by Ntombizikhona Valela
Alice Cherki's Frantz Fanon: A Portrait is a
biography on Frantz Fanon that focusses on his work as a psychiatrist, his
writing and his activism, and contribution to Algeria's independence. It also
documents Fanon's interest in Africa's independence and Africa's future going
forward.
This biography started off as quite challenging for me
because it is a departure from the conventional structure of biographies I have
read such as Xolela Mangcu's Biko: A Biography and Winnie Mandela: A
life by Anné Marié du Preez Bezdrop. Such biographies tend to go deep into
the personal life of the subject while Cherki's biography does not focus on
this with Cherki explaining that Fanon was a deeply private man. What I enjoy
about biographies is their ability to break down the larger-than-life image
that is associated with the subject of the biography to show a more human and
thus relatable character. This is something that I find ironic about this book
because Fanon's work was devoted to humanizing the oppressed people of the
colonized world, while not much about his personal life is revealed. On the other
side of the coin, though, I find that his concern for the colonized brought out
his humaneness. As I was reading this and comparing the biographies I have read
while also reflecting on the death of Nelson Mandela and the documentaries that
were broadcast on television during the days leading to his funeral, I found
that Alice Cherki writes so simply about Fanon revealing how ordinary he was.
The reason this struck me so much was because biographies of people like Winnie
Madikizela-Mandela, Steve Biko and Nelson Mandela create this idea that in
order to achieve something great or to be regarded as a revolutionary one ought
to be extraordinary from birth. For example Winnie Mandela: A life opens
with a tracing of Madikizela-Mandela's ancestry to the Mpondo royal family;
Mandela is known to be born out of Thembu royalty. There's this idea that is
created (whether deliberately or not, I do not know) that it takes some sort of
anointing to make history and I think this closes the space for participation
in revolution. However what I find in Cherki's book is that Fanon was an
ordinary man born from an ordinary family, yet became one of the greatest
thinkers of his generation. For me this book, in a way (whether intentional or
not) acted as a response to the way some biographers write and thus create the
impression that revolution, political thought and activism is reserved for the
chosen few.
I admit that prior to reading this book, I had not been
exposed to Fanon's work as a psychiatrist. I think this book succeeds in
detailing this aspect of his life which we see as having had a great influence
on his political work and vice versa. I
found it quite interesting how psychiatry and society are intimately linked.
The notion that the way we relate to people who are mentally ill is linked to
racism and classism is something that never occurred to me until I read this
book. When we think of mentally ill people as crazy we strip them of any chance
of ever leading lives that are the same as ours and we also elevate ourselves
from them and deny them of their humanity. It may as well be the same as
racism.
The most striking thing about Fanon is how connected he
was with the society in which he lived. There are many intellectuals and
political commentators who have a lot to say about society yet are out of touch
with realities of people on the ground. When Cherki talks about Fanon's
interest in Sub-Saharan Africa's independence she points out that Fanon focused
deeply on countries that he knew very well like Cameroon and so could make a
valid analysis as a result. His travels to other African countries also allowed
him to make an informed analysis of what Africa could look like after
independence from both a positive and negative angle hence he was able to warn
against neo-colonialism because of what he saw.
Many "Fanonians" enjoy quoting Fanon's interest
in violence. Prior to reading this book and his other work, what I gathered
from these people was that Fanon was pro-violence. Cherki exposes the fact that
violence was not something Fanon championed but saw as a necessary response in
certain situations. It reminded of an interview Nelson Mandela once gave in the
1960s where he says (and I am paraphrasing) that passive resistance cannot
continue to be a method that the ANC uses when the apartheid government
responds with violence. This made me understand what Fanon's thoughts were on
violence- that it is not an ideal method, but sometimes when people are pushed
into a corner there is no option but violence.
An exciting thing about this biography is that it is
written by a woman and I noticed that women had quite a significant role in
Fanon's life: There is his wife and his assistant who helped write Black
Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth. Whenever the life
of a great man is documented, women's roles are often relegated to that of the
mother, wife or mistress. It is very rarely the case that women have a role
outside of these categories. There is this sense of interdependence between
Fanon and the women in his life. He was not this man who existed outside the
existence of other men and especially other women. Although Cherki explains
that Fanon's writing on the role women played in Algeria's liberation war was
not published in his work, the fact that he acknowledged women was refreshing
to me.
I enjoyed how Cherki writes about Fanon in the context of
other great leaders and thinkers- the fact that he studied with people like
Senghor and the fact that he attended conferences for African intellectuals
reinforced this idea that Fanon was an ordinary man who just took the time to
look around him just like every other great individual that existed during this
time. I admit that he shines a little brighter than the others, but at the same
time his life inspires people to not isolate their work from their
responsibility to be active and concerned citizens.
References
Cherki, A., 2006, Fanon: A Portrait, New York:
Cornell University Press.
