Reflection on 'The Wretched of the Earth'

Kyla Hazell

The Wretched of the Earth raises the question of how a revolutionary moment can be sustained in order to bring about true decolonisation. A theme of Fanon’s throughout the three works we have studied is the change that emancipatory action renders in a human soul, but this final book seems to introduce the issue of how to sustain that transformation beyond the moment in which the flag of independence is raised. In this text, Fanon speaks to his concerns about the years which follow liberation. He describes post-colonial societies which remain subject to the former colonial powers’ economic interests (aligned with the interests of the national bourgeoisie), while their people are rapidly depoliticised and see little concrete change (Fanon, 1961: 65). This demobilisation can be seen as a massive part of the failure to continue transformative projects beyond the revolutionary moment because motion and action are fundamental for Fanon. In describing the Manichean world of colonial society, Fanon (1961: 51) explicitly uses the descriptors “motionless” and “static” to denote how a frozen social space is one which stagnates. In contrast, it is always the movement towards ideals and the active struggle that contains creative potential and brings about individual and collective change. This essay will read Wretched as a warning against the stagnation of society after liberation and argue that one of the messages Fanon is attempting to convey is that forward-motion after emancipation needs to take the form of innovative, critical thought to reconstruct the very values of society in an inclusive manner. In order to do this, political education and mobilisation must continue and people must be brought in to the political project of nation building as thinking contributors.

Response to 'A Dying Colonialism'

Kyla Hazell

It is essential, in reading A Dying Colonialism, to give serious consideration to Fanon’s purpose in writing the book. Argentinian journalist Adolfo Gilly’s introduction to the text is elucidating in this regard. He describes Fanon’s intention as being “to go to the essentials” and show the spirit of the struggle, the initiative and capacity of the Algerians, and the extent of their commitment to liberation – a commitment which carries them even to the point of altering their own modes of existence where it is found that those do not accord with the fight for freedom (Fanon, 1959: 2). By discussing the wearing of the veil, the rejection of transistor radios, and the distrust of Western medicine (Fanon, 1959: 121), Fanon demonstrates more than simply the rational inner dialogue of a colonially objectified and oppressed people, but also a deep commitment to action and, most significantly, a message of inevitability: to France, he says that the Revolution is already won. This short essay will discuss Fanon’s project with reference to Italian philosopher Antonio Gramsci’s notion of hegemony and the role it plays in revolutionary struggle. Though the fact of direct coercive rule by the colonial power may seem to exclude notions of hegemony, it will be argued that A Dying Colonialism validates Gramsci’s argument about the role of hegemony in revolutionary struggles and that the underlying thread of Gramscian thought throughout the book might have affected its receipt in France, the country to which much of its message was directed. Furthermore, it will be contended that Fanon’s description of the French failure to establish true hegemony in pre-Revolutionary Algeria points towards certain limitations of Gramsci’s idea when applied in the colonial context.