mental trauma of the
colonised patients of Algeria testify to the pertinence of his great
ideas. His book, ‘The Wretched of the Earth’ makes explicit his vision
of the revolution that need to take place to pull the human race out of
the barbarism of the capitalist system. And it is by virtue of this
great vision that he has won over the hearts and minds of all Africans
and Asian freedom lovers.
FANON, THE CARIBBEANS AND SLAVERY
Fanon was born in the Caribbean. The history of his people (the
indigenous population which has been exterminated by the French), of
slavery and of the indentured workers (brought in respectively from
Africa and India) and the subservient relationship of the colonised
Caribbeans by the French colonial masters trigerred his capacity to
think critically. The unique and very first social uprising that the
American continent has known until recently is that of the slaves of
Saint Domingue in Haiti who, by themselves, conquered their freedom.
This Saint Domingue revolution coincided with the French Revolution. The
radical faction of the French Revolution did spontaneously sympathise
with the slaves who snatched their freedom to become full fledged
citizens. But, of course, the colonial masters in power were not
agreeable to that. The defference of the French Revolution had as
consequence the reinstitution of slavery in the Caribbean which was once
more abolished by the Second Republic in 1948, without however doing
away with their status of colony until 1945, on which date came a new
chapter of their history.
What was being sought? A seemingly remote independence - or political
integration or the setting up of a ‘Real French Union’ - a multinational
state. The communist political parties of the Caribbeans and of Reunion
Island (Indian Ocean) fought for political integration and were, at the
end of the day, succesful. Today the outcome of this political choice
imposes itself : political integration has build up such a strong
economic and social dependency that makes it extremely difficult to even
imagine a shift from this integration movement towards real political
freedom. Paradoxically, it would appear that if today the Caribbeans and
Reunion Island are integral parts of France, this is an outcome of the
effort of the communists of France and of the latter’s colonies, crowned
with success. As for the Conservative parties who have traditionally
opposed political integration with equality of rights, who were former
supporters of slavery and, subsequently, of colonialism, they would not
have avoided that the fact that the movement leads here, in the British
Caribbeans and in Mauritius, to the claim for independence.
Of course, notwithstanding the profound changes brought in by the
departmentalisation implemented from 1945 onwards, the scars of the
aftermaths of both slavery and colonisation couldn’t be wiped off the
collective mind of the victimised peoples, and surely not from the
living conception of their identity, in their relationship with France.
‘Black Skin, White mask’ (published in 1952 when Fanon was aged 27
years) gives a very lucid insight of this experience of being black in
an anti-black society. The extraordinary approach to the issues dealt
with in this simultaneously searing and beautiful book gives a picture
of the oddness, beyond the common denominator – contrary to the
challenges faced by the black people of the United States those of the
British Caribbeans, Brazil, the blacks of Africa at large and
particularly those of South Africa. I would refer this difference to the
distinction I make between external and internal colonialism (‘From
capitalism to civilisation’, 2008, pages 145- 151).
FANON AND THE CHALLENGES OF TODAY’S CAPITALISM
The accumulation of wealth by some through the dispossession of others
has been ongoing throughout history. Fanon had fully understood that the
expansion of capitalism was founded on the dispossession of the peoples
of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbeans; that is of the big
majority of peoples of planet earth. The major victims bearing the brunt
of this expansion – ‘the wretched of the earth’ - were therefore these
peoples, called by the force of circumstances to legitimately and
perpetually surge against the world of imperialism order.
Historical capitalism founded on the conquest of the world by the
imperialist centres kills by its very nature the possibilities for the
societies living on the outskirts of the capitalism system which try to
‘catch up’ and, as is the case for the imperialist centres, to become
wealthy capitalist societies. The capitalist system as a way out for
these peoples is a dead-end one, an impediment. Therefore the
alternative is either socialism or barbarism. The widely prevailing
belief that as a prerequisite, going through a capitalist phase in the
form of an accumulation of wealth is necessary and is an absolute must
prior to a shift to socialism is unfounded, once the real challenges
that historical capitalism is are taken into consideration.
The conquest of the world by the Europeans constitutes an immeasurable
dispossession of the indigenous Indian Americans. The subsequent slave
trade taking over and exercised on a great part of Africa caused a
trauma constantly holding back the progress of the continent for half a
millenium. A similar phenomenon can be seen in South Africa, Zimbabwe,
Kenya, Algeria and in a more pronounced manner Australia and New
Zealand. This practice of accumulating wealth through the disposseion of
others is true for the state of Israel – now colonising. Not less
visible are the consequences of colonial exploitation of the peasantry
submissive to British India, Dutch India, the Philippines and Africa as
demonstrated by the widespread famines. The method was introduced by
the British in Ireland whose population at that time was equal to that
of the UK and which nowadays represents only one tenth, torn by
organised famine that Marx denounced.
This dispossession has not only destroyed the peasant population ; it
did devastate a great majority of indigenous peoples. It destroyed the
peoples’s industrial production (handicrafts and textiles), capacities
that made these parts of the world much more prosperous than Europe
itself : among others, China and India.
The 19th century marked the apogee of this globalised
capitalist/imperialist system to a point where, henceforth the expansion
of capitalism and its shadow, westernisation, made it impossible to
distinguish between the economic dimension of that conquest and its
cultural dimension, ‘eurocentrism’.
20TH CENTURY: FIRST WAVES OF SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONS AND AWAKENING OF THE SOUTH
The apogee of the system is short: barely one century. The 20th century
is that of the first series of uprisings conducted in the name of
socialism (Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba) and of the radicalisation of
the struggles of Asia, Africa and Latin America, their ambitions
expressed in the ‘project of Bandoung’ (1955-1981). Such concomitance is
not a stroke of luck. The worldwide spread of capitalism/imperialism
has been the biggest tragedy in human history for the concerned
peripheral people, thereby illustrating the destructive character of
accumulation of capital. The law of impoverishment formulated by Marx,
made real at the level of the system bringing along much more
destruction than the father of the socialist idea would have himself
imagined.
This chapter of history is now over. The peoples of the periphery do not
accept any more the fate that capitalism reserves for them. This
fundamental change of attitude is irreversible. This is the indication
that capitalism has entered into its declining phase. This, however,
does not prevent some persisting illusions: those pertaining to the idea
that some kind of reforms are possible to give capitalism a human face
(something that has never happened for the majority of people), a
possible catching up in the system, so cherished by the ruling class of
the emerging countries intoxicated by the apparent success of the
moment. These illusions seem to be diehards ones being due to the fact
that we are down in the dumps. The waves of the 20th century uprisings
have already ended but those of the 21 century’s new radicalism have not
yet affirmed themselves. And in the dark confusions of the transitions
some monsters are emerging, as Gramski wrote.
The governments and the peoples of Asia and of Africa proclaimed their
commitment to reconstruct a new world order on the basis of the
recognition of the rights of dominated nations. This ‘right to
development’ constituted the basis of globalisation of that time,
implemented in an agreed multipolar framework, imposed on an imperialism
compelled to adjust itself to the exigencies of the day. The Bandoung
era is that of the ‘African Renaissance’. It is not by mere coincidence
that African states are engaging in reform projects which impose
socialist values mainly because the freedom of the people at the
periphery should not necessarily match an anti socialism point of view.
No need to disparage the numerous attempt on the continent, as is doing
today: the abominable regime of Mobutu had, in only 30 years allowed the
formation in Congo of a capital of education 40 times higher than what
the Belgians had realised in 80 years. Whether it is liked or not, it is
a fact that the African states are builders of genuine nations. And it
is the ‘trans-ethnic’ option of its leaders that has encouraged this to
take shape. The ethnic failures are subsequent to and consequent upon
the exhaustion of the Bandoung model, resulting in the loss of
legitimacy of powers and recourse to fractions who use ethnicity to suit
their own personal interests. I refer here to my book ‘Ethnicity
storming Nations’.
Is it right to believe that the long decline of capitalism is synonymous
with a long positive transition to socialism? For this to be realised,
the 21st century should be consistent with the 20th century while
radicalising the objectives of the social transformation. This is
absolutely achievable but still the conditions have to be made clear.
Otherwise the long decline of capitalism is explained by the continuous
degradation of human civilisation. (Here I would refer to what I wrote
in that connection more than 20 years back: ‘Revolution or decadence?’
Nation and Class, Midnight 1979, pp 238-245).
The decline is neither a linear nor continuous process. It does not
exclude some upward movements, the counteraction of capital. Such is the
nature of things today. The 20th century constitutes a first chapter of
a long apprenticeship by the people, of the surpassing of capitalism
and of the invention of new forms of socialist experience (to quote
Domenico Losurdo, ‘Running away from history’, Delga 2007). With him I
do not analyse its development in terms of ‘failure’ (of socialism, of
national independence). Contrary to this, it is the success rather than
the failures of these first nationally popular movements that are the
basis of the problems of the contemporary world. An analysis of the
social contradictions specific to the respective systems, the groping
inherent to such first advancement, explain their lost of momentum and
their subsequent defeat, not failure. ( Samir Amin, ‘Beyond capitalism’,
PUF 2002, pp 11-19). It is therefore this loss of strength that has
created the conditions necessary to counteract the prevailing capital: a
new perillous transition of the 20th century liberations to those of
the 21st century.
Fanon’s political action lies wholly in this point in history,
Bandoung era (1955-1981) and that of the pioneering struggles for
victorious liberation. The choice he made to join the Algerian National
Liberation Front and other African liberation movements was one worthy
of a genuine revolutionary.
