Fanon For Beginners

Deborah Baker Wyrick

• Publisher: For Beginners
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781934389881
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: Social Sciences

Philosopher, psychoanalyst, politician, propagandist, prophet...although difficult to categorize, Frantz Fanon (1925–1961) is one of the most important thinkers of the 20th century and one of our most powerful writers on race and revolution.The book opens with a biography, following Fanon from his birthplace of Martinique through combat in World War II and education in France, to his heroic involvement in the fights for Algerian independence and African decolonization. After a brief discussion of Fanon's political and cultural influences, the main section of the book covers the three principal stages of Fanon's thought:

• the search for black identity, as presented in Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon's stunning diagnosis of racism
• the struggle against colonialism, as explained in "A Dying Colonialism" and "Toward the African Revolution, " essays centering on Algeria's war of independence
• the process of decolonization, as analyzed in The Wretched of the Earth, the book that extended insights gained in Algeria to Africa and the Third World

Fanon For Beginners concludes by examining Fanon's influence on political practice, such as the Black Power movement in the United States, on literary theory, and on political studies showing how his works and words continue to have a profound impact on contemporary cultural debate.e.

1

WHO IS FRANTZ FANON?

WHO IS FRANTZ FANON?

Philosopher and psychoanalyst, revolutionary and writer, Frantz Fanon has justly been called the voice of the Third World. Throughout his brief but extraordinary life, Fanon was passionately committed to freedom.

His words and his actions promoted human dignity, honor, and liberation—and unlike many intellectuals, he literally put his life on the line for his beliefs. To people throughout the world, particularly to people of color in both developed and emerging countries, Fanon remains an inspiration, a revolutionary hero, even a martyred saint.

His works continue to be studied because he is one of the 20th century's most powerful social philosophers. Occupying a position both inside and outside of dominant Euro-American culture, Fanon critiques earlier thinkers—such as Hegel, Freud, Marx, and Sartre—who have shaped our modern era. Through his writing, he also challenges us today. He asks us to reexamine our concepts of liberty, selfhood, humanism, equality, and nationalism.

Fanon for Beginners is framed by a biographical section and a chapter discussing Fanon's political and cultural influences. Its main portions follow the principle stages of Fanon's thought:

as presented in Black Skin, White Masks, the stunning diagnosis of racism that Fanon wrote while he was studying medicine and psychoanalysis;

as explained in A Dying Colonialism and Toward the African Revolution, essays Fanon produced when he was actively engaged in Algeria's war of independence;

as analyzed in The Wretched of the Earth, the book that extended insights gained in Algeria to Africa and the Third World.

I hope Fanon for Beginners will give readers with some knowledge of Fanon a useful overview of his life and works as a whole . . . and that it will introduce a new generation of readers to a man who coupled a great mind with a great soul.

IN MARTINIQUE AND FRANCE

The fifth of eight children, Frantz Fanon was born on July 20, 1925, in Fort-de-France, the capital of the French Caribbean colony of Martinique. His father, a customs official, and his mother, a shopkeeper, belonged to the island's relatively prosperous and often racially mixed (sang-méleé) urban middle class. The Fanons promoted French language and culture, discouraging their children from speaking Creole or participating in African-based folk traditions. Young Frantz was trained to adopt the values of the békés (descendants of white slaveholders) and the metropolitan French rather than to identify with the noirs (descendants of African slaves).

THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF MARTINIQUE

1502: Columbus landed on Martinique, inhabited by Carib Indians. The Caribs called the island Mandinina, or Island of the Flowers.

17th century: The French began colonizing Martinique and introduced sugar cane; Caribs completely exterminated; Louis XIII authorized the African slave trade to the Antilles.

18th century: Plantation system established; struggles between white planters and French administrators; England challenged French domination; French and Haitian revolutions caused unrest on Martinique; the future Josephine Bonaparte born near Trois Ilets.

19th century: Slave revolts; emancipation process stalled, perhaps due to Josephine's urging; French abolished slavery in 1848; deputy Victor Schoelcher fought for political and educational reform.

20th century: Eruption of Mt. Pelée, destruction of the city of Saint-Pierre; Martinique under Vichy control during World War II and consequently blockaded; later rallied to the Free French cause.

1946: Martinique's status changed from colony to overseas department of France.

According to his older brother Joby, Frantz was a mischievous, headstrong boy who sneaked into movie theaters without paying and engaged in minor vandalism . . . as well as playing soccer and excelling in school. He was admitted to the prestigious Lycée Schoechler, then the French Antilles' only secondary school, where the great poet Aimé Césaire taught language and literature.

Fanon wrote later about the tremendous impact Césaire's Notebook of a Return to the Native Land, published in 1939, had on his fellow Martinicans:

FOR THE FIRST TIME A LYCÉE TEACHER . . . WAS SEEN TO ANNOUNCE QUITE SIMPLY TO ANTILLEAN SOCIETY ËTHAT IT IS FINE AND GOOD TO BE A NEGRO. TO BE SURE, THIS CREATED A SCANDAL. IT WAS SAID AT THE TIME THAT HE WAS A LITTLE MAD . . . NEITHER THE MULATTOES NOR THE NEGROES UNDERSTOOD THIS DELIRIUM. (AR 21-22)

Although Fanon later disagreed with many assumptions...