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The Wretched of the Earth
A distinguished psychiatrist from Martinique who took part in the Algerian Nationalist Movement, Frantz Fanon was one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history. Fanon's masterwork is a classic alongside Edward Said's Orientalism or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and it is now available in a new translation that updates its language for a new generation of readers.
The Wretched of the Earth is a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized and their path to liberation. Bearing singular insight into the rage and frustration of colonized peoples, and the role of violence in effecting historical change, the book incisively attacks the twin perils of post-independence colonial politics: the disenfranchisement of the masses by the elites on the one hand, and intertribal and interfaith animosities on the other.
Fanon's analysis, a veritable handbook of social reorganization for leaders of emerging nations, has been reflected all too clearly in the corruption and violence that has plagued present-day Africa. The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on civil rights, anticolonialism, and black consciousness movements around the world, and this bold new translation by Richard Philcox reaffirms it as a landmark.
The Wretched of the Earth is a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized and their path to liberation. Bearing singular insight into the rage and frustration of colonized peoples, and the role of violence in effecting historical change, the book incisively attacks the twin perils of post-independence colonial politics: the disenfranchisement of the masses by the elites on the one hand, and intertribal and interfaith animosities on the other.
Fanon's analysis, a veritable handbook of social reorganization for leaders of emerging nations, has been reflected all too clearly in the corruption and violence that has plagued present-day Africa. The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on civil rights, anticolonialism, and black consciousness movements around the world, and this bold new translation by Richard Philcox reaffirms it as a landmark.
251 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
About the author
Frantz Fanon
52 books2,193 followersFrantz Fanon was a psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary, and author from Martinique. He was influential in the field of post-colonial studies and was perhaps the pre-eminent thinker of the 20th century on the issue of decolonization and the psychopathology of colonization. His works have inspired anti-colonial liberation movements for more than four decades.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,802 reviews
September 5, 2020
This book is angry passionate, but written with great clarity and purpose. It is the classic critique of colonialism from the Marxist left with a powerful introduction by Sartre. It is written before Vietnam, before the changes in the sixties and by an eminent psychiatrist enmeshed in the struggle for freedom in Algeria. Fanon examines nationalism, imperialism and the colonial inheritance and manages to turn the traditional definition of the lumpenproletariat on its head.
There are significant problems with the book; which are clear now. This is a very male book. The struggle is by men and the book is, on the surface, for men. When Fanon talks about intellectuals he refers to them as men. This was the zeitgeist of the left at the time, before feminism made an impact. It would be written differently today.
The chapters about psychiatric disorders is very good and the descriptions gut wrenching; although many of the symptoms described would today be identified as post traumatic stress disorder.
What this book really does of course is give you a sense of colonialism in Africa; the devastation and injustice. The opening of the book caused great controversy; "decolonization is always a violent phenomenon". People since have argued that the chapter on the necessity of violence is powerful, of course, but exaggerated and a bit over the top. Written in the heat of conflict. However, what we forget is that the original colonization was much more violent and horrific. It can hardly be expected that at the end of empire and colonization people wave their colonial masters goodbye with a cheery "Thanks for all the fun!" Fanon understood this very well. It is a lesson we still have not learnt and we are still making the same mistakes with very similar results.
There are significant problems with the book; which are clear now. This is a very male book. The struggle is by men and the book is, on the surface, for men. When Fanon talks about intellectuals he refers to them as men. This was the zeitgeist of the left at the time, before feminism made an impact. It would be written differently today.
The chapters about psychiatric disorders is very good and the descriptions gut wrenching; although many of the symptoms described would today be identified as post traumatic stress disorder.
What this book really does of course is give you a sense of colonialism in Africa; the devastation and injustice. The opening of the book caused great controversy; "decolonization is always a violent phenomenon". People since have argued that the chapter on the necessity of violence is powerful, of course, but exaggerated and a bit over the top. Written in the heat of conflict. However, what we forget is that the original colonization was much more violent and horrific. It can hardly be expected that at the end of empire and colonization people wave their colonial masters goodbye with a cheery "Thanks for all the fun!" Fanon understood this very well. It is a lesson we still have not learnt and we are still making the same mistakes with very similar results.
December 17, 2015
Fans of Conrad, Morrison, Friere. Lovers of Things Fall Apart, Les Misérables, The Hunger Games. Definers of postcolonialism, social justice, revolution. Members of the military, political parties, life itself.
Think on the lies you live by.
The parameters do not matter. Neither do your excuses. If you are for peace, you are for it completely, or you are not for it at all. If you condone violence in any amount, the memorial, the dramatizations, the history of your people, you condone it all. When it comes to crimes against humanity, there is no compartmentalization.
A country colonizes another. The colonizer breaks down the people, breaks down the culture, and bleeds the country dry. The colonized develops a pecking order, a few imbibing the parasitic infection to an extraordinary degree while the rest succumb to violence, starvation, madness. The colonizer manipulates these unavoidable results of unholy oppression into an argument, a Western science proving the natural degeneracy of the colonized, this concept of 'science' having as much truth to it as this concept of 'Western.' Better to call it 'Atlantic', the northeastern corner countries of this seascape infecting every other country within reach.
Think on the lies you live by.
The parameters do not matter. Neither do your excuses. If you are for peace, you are for it completely, or you are not for it at all. If you condone violence in any amount, the memorial, the dramatizations, the history of your people, you condone it all. When it comes to crimes against humanity, there is no compartmentalization.
A country colonizes another. The colonizer breaks down the people, breaks down the culture, and bleeds the country dry. The colonized develops a pecking order, a few imbibing the parasitic infection to an extraordinary degree while the rest succumb to violence, starvation, madness. The colonizer manipulates these unavoidable results of unholy oppression into an argument, a Western science proving the natural degeneracy of the colonized, this concept of 'science' having as much truth to it as this concept of 'Western.' Better to call it 'Atlantic', the northeastern corner countries of this seascape infecting every other country within reach.
The native must realize that colonialism never gives anything away for nothing.Independence! Independence? Independence is the colonial country making certain concessions to certain people in return for certain benefits. Independence is those colonized souls, infected with Atlantic ideologies and addicted to a level of life standards, choosing the bourgeois over their country as a whole, assuming a well paying part of the colonizers' remaining structure and descending into depraved senility accordingly. Rich is rich and poor is poor, and in times of revolution the contempt of urban academic for rural masses is just as misguided and virulent. The result is a stunted obscenity pandering at the colonizers' ideal; there is no true independence without the entirety of the people.
Nor will we acquiesce in the help for underdeveloped countries being a program of “sisters of charity.” This help should be the ratification of a double realization: the realization by the colonized peoples that it is their due, and the realization by the capitalist powers that in fact they must pay.
That famous dictatorship, whose supporters believe that it is called for by the historical process and consider it an indispensable prelude to the dawn of independence, in fact symbolizes the decision of the bourgeois caste to govern the underdeveloped country first with the help of the people, but soon against them.White is white and black is black, until you realize it is not a question of racism but an endemic of the comfort of the individual versus the blossoming of the people. What is at stake here is not "What do I have to lose?", but "What am I losing?". The question is not of violence or non-violence, unless you apply it to the whole spectrum of history and look just why exactly we have France and the U.S. and how morality is a pitiful question when put into the context of that next mouthful of bread. Neither is the former colonies catching up to the colonizers the solution, for the latter only exceeds in terms of capacity, in both speed and completeness, for obliteration of other and self.
Because it is bereft of ideas, because it lives by its heredity incapacity to think in terms of all the problems of the nation as seen from the point of view of the whole of that nation, the national middle class will have nothing better to do than to take on the role of manager for Western enterprise, and it will in practice set up its country as the brothel of Europe.
In the colonial context the settler only ends his work of breaking in the native when the latter admits loudly and intelligibly the supremacy of the white man's values.Fact: countries that have progressed beyond Middle Age levels did so through brutal exploitation. Fact: countries that were exploited will return to near Middle Age levels if all colonizer influence is cut off. Fact: the fact that Germany is back on its feet while the 'Third World' continues to exist is not a matter of justice, but international economic dependencies. Fact: 'First World' inhabitants may have more nipples to suck, but that is a matter of luck, not sociocultural fortitude or their health as a human being. Fact: the slogan of the 'Western' world is torture, and torture includes brainwashing.
The passion with which native intellectuals defend the existence of their national culture may be a source of amazement; but those who condemn this exaggerated passion are strangely apt to forget that their own psyche and their own selves are conveniently sheltered behind a French or German culture which has given full proof of its existence and which is uncontested.
They find out on the spot that all the piles of speeches on the equality of human beings do not hide the commonplace fact that the seven Frenchmen killed or wounded at Col due Sakamody kindles the indignation of all civilized consciences, whereas the...massacre of whole populations - which had merely called forth the Sakamody ambush as a reprisal - all this is of not the slightest importance.If your country has never been discredited on all levels of life, you don't understand. If your history has never been castrated and left to desiccate for centuries on end, you don't understand. If your existence has never been deemed by scientific communities to be a degenerate one in need of taming, you don't understand. If you have lived with hope longer than without, you don't understand. If you have given up your right to politically participate on any level due to middling inconvenience or panderings at anarchy, you will never, ever, understand.
To educate the masses politically does not mean, cannot mean, making a political speech. What it means is to try, relentlessly and passionately, to teach the masses that everything depends on them; that if we stagnate it is their responsibility, and that if we go forward it is due to them too, that there is no such thing as a demiurge, that there is no famous man who will take the responsibility for everything, but that the demiurge is the people themselves and the magic hands are finally only the hands of the people.If you don't understand that 'First World' and 'Third World' are labels signifying nothing but a world that likes to pit one lie against the other, if you don't understand the relationship between the oppression abroad and the violence at home, if you are willing to take the amputation of your individual satisfactions from the communal good lying down, you are doomed.
Everything can be explained to the people, on the single condition that you really want them to understand.
Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness, and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions.Don't tell me you believe in the future. Tell me why, and how, and just what you are going to do about it.
A government or a party gets the people it deserves and sooner or later a people gets the government it deserves.
"In your opinion, what should we have done?"
"I don't know. But you are a child and what is happening concerns grown-up people."
"But they kill children too..."
"That is no reason for killing your friend."
"Well, kill him I did. Now you can do what you like."
March 16, 2008
My favorite part of this book was the chapter called "On Colonialism and Psychoanalysis" where Fanon talks about how psychology can be used to colonize and control people, and details how the French scientific community criminalized and pathologized Algerian people through psychology to further colonialism and racism. These concepts are central to radical disability activism and Disability Studies today, and Fanon originally published "Wretched of the Earth" in 1961.
I had a hard time with the completely masculinist lens of Fanon's conception of "the colonized subject." A good example of this was the psychological sketch of a man who was, in Fanon's theory, traumatized by colonization and manifested this by becoming impotent because his wife had been raped. The sketch actually ended with the guy being quoted as saying "why did she have to tell me about it" and Fanon's focus was the guy's impotence, with no exploration of this woman's (or any other woman's) experience of rape and other violence connected with colonization. I also found the theory to be pretty dense and hard to get through.
It's a pivotal historical work, written in the context of armed struggle at a particular point in history. It was good to read it because the theory has influenced many people whose work I like, such as Augusto Boal or David Roediger, and it's interesting to be able to pinpoint that influence more easily now.
I had a hard time with the completely masculinist lens of Fanon's conception of "the colonized subject." A good example of this was the psychological sketch of a man who was, in Fanon's theory, traumatized by colonization and manifested this by becoming impotent because his wife had been raped. The sketch actually ended with the guy being quoted as saying "why did she have to tell me about it" and Fanon's focus was the guy's impotence, with no exploration of this woman's (or any other woman's) experience of rape and other violence connected with colonization. I also found the theory to be pretty dense and hard to get through.
It's a pivotal historical work, written in the context of armed struggle at a particular point in history. It was good to read it because the theory has influenced many people whose work I like, such as Augusto Boal or David Roediger, and it's interesting to be able to pinpoint that influence more easily now.
November 30, 2020
Les Damnés de la Terre = The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon
The Wretched of the Earth is a 1961 book by Frantz Fanon, in which the author provides a psychiatric and psychologic analysis of the dehumanizing effects of colonization upon the individual and the nation, and discusses the broader social, cultural, and political implications inherent to establishing a social movement for the decolonization of a person and of a people.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: یازدهم ماه نوامبر سال 1977میلادی
عنوان: دوزخیان روی زمین؛ نویسنده: فرانس فانون؛ مقدمه: ژان پل سارتر؛ مترجم: علی شریعتی؛ تهران، مجیدی، 1336؛ در 288ص، چاپ سوم با ترجمه: ابوالحسن بنی صدر، تهران، امیرکبیر 1357، در 193ص، موضوع: تاریخ مستعمرات فرانسه، الجزایر - افریقا، از 1945میلادی تا سال 1962میلادی از نویسندگان هندی تبار فرانسوی، سده ی 20م
دوزخیان روی زمین، در آخرین سال زندگی «فانون»، نگاشته شد، و به چاپ رسید، و نامداری و نفوذ امروز «فانون»، بیشتر زاده ی همین کتاب است
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 09/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
The Wretched of the Earth is a 1961 book by Frantz Fanon, in which the author provides a psychiatric and psychologic analysis of the dehumanizing effects of colonization upon the individual and the nation, and discusses the broader social, cultural, and political implications inherent to establishing a social movement for the decolonization of a person and of a people.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: یازدهم ماه نوامبر سال 1977میلادی
عنوان: دوزخیان روی زمین؛ نویسنده: فرانس فانون؛ مقدمه: ژان پل سارتر؛ مترجم: علی شریعتی؛ تهران، مجیدی، 1336؛ در 288ص، چاپ سوم با ترجمه: ابوالحسن بنی صدر، تهران، امیرکبیر 1357، در 193ص، موضوع: تاریخ مستعمرات فرانسه، الجزایر - افریقا، از 1945میلادی تا سال 1962میلادی از نویسندگان هندی تبار فرانسوی، سده ی 20م
دوزخیان روی زمین، در آخرین سال زندگی «فانون»، نگاشته شد، و به چاپ رسید، و نامداری و نفوذ امروز «فانون»، بیشتر زاده ی همین کتاب است
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 09/09/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
October 3, 2024
Genius. It took a genius to think of such a systematic and efficient globalized system to organize the colonies' economies as raw materials suppliers (cocoa, wood, gold, etc.). Even after independence, they are not capable of supporting themselves.
Frantz Fanon systematizes Western manipulations on the colonies by pragmatically synthesizing their praxis. All aspects are addressed meticulously and in a completely understandable and coherent manner. The idea of white supremacy or Indigenous developers that the colonizers have implanted into the overrun very minds and the dynamics will lead to independence.
And after independence, what is it that even having lost their sovereignty, the colonial powers remain winners in the balance of power? What changed after independence if a country that used to sell timber still sold timber to the same Europeans? The intermediary is no longer a settler with a whip but a negro with a velvet hat. Fanon explains why, among all the forces present, it is specifically a native who refuses liberating violence without compromise, more apt to negotiate with his former owners, who will prevail over the others.
It is an excellent panorama based on Latin America's republic experiences. It carefully studies the relations of the various social groups, proletarian and farmer bourgeoisie, by highlighting their resemblance and difference with Western models. Beyond these intra-national relations, we understand how the former colonial power allows itself to interfere by opposing the different traditional, ethnic, or religious authorities to the nationalist who wishes to distribute the fruits of independence to the more significant number. Finally, all these outpourings leave the country in a state that makes it challenging to catch up with my future inexperienced presidents, who then set themselves up.
Far from making a pessimistic report, Fanon speaks to the colonized to explain how the colonizer proceeds and how the population must act to free themselves from its shackles.
Frantz Fanon systematizes Western manipulations on the colonies by pragmatically synthesizing their praxis. All aspects are addressed meticulously and in a completely understandable and coherent manner. The idea of white supremacy or Indigenous developers that the colonizers have implanted into the overrun very minds and the dynamics will lead to independence.
And after independence, what is it that even having lost their sovereignty, the colonial powers remain winners in the balance of power? What changed after independence if a country that used to sell timber still sold timber to the same Europeans? The intermediary is no longer a settler with a whip but a negro with a velvet hat. Fanon explains why, among all the forces present, it is specifically a native who refuses liberating violence without compromise, more apt to negotiate with his former owners, who will prevail over the others.
It is an excellent panorama based on Latin America's republic experiences. It carefully studies the relations of the various social groups, proletarian and farmer bourgeoisie, by highlighting their resemblance and difference with Western models. Beyond these intra-national relations, we understand how the former colonial power allows itself to interfere by opposing the different traditional, ethnic, or religious authorities to the nationalist who wishes to distribute the fruits of independence to the more significant number. Finally, all these outpourings leave the country in a state that makes it challenging to catch up with my future inexperienced presidents, who then set themselves up.
Far from making a pessimistic report, Fanon speaks to the colonized to explain how the colonizer proceeds and how the population must act to free themselves from its shackles.
October 13, 2022
Powerful book about decolonization with an emphasis on the French colonization of Algeria. I liked how Frantz Fanon captured the anger of the colonized and the psychological and physical impacts of colonization. At times I found his writing about gender/women problematic and some of his sentiments unclear, though I still enjoyed this book especially for its ending: Fanon directly states that we should not use Europe as the role model, rather, we should forge our own path apart from the colonizer’s vision and example. Such an important sentiment that I can connect to people I know in the United States today who struggle with internalized racism and colorism!
October 12, 2020
You cannot convince me that this book did not scare the living crap out of Kissinger and the American CIA. The Sartre intro in the beginning gave me chills. This book was translated into a bunch of different languages and led to a bunch of different revolutions, including Iran (where my parents read this book). It's still so good and really radical. I do not think the violence was going to ever work against empire (though it did at first and in limited circumstances) because at the end of the day they were outgunned.
March 7, 2017
Deep in the bowels of libraries, past the celebrity memoirs and adventure stories, tattered in the stacks, there are dark things: books that are actively, overtly dangerous. Here's one now.
Frantz Fanon's 1961 classic The Wretched of the Earth is about violence; it champions violence. It's a manual on how to be violent. Fanon is a genius, so it's seductive. It's like The Prince for African revolutionaries: concerned not with your bourgeois "morals" but with results. Here, let's summarize it with a Game of Thrones gif. (That's what the kids are doing, right?)
This is a little bit of an oversimplification, some recent defenders say. Fanon (France FAN-un, less difficult than I thought it would be) isn't advocating violence for violence's sake; he wouldn't choose violence if he thought there was another option. He just thinks nonviolence is absurd. He sees violence as an inevitable response to colonialism, which is by definition violent. It's not that he's rooting for it; it's that he sees it. "The exploited realize that their liberation implies using every means available, and force is the first."
And yet. When someone writes as eloquently and convincingly that violence is the first option, he is championing it. "Decolonization reeks of red-hot cannonballs and bloody knives," he says. "For the last can be the first only after a murderous and decisive confrontation between the two protagonists."
Mandela in South Africa would show, decades after Fanon's death in 1961, that nonviolence can (sortof) work*. Fanon was dismissive of leaders like Mandela. “The unpreparedness of the educated classes, the lack of practical links between them and the mass of the people, their laziness, and, let it be said, their cowardice at the decisive moment of the struggle will give rise to tragic mishaps,” he said, inaccurately. He was all prole, all the time. "In the colonial countries only the peasantry is revolutionary. It has nothing to lose and everything to gain. The underprivileged and starving peasant is the exploited who very soon realizes that only violence pays.” But peasant-led revolutions have not always worked out super well either.
Fanon, who fought for the native Front de Libération Nationale in Algeria's revolution, knew first-hand how quickly violence turns on itself. He found himself accusing the French of massacring 300 civilians in 1957; his own FLN was in fact responsible. It's unclear whether he knew that at the time. When you plunge your hands into blood, they get bloody.
Jean-Paul Sartre, a supporter who wrote the preface to this book, says it baldly:
This is not true, but it describes a truth. Some people, faced with violence, will respond with violence. It's okay to get all judgey about that, as long as you were even more judgey about the original violence. If you weren't pissed off about that, you should ask yourself which side you're on.
And if you choose violence yourself, here are your operating instructions. They're dangerous.
Frantz Fanon's 1961 classic The Wretched of the Earth is about violence; it champions violence. It's a manual on how to be violent. Fanon is a genius, so it's seductive. It's like The Prince for African revolutionaries: concerned not with your bourgeois "morals" but with results. Here, let's summarize it with a Game of Thrones gif. (That's what the kids are doing, right?)
This is a little bit of an oversimplification, some recent defenders say. Fanon (France FAN-un, less difficult than I thought it would be) isn't advocating violence for violence's sake; he wouldn't choose violence if he thought there was another option. He just thinks nonviolence is absurd. He sees violence as an inevitable response to colonialism, which is by definition violent. It's not that he's rooting for it; it's that he sees it. "The exploited realize that their liberation implies using every means available, and force is the first."
And yet. When someone writes as eloquently and convincingly that violence is the first option, he is championing it. "Decolonization reeks of red-hot cannonballs and bloody knives," he says. "For the last can be the first only after a murderous and decisive confrontation between the two protagonists."
Mandela in South Africa would show, decades after Fanon's death in 1961, that nonviolence can (sortof) work*. Fanon was dismissive of leaders like Mandela. “The unpreparedness of the educated classes, the lack of practical links between them and the mass of the people, their laziness, and, let it be said, their cowardice at the decisive moment of the struggle will give rise to tragic mishaps,” he said, inaccurately. He was all prole, all the time. "In the colonial countries only the peasantry is revolutionary. It has nothing to lose and everything to gain. The underprivileged and starving peasant is the exploited who very soon realizes that only violence pays.” But peasant-led revolutions have not always worked out super well either.
Fanon, who fought for the native Front de Libération Nationale in Algeria's revolution, knew first-hand how quickly violence turns on itself. He found himself accusing the French of massacring 300 civilians in 1957; his own FLN was in fact responsible. It's unclear whether he knew that at the time. When you plunge your hands into blood, they get bloody.
Jean-Paul Sartre, a supporter who wrote the preface to this book, says it baldly:
“Get this into your head: if violence were only a thing of the future, if exploitation and oppression never existed on earth, perhaps displays of nonviolence might relieve the conflict. But if the entire regime, even your nonviolent thoughts, is governed by a thousand-year old oppression, your passiveness serves no other purpose but to put you on the side of the oppressors.”
This is not true, but it describes a truth. Some people, faced with violence, will respond with violence. It's okay to get all judgey about that, as long as you were even more judgey about the original violence. If you weren't pissed off about that, you should ask yourself which side you're on.
And if you choose violence yourself, here are your operating instructions. They're dangerous.
March 17, 2007
Today Sartre would be sent to Guatanamo for the introduction that he wrote for this book.
April 2, 2014
فرانز فانون, أحد الاستثنائيين الكبار الذين يجدر تذكّرهم في التاريخ الذي يُكتب الآن ويُراد له أن يكون عاديّاً من استعماراتنا المحلية الشبيهة باستعمار الغرباء الذي يكتب عنه فانون.
June 13, 2012
الاستعمار لا يمكن التحرر منه بالمعاهدات أو الاتفاقيات .. إن ما أخذ بالقوة لا يسترد إلا بالقوة ..مفهوم الاستعمار الذي تحدث عنه فانون ليس الاستعمار الخارجي فقط .. بل الاستعمار الداخلي .. إن ما تصنعه الحكومات بنا .. من تجويع و استعراض للطائرات التي لا تجد إلا رؤوس المواطنين للتحليق فوقها .. و زرع الخوف .. و تقليص التفكير ليصبح حول مائدة العشاء فقط .. إن ما يصنع بنا يجعلنا في حالة من الإنكار الداخلي لنا .. لكرامتنا .. لإنسانيتنا!
في داخل كل منا... مستعمٍر .. و مستعمَر ..
أيهما بلغ أشده .. استوطننا !
الاضطهاد... ثمرة شجرة زرعها العنف منذ قرون ..و من يعتقد أن ما أخذ باقوة يمكن أن يسترد بمعاهدة سلام .. فلا أملك له إلا علامة تعجب تحوم فوق رأسي!
فانون: " إن الشعوب المتخلفة تحطم أصفادها .. و الأمر الخارق أنها .. تنتصر!" ..
ظهور الأحزاب السياسية في أي بلد متخلف يعني إغراق المطالب إلى قاع البئر .. على الأحزاب أن تظهر "بعد" الثورة .. و ليس قبلها ! الأحزاب إذا ظهرت قبل الثورة لن تكون سوى برجوازية وطنية كالاستعمار .. لكن بمنحى يختلف قليلا
تحدث بإفاضة عن أهمية أدب المقاومة .. و كتب فيه غسان كنفاني بشكل أكثر روعة بالطبع
عميق هذا الكتاب .. منذ مدة لم أقرأ كتاباً بروعته
..
الاء الشنطي
في داخل كل منا... مستعمٍر .. و مستعمَر ..
أيهما بلغ أشده .. استوطننا !
الاضطهاد... ثمرة شجرة زرعها العنف منذ قرون ..و من يعتقد أن ما أخذ باقوة يمكن أن يسترد بمعاهدة سلام .. فلا أملك له إلا علامة تعجب تحوم فوق رأسي!
فانون: " إن الشعوب المتخلفة تحطم أصفادها .. و الأمر الخارق أنها .. تنتصر!" ..
ظهور الأحزاب السياسية في أي بلد متخلف يعني إغراق المطالب إلى قاع البئر .. على الأحزاب أن تظهر "بعد" الثورة .. و ليس قبلها ! الأحزاب إذا ظهرت قبل الثورة لن تكون سوى برجوازية وطنية كالاستعمار .. لكن بمنحى يختلف قليلا
تحدث بإفاضة عن أهمية أدب المقاومة .. و كتب فيه غسان كنفاني بشكل أكثر روعة بالطبع
عميق هذا الكتاب .. منذ مدة لم أقرأ كتاباً بروعته
..
الاء الشنطي
October 3, 2015
هذا الكتاب مهم جدا جدا
لاسيما لنا كفلسطينيين
فرانز فانون هذا المناضل الانساني الذي رأى ان لا خلاص للشعوب المستعمرة الا بالعنف والعنف فقط كفيل بقلب الطاولة علينا الآن
لاسيما ونحن عند مفترق طريق ولربما طرق جديدة
فرانز فنون الذي اتخذ من تجربة التحرير الجزائرية أنموذجا في دراسة الاضطرابات التي يحدثها الظلم والاحتلال على الشعوب
هو بوصفه طبيبا نفسيا عاين اثر العذاب والجوع على الشعوب
فرانز فانون الذي يقول لنا في آخر كتابه
علينا ان نخلق إنسانا جديدا
هذا الكتاب عبارة عن مشروع تحريري متكامل لكل شعب مستعمر سواء استعمارا سياسيا عسكريا او اقتصاديا
يتطرق فانون الى الثقافة الشعر الرواية والأدب وأثرها في قيادة النضال
يعالج المزالق ولربما المآذق الشعورية التي تندفع اليها شعوب العالم الثالث
كتاب مهم جدا
لاسيما لنا كفلسطينيين
فرانز فانون هذا المناضل الانساني الذي رأى ان لا خلاص للشعوب المستعمرة الا بالعنف والعنف فقط كفيل بقلب الطاولة علينا الآن
لاسيما ونحن عند مفترق طريق ولربما طرق جديدة
فرانز فنون الذي اتخذ من تجربة التحرير الجزائرية أنموذجا في دراسة الاضطرابات التي يحدثها الظلم والاحتلال على الشعوب
هو بوصفه طبيبا نفسيا عاين اثر العذاب والجوع على الشعوب
فرانز فانون الذي يقول لنا في آخر كتابه
علينا ان نخلق إنسانا جديدا
هذا الكتاب عبارة عن مشروع تحريري متكامل لكل شعب مستعمر سواء استعمارا سياسيا عسكريا او اقتصاديا
يتطرق فانون الى الثقافة الشعر الرواية والأدب وأثرها في قيادة النضال
يعالج المزالق ولربما المآذق الشعورية التي تندفع اليها شعوب العالم الثالث
كتاب مهم جدا
April 22, 2013
"...إن تصرُّف المثقف في هذه الفترة تصرُّف رجُل انتهازي رخيص، والحقُّ أن مناوراتِه لم تنقطع لحظة، والشعب لا يريد أن يُبعِدُه أو أن يُحرجه. فما يُريدُه الشعب هو أن يكون كل شيء مشتركـًا .. وجود ذلك الميل الغريب إلى التفاصيل لدى المثقف هو الذي سيؤجِّل انغماس المثقف في الموجة الشعبية العارمة. لا لأن الشعب عاجز عن التحليل، فهو يُحب أن تُشرَح له الأمور، هو يُحب أن يفهم مفاصل استدلال من الاستدلالات، يُحب أن يرى إلى أين هو ذاهب. ولكن المثقف المُستعمَر، في أول اتصاله بالشعب، يُركِّز اهتمامه على التفاصيل الدقيقة، ويصل من ذلك إلى نسيان هدف الكفاح نفسُه، ألا وهو إلحاق الهزيمة بالاستعمار".
November 14, 2017
My only recommendation (re: this edition at least)--don't read the foreword or preface until AFTER reading the text.
Both seem designed to obscure & show off to other academics, as opposed to inform, unlike Fanon's writing itself.
This book is a very calm, determined & clarifying analysis and that I will chew on for a long long time.
It's not as dated as it "should" be so it's as relevant as ever.
Both seem designed to obscure & show off to other academics, as opposed to inform, unlike Fanon's writing itself.
This book is a very calm, determined & clarifying analysis and that I will chew on for a long long time.
It's not as dated as it "should" be so it's as relevant as ever.
October 20, 2021
"إن تصرُّف المثقف في هذه الفترة تصرُّف رجُل انتهازي رخيص، والحقُّ أن مناوراتِه لم تنقطع لحظة، والشعب لا يريد أن يُبعِدُه أو أن يُحرجه. فما يُريدُه الشعب هو أن يكون كل شيء مشتركـًا .. وجود ذلك الميل الغريب إلى التفاصيل لدى المثقف هو الذي سيؤجِّل انغماس المثقف في الموجة الشعبية العارمة. لا لأن الشعب عاجز عن التحليل، فهو يُحب أن تُشرَح له الأمور، هو يُحب أن يفهم مفاصل استدلال من الاستدلالات، يُحب أن يرى إلى أين هو ذاهب. ولكن المثقف المُستعمَر، في أول اتصاله بالشعب، يُركِّز اهتمامه على التفاصيل الدقيقة، ويصل من ذلك إلى نسيان هدف الكفاح نفسُه، ألا وهو إلحاق الهزيمة بالاستعمار."
تم
٢٠ أكتوبر ٢٠٢١
تم
٢٠ أكتوبر ٢٠٢١
April 6, 2021
Fanon's classic is still a wake-up call, sounding the arrival of a new order. It's fearsome and inspiring at the same time.
November 29, 2016
It took me some while to get through 'The Wretched of the Earth', as it is a painful book to read and a period of history that I know far too little about. Fanon systematically dissects the phenomenon of colonialism, with a focus on Algeria and its attempts to break free from French rule. He explains how the native population is dehumanised by their occupiers, enslaved, exploited, killed, raped, and their land treated as a resource to be expropriated. He demonstrates the pernicious pseudo-scientific racist rationalisations, used to justify colonialism as protecting native populations from their own worse nature. Beyond this damning indictment, Fanon examines the problems that face a decolonised country and their possible solutions. I was also struck by the analysis of decolonised countries having no real middle class, merely a group of middlemen as a legacy of colonisation. These sections remain unsettlingly relevant today, as African countries are still faced with developed world protectionism weighting international trade against them. The world remains resolutely unequal and is only becoming more so.
Reading this book reminded me of a realisation I came to at the age of 20. Prior to that point, I had been idealistically contemplating a career in the international development, to try and alleviate the terrible poverty there. Then I begun to actually study development economics and it hit me that the interference of naive, privileged, white university graduates from the developed world is not going to solve the problems of the developing world. Rather, such interference is a major part of the problem and part of the legacy of colonialism. I came to be horrified at the sheer arrogance of much international development discourse, which carries the underlying message that, 'We in the developed world know best, just do as we say'. Fanon ends his book with a powerful entreaty that decolonised countries avoid trying to emulate Europe and America, which is just the agenda that the IMF and World Bank push. Apart from the ways in which this agenda benefits multinational companies at the expense of the developing world, it ignores the fact that Europe's present economic success is based on centuries of slavery and rapacious theft. Fanon makes a striking point about this, noting that reparations were demanded from Germany after the Second World War, but decolonised countries have never even had the chance to ask for similar compensation for the crimes against them and the resources stolen. To this day, the developed world gets far more from the developing world than it gives back. As things often do, this also reminded me of climate change, which is essentially a problem the rich world has created that disproportionately affects the poor world. (Don't get me started on the appalling arrogance of the developed world in international climate negotiations.)
Fanon doesn't just elucidate the big picture, however. The last section of 'The Wretched of the Earth' details case studies of psychological disorders he has come across during Algeria's war of independence. These reinforce the message (also put across powerfully by Vasily Grossman in a Russian context) that one who sees others as less than human loses their own humanity, and indeed their sanity. Fanon's case studies describe the mental states of both colonial torturers and their victims. It is made clear, here and throughout, that violence begets violence. The colonial authorities accuse natives of being inherently violent and criminal, without acknowledging that colonialism forces them to be so. Treat a whole race as less than human and they will have nothing to lose from resorting to violence. Fanon explains this much more eloquently, of course.
I think it's important that Fanon's 1961 book is still read as a reminder of the legacy of colonialism, both on a continental and individual scale. After all, the racism and injustice that he describes is in no way eradicated. His writing style is eloquent, clear, and articulate, despite every word resonating with anger. It's an incredibly powerful combination.
Reading this book reminded me of a realisation I came to at the age of 20. Prior to that point, I had been idealistically contemplating a career in the international development, to try and alleviate the terrible poverty there. Then I begun to actually study development economics and it hit me that the interference of naive, privileged, white university graduates from the developed world is not going to solve the problems of the developing world. Rather, such interference is a major part of the problem and part of the legacy of colonialism. I came to be horrified at the sheer arrogance of much international development discourse, which carries the underlying message that, 'We in the developed world know best, just do as we say'. Fanon ends his book with a powerful entreaty that decolonised countries avoid trying to emulate Europe and America, which is just the agenda that the IMF and World Bank push. Apart from the ways in which this agenda benefits multinational companies at the expense of the developing world, it ignores the fact that Europe's present economic success is based on centuries of slavery and rapacious theft. Fanon makes a striking point about this, noting that reparations were demanded from Germany after the Second World War, but decolonised countries have never even had the chance to ask for similar compensation for the crimes against them and the resources stolen. To this day, the developed world gets far more from the developing world than it gives back. As things often do, this also reminded me of climate change, which is essentially a problem the rich world has created that disproportionately affects the poor world. (Don't get me started on the appalling arrogance of the developed world in international climate negotiations.)
Fanon doesn't just elucidate the big picture, however. The last section of 'The Wretched of the Earth' details case studies of psychological disorders he has come across during Algeria's war of independence. These reinforce the message (also put across powerfully by Vasily Grossman in a Russian context) that one who sees others as less than human loses their own humanity, and indeed their sanity. Fanon's case studies describe the mental states of both colonial torturers and their victims. It is made clear, here and throughout, that violence begets violence. The colonial authorities accuse natives of being inherently violent and criminal, without acknowledging that colonialism forces them to be so. Treat a whole race as less than human and they will have nothing to lose from resorting to violence. Fanon explains this much more eloquently, of course.
I think it's important that Fanon's 1961 book is still read as a reminder of the legacy of colonialism, both on a continental and individual scale. After all, the racism and injustice that he describes is in no way eradicated. His writing style is eloquent, clear, and articulate, despite every word resonating with anger. It's an incredibly powerful combination.
February 19, 2010
Prior to reading this book, I had absolutely no idea about the French rule in Algeria. Both countries are too far from the Philippines for me to be concerned about. Because it is the reason why Mr. Fanon wrote this book (published in 1961), I had to Google that part of Algerian history in the middle of my reading. I learned that French colonization of Algeria took almost a hundred years (1830 to the 1900's) and it was one of the most bloodiest colonization in the history of the world. The height of the violence, however, happened only in 1954, when the National Liberation Front (FLN) launched the Algerian War of Independence which was a guerrilla campaign. The atrocities of France and the struggle of the Algerian people form the springboard of the essays Mr. Fanon included in this book. Yes, it seems that most of the chapters in this book were either delivered in a forum or submitted as separate articles during the time Mr. Fanon was among those Algerian rebels fighting for their country's independence.
However, time is too short for me to grasp the details. So, while reading the book, I just thought of what Philippines underwent in its own colonizers: 300 years under Spain, 30 years under the USA and 3 years under Japan. The theories presented in the book are basically the same. The most shocking one is that the author espouses violence to overthrow the colonists. This is based on the belief that the colonized country is always on the lookout to replace the colonists. Eye for an eye. No wonder, this book has been read by militant rebels around the world.
My favorite part is the chapter entitled Colonial War and Mental Disorder. In this part, the author shifted to real testimonies of the rebels. From being theoretical, this portion gives this non-fiction book the anthology of short stories feel. Oh boy, those being real stories? You will really cringe and feel sorry for the various mental disorders the Algerian people suffered from during their struggle. There is a story of two European boys who killed their Algerian friend because they would like to do what they see around them. Since they could not kill grownups, they killed their playmate, their friend. Why their friend? Because no sensible boy would agree to go with them in a forest except their friend.
Another must-read from the 501 MUST READ BOOKS - HISTORY category. I spent 4 days reading this book and I did not regret every minute of it! Fiction readers must really shift to non-fiction from time-to-time to know the real stories of people and nations around them!
However, time is too short for me to grasp the details. So, while reading the book, I just thought of what Philippines underwent in its own colonizers: 300 years under Spain, 30 years under the USA and 3 years under Japan. The theories presented in the book are basically the same. The most shocking one is that the author espouses violence to overthrow the colonists. This is based on the belief that the colonized country is always on the lookout to replace the colonists. Eye for an eye. No wonder, this book has been read by militant rebels around the world.
My favorite part is the chapter entitled Colonial War and Mental Disorder. In this part, the author shifted to real testimonies of the rebels. From being theoretical, this portion gives this non-fiction book the anthology of short stories feel. Oh boy, those being real stories? You will really cringe and feel sorry for the various mental disorders the Algerian people suffered from during their struggle. There is a story of two European boys who killed their Algerian friend because they would like to do what they see around them. Since they could not kill grownups, they killed their playmate, their friend. Why their friend? Because no sensible boy would agree to go with them in a forest except their friend.
Another must-read from the 501 MUST READ BOOKS - HISTORY category. I spent 4 days reading this book and I did not regret every minute of it! Fiction readers must really shift to non-fiction from time-to-time to know the real stories of people and nations around them!
February 10, 2017
هذا الكتاب كتاب استثنائي، تكمن روعته الأساسية أنه يتحدث عن الواقع العام للمعذبين في الارض فعلا
يكتبه إلى حاملي لواء التغيير والاستقلال وتحقيق النهضة لبلادهم وأمتهم
يتحدث فيه عن الاستعمار القديم وكيف يسلم الدفة ويرحل للاستعمار الجديد
يتحدث عن كيف يخون رفاق الامس الثورة ويحلل ان هذا كان وضعاً طبيعياً فالثورة لم تكن في وعيهم أو في مصالحهم سوي ان يحصلوا علي سلطة وامتيازات الاستعمار فيسلم لهم الاستعمار تلك السلطة علي أن يصبحوا أتباعه المخلصين.
الكتاب موجه للمناضلين جميعا سواء أكان هذا المناضل سياسياً ام مثقف او أديب، الي المناضلين من الفلاحين والعمال والمترجمين والاطباء وغيرهم.
كتاب يجب ان يقرأ وتدرك مقولاته التحليلية التي تقدم نموذجا لكيف يمكن ان ينجح النضال ضد الاستعمار وكيف يمكن ان يتحول إلى استعمار من النوع الجديد.
يقوم فانون بتحليل مفهوم الهوية والاعتراف بها ويقدم طرحاً جديداً لموضوع العنف. فهو لا يرى في العنف الثوري مجرد عنف مضاد للعنف الاستعماري الهمجي – كما يظن محاربين العنف- بل له وظيفة تحررية تقوم على الاعتراف بالهوية و بالثقافات -التي عمل الاستعمار على محوها والتقليل من شأنها- ومن ثم احيائها. فالعنف وفقاً لفانون له وظيفة اجتماعية وكذلك نفسية تتعلق بعودة الوعي واكتشاف الهويّة يصعب تصور التحرر من دونها.
* تحديث
نشرت مدارات مع بداية العام 2017 الملحق الذي لم يكن فى نسخة الكتاب الذي قرأته في بدايات العام 2016 والمعنون بعنوان "غياب البعد الإسلامي في نصوص فانون، الإسلام المسكوت عنه في كتاب معذبو الأرض"
أنصح بقراءته للجميع فهو يعطي لمحة عن الظروف التي جعلت فرانز فانون ربما يتجاهل عن عمد البعد الإسلامي واسهامات جمعية العلماء المسلمين التي مهدت الأرضية للثورة الجزائرية
October 26, 2020
"إن المناضل ليدرك في كثير من الأحيان أن عمله لا أن يقاتل القوى العدوة فحسب، بل كذلك حبات اليأس المتبلورة في جسم المستعمَر."
كتاب مهم جداً جداً، يحلّل فيه فرانز فانون العلاقة بين المُستعمِرين والمُستعمَرين، وكيف تنشأ الثورات وكيف نحرص عليها من تغوّل الطبقة البرجوازية الحاكمة الخاضعة في ذات الوقت للاستعمار، وكيف يتحقق الاستقلال الخارجي والأهم منه الاستقلال الداخلي.
...
October 6, 2021
This is very much a book of its time when decolonization was being won and had been won by a number of people around the world. This is reflected in its tendency towards a sort of ideation towards the nation-state that was the principle mode of governance for the emergent decolonized nations. But where it transcends is in its astute analysis of the various factors internal and external to the budding nation-states that led them astray from the path of true liberation and emancipation. Even though the book paints the picture in broad-strokes and generalities, it is still able to capture the myriad elements that led so many of these young nations to waver, falter and in many cases fail their people. The national bourgeoise is one of the main antagonists in this tale, but so is the national party in its inability or sometimes unwillingness to mobilize the majority of the people it ostensibly represented (rural peasants) and not just integrate them into the nationalist project but to center them; or in more nefarious circumstances, to use their anger and mobilization and then quickly discard them. And of course, the traps set by the colonizers in the form of neocolonialism and resource extraction cannot be undercounted either. There is also critique of the turn to revisionist or sanitized histories in the hopes of establishing some sort of a national culture. All in all, this book is extremely poignant and shrewd in its ability to articulate so much of what went wrong post-decolonization in various countries and contexts and articulates well how the decolonization itself may just be a misnomer seeing how the emancipatory and liberatory potential was never reached.
As a student of psychology, I was also fascinated by the last chapter which drew case studies from Fanon's time as a therapist in Algeria about some of the notable afflictions he saw emerge in the colonized as a result of the grotesqueness and brutality of colonization.
As a student of psychology, I was also fascinated by the last chapter which drew case studies from Fanon's time as a therapist in Algeria about some of the notable afflictions he saw emerge in the colonized as a result of the grotesqueness and brutality of colonization.
March 16, 2020
ربما يمكن أن نقول أن الكتاب يقوم على ثلاث محاور هامة، هي الغاصب، والمُغتصب والمثقف ابن الاستعمار، يحاول الكاتب أن يحلل نظرة كل منهم للاستعمار، وتحليل الأسباب التي تجعل المثقف غريباً عن شعبه المناضل.
ربما سيولة الأفكار والمواضيع في الكتاب وعدم إحكامها في نظام معين كان من العيوب والمشاكل الكبرى التي واجهتني أثناء قراءة الكتاب.
يتحدث الكاتب أيضاً عن فكرة "التنظيم" الذي انطلقت منه الثورة والكفاح المحلي للفلاحين ويحاول أن يسبر أغوار صراع مفهوم الكفاح الوطني للتحرر بين أبناء المدينة والأحزاب والفلاحين وهو ما ركز عليه جداً في الفصل الثاني من الكتاب، وفي فصل الكتاب الثالث تحدث فيه عن البرجوازية المحلية التي تصعد على كراسي الحكم بأعقاب الاستقلال، وكيف أنها عقيدة هشة فاسدة لا تملك إلا كلاماً على الورق سرعان ما تتحول إلى مسخ للاستعمار الأوروبي، وفي فصل الكتاب الرابع يتحدث عن مسألة صنع الثقافة في المجتمع المستعمر، وكيف أن الثقافة الأصلية لا ينتجها المثقف البعيد عن الشارع، وعن مشاكل مجتمعه، المثقف الذي شرب المنهج الأوروبي شرباً كاملاً وحاول أن ينتهجه في أدبه وكتاباته، ولكنها تتولد حين يبدأ هذا المثقف بدوره في الكفاح من الشارع، وأيضاً تتطرق لتحليل قضايا مثل الهوية والقومية بالنسبة للمجتمع الأسير.
الفصل الأخير من الكتاب ربما هو من أكثر الفصول تنظيماً في الكتاب، وفيه يتحد�� عن ضحايا الحرب من الأحياء والمرض الذي يصنعه الاستعمار في المغتصب والمُغتصب، وبشاعة طرق التعذيب المنهجية التي اتبعتها فرنسا في إخضاع المواطن الجزائري.
يقع الكتاب بين مقدمة بليغة وبديعة للفيلسوف الفرنسي سارتر، وبين إضافة في غاية الجمال في تحليل ونقد غياب البعد الإسلامي في نصوص فانون، وكيف أن الإسلام كان محرك أساسي للثورة، تجاهله فانون عامداً أو غير عامد
مثل تلك الكتب ومواضيعها هي التي تجعلني ما زلت حانق وحاقد على هؤلاء الأوروبيين حتى يومنا هذا، فمهما تغيرت سياساتهم وأجيالهم، لا يتغير ما صنعوه فينا، وما زلنا نعانيه من استعمارهم حتى اليوم
ربما سيولة الأفكار والمواضيع في الكتاب وعدم إحكامها في نظام معين كان من العيوب والمشاكل الكبرى التي واجهتني أثناء قراءة الكتاب.
يتحدث الكاتب أيضاً عن فكرة "التنظيم" الذي انطلقت منه الثورة والكفاح المحلي للفلاحين ويحاول أن يسبر أغوار صراع مفهوم الكفاح الوطني للتحرر بين أبناء المدينة والأحزاب والفلاحين وهو ما ركز عليه جداً في الفصل الثاني من الكتاب، وفي فصل الكتاب الثالث تحدث فيه عن البرجوازية المحلية التي تصعد على كراسي الحكم بأعقاب الاستقلال، وكيف أنها عقيدة هشة فاسدة لا تملك إلا كلاماً على الورق سرعان ما تتحول إلى مسخ للاستعمار الأوروبي، وفي فصل الكتاب الرابع يتحدث عن مسألة صنع الثقافة في المجتمع المستعمر، وكيف أن الثقافة الأصلية لا ينتجها المثقف البعيد عن الشارع، وعن مشاكل مجتمعه، المثقف الذي شرب المنهج الأوروبي شرباً كاملاً وحاول أن ينتهجه في أدبه وكتاباته، ولكنها تتولد حين يبدأ هذا المثقف بدوره في الكفاح من الشارع، وأيضاً تتطرق لتحليل قضايا مثل الهوية والقومية بالنسبة للمجتمع الأسير.
الفصل الأخير من الكتاب ربما هو من أكثر الفصول تنظيماً في الكتاب، وفيه يتحد�� عن ضحايا الحرب من الأحياء والمرض الذي يصنعه الاستعمار في المغتصب والمُغتصب، وبشاعة طرق التعذيب المنهجية التي اتبعتها فرنسا في إخضاع المواطن الجزائري.
يقع الكتاب بين مقدمة بليغة وبديعة للفيلسوف الفرنسي سارتر، وبين إضافة في غاية الجمال في تحليل ونقد غياب البعد الإسلامي في نصوص فانون، وكيف أن الإسلام كان محرك أساسي للثورة، تجاهله فانون عامداً أو غير عامد
مثل تلك الكتب ومواضيعها هي التي تجعلني ما زلت حانق وحاقد على هؤلاء الأوروبيين حتى يومنا هذا، فمهما تغيرت سياساتهم وأجيالهم، لا يتغير ما صنعوه فينا، وما زلنا نعانيه من استعمارهم حتى اليوم
September 30, 2015
A psychological exploration of the oppressed and the oppressor. Analyzing the evolution of the native, he provides extraordinary insights into revolutionary change. Fanon was no champion of violence, he simply embraced the truth and portrayed the reality of a situation and the unfolding dialectic. He accurately describes the pitfalls of a postcolonial state, where the national bourgeoisie would turn into a profiteering caste, too glad to accept the dividends the formal colonial state hands out to it. This is very true of the Indian bourgeoisie who were very unconscious of their revolutionary role and demobilised the masses. For Fanon, only a radical democracy that involves the complete mobilisation and rising the consciousness of the masses can save a post-colonial society from the "caste of profiteers", military dictatorships and from the nation getting torn apart from tribal and religious differences. In countries where the urban proletariat were a minute faction, he was a champion of the peasant class and the lumpenproletariat as the revolutionary classes.
At the end, he provides a list of wartime psychological case studies in harrowing detail. In the powerful conclusion, his ultimate message was of humanity. His warnings against the path of aping the west, against the obsession with the notion of catching up with the west.
" European lifestyles should not tempt us to go astray. In European lifestyles and technology I see a constant denial of man, an avalanche of murders."
How accurately he describes the "United States of America where the flaws, sickness, and inhumanity of Europe have reached frightening proportions". This is exactly what Gandhi feared too, that India would go on a path of trying to emulate western consumerism. In a world where there are limited resources, what happens when India tries to follow the unsustainable path of emulating the western levels of accumulation and consumption? Especially considering the fact that all the riches of the west were the result of the plundering of the third world. When India decided to follow the American path, the result is exactly what we see today, one very small section of the population extremely rich and a huge section of the population extremely poor.
He wanted the third world to be the champion of new humanism. In today’s world where massive inequalities have been built up consciously, deliberately and systematically, where large sections of population live in a de-humanised condition, Fanon’s passionate message is very important to address the urgent need of radical redistribution of wealth and the means of production.
At the end, he provides a list of wartime psychological case studies in harrowing detail. In the powerful conclusion, his ultimate message was of humanity. His warnings against the path of aping the west, against the obsession with the notion of catching up with the west.
" European lifestyles should not tempt us to go astray. In European lifestyles and technology I see a constant denial of man, an avalanche of murders."
How accurately he describes the "United States of America where the flaws, sickness, and inhumanity of Europe have reached frightening proportions". This is exactly what Gandhi feared too, that India would go on a path of trying to emulate western consumerism. In a world where there are limited resources, what happens when India tries to follow the unsustainable path of emulating the western levels of accumulation and consumption? Especially considering the fact that all the riches of the west were the result of the plundering of the third world. When India decided to follow the American path, the result is exactly what we see today, one very small section of the population extremely rich and a huge section of the population extremely poor.
He wanted the third world to be the champion of new humanism. In today’s world where massive inequalities have been built up consciously, deliberately and systematically, where large sections of population live in a de-humanised condition, Fanon’s passionate message is very important to address the urgent need of radical redistribution of wealth and the means of production.
October 24, 2023
Worth reading 10 times. Very suitable for the moment.
June 17, 2019
At first glance, the ideas which populate 'The Wretched of the Earth' don't feel particularly original. However it is only when the reader pauses and realises that this work was published in 1961, when countries were still in the midst of escaping from the yoke of colonialism, whose membrane had left a deep imprint on the psyche of its people, downtrodden by the drudgery of decades, and in some cases of centuries of systematic dehumanisation, that the nascent nationalism which was burgeoning in these countries was still beset with violence and vituperation, that you realise the importance and revolutionary nature of Fanon's work, which dissects the violence inherent in colonialism, the cultural warfare which it wages on its subjects slow disintegration into a feeling of nothingness, a blank slate upon which the colonial masters fashioned slaves in the guise of humans.
Fanon demarcates his exploration of the colonial mind into a number of key areas. Firstly, he explores violence. For Fanon violence was intrinsic to independence; the Europeans were able to colonise the world via the threat of violence, with the imaginary gibbet forever hanging around the neck of the colonised in case they ever rebelled. Without violence, therefore, it was impossible to overthrow colonialism; violence is the oil which lubricates the wheels of action and an idea can be as revolutionary as any act of physical violence. Indeed the violence of the lumpenproletariat and their ability to act is the catalyst which is able to put into action the ideas of the intellectuals.
Fanon then analyses the various psychological tactics which the colonialists use to exploit their subjects; from divide-and-conquer tactics, to the perpetual admonishment o the native cultures so that it appears as if Western ideas of liberty and freedom are the only path with which they are able to lift themselves out of the quagmire of their own ignorance. Fanon then explores the role of the bourgeois natives in replacing the colonists; instead of white masters the natives now have brown, who are just as preoccupied with their own greed and avarice.
Indeed, for Fanon the building blocks of nationhood lie in a common sense of culture, of art, music, intellectuals and polity, however these are forever beset by the interests of the former colonists, of the selfishness of the bourgeoisie and of the instability of an incipient cultures which is still being shaped. Only when a country was able to overcome these, to create a culture which centred on a sense of solidarity and nationhood outside of the common ground found by fighting with the colonists, could a people truly free themselves from the prison of colonialism.
Fanon demarcates his exploration of the colonial mind into a number of key areas. Firstly, he explores violence. For Fanon violence was intrinsic to independence; the Europeans were able to colonise the world via the threat of violence, with the imaginary gibbet forever hanging around the neck of the colonised in case they ever rebelled. Without violence, therefore, it was impossible to overthrow colonialism; violence is the oil which lubricates the wheels of action and an idea can be as revolutionary as any act of physical violence. Indeed the violence of the lumpenproletariat and their ability to act is the catalyst which is able to put into action the ideas of the intellectuals.
Fanon then analyses the various psychological tactics which the colonialists use to exploit their subjects; from divide-and-conquer tactics, to the perpetual admonishment o the native cultures so that it appears as if Western ideas of liberty and freedom are the only path with which they are able to lift themselves out of the quagmire of their own ignorance. Fanon then explores the role of the bourgeois natives in replacing the colonists; instead of white masters the natives now have brown, who are just as preoccupied with their own greed and avarice.
Indeed, for Fanon the building blocks of nationhood lie in a common sense of culture, of art, music, intellectuals and polity, however these are forever beset by the interests of the former colonists, of the selfishness of the bourgeoisie and of the instability of an incipient cultures which is still being shaped. Only when a country was able to overcome these, to create a culture which centred on a sense of solidarity and nationhood outside of the common ground found by fighting with the colonists, could a people truly free themselves from the prison of colonialism.
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February 7, 2022Turns out my reading comprehension has vastly improved since I was a freshman in college. Who'd have thought! A few main takeaways:
‣Revolutionary violence means not a return to the precolonial "Dark Ages" but a reclamation of the humanity that has been stripped away.
‣In newly independent nations the bourgeoisie may simply take over the role of the oppressor and mimic the control and authority of the colonizers. Poorly-developed nationalism with no emphasis on the essential role of the masses is an empty promise and a recipe for failure.
‣The intellectual pursuit of looking to the precolonial culture of the past is not useful because it often stems from a desire to prove a nation's value and humanity to the colonizer. There is no point in this. New culture is formed in the processes of independence and revolution.
‣Revolutionary violence means not a return to the precolonial "Dark Ages" but a reclamation of the humanity that has been stripped away.
‣In newly independent nations the bourgeoisie may simply take over the role of the oppressor and mimic the control and authority of the colonizers. Poorly-developed nationalism with no emphasis on the essential role of the masses is an empty promise and a recipe for failure.
‣The intellectual pursuit of looking to the precolonial culture of the past is not useful because it often stems from a desire to prove a nation's value and humanity to the colonizer. There is no point in this. New culture is formed in the processes of independence and revolution.
May 17, 2011
الكتاب يحلل شخصية المستعمَر .. ونفسية القهر والمقهور .. واختلاط المقاومة بالرغبة في تأكيد الذات، وما يفعله المستعمِر من عملية طمس تام لمن يستعمرهم .. وأثر ذلك على الحياة العامة .. وعدم القدرة على المقاومة كيف يكون أثره ع النفسيات والحياة وتعامل الناس مع بعضهم .. وكيف يحول الاستعمار/الاستبداد/الاستعباد/ الناس إلى مستبدين على بعضهم وينتهبون بعضهم ..
الكتاب جيد ومفيد .. ويفسر كثير من عقليات الاستبداد وهي شبيهة بالاستعمار وتحدث عنه جورج طرابيشي وعقد مقارنة بينه وبين كتاب الانسان ذا البعد الواحد لهربرت ماركوز في المقدمة وأن الأول يتحدث عن الانسان العربي (فانون) والثاني يتحدث عن الانسان الغربي (ماركيوز) ..
الكتاب جيد ومفيد .. ويفسر كثير من عقليات الاستبداد وهي شبيهة بالاستعمار وتحدث عنه جورج طرابيشي وعقد مقارنة بينه وبين كتاب الانسان ذا البعد الواحد لهربرت ماركوز في المقدمة وأن الأول يتحدث عن الانسان العربي (فانون) والثاني يتحدث عن الانسان الغربي (ماركيوز) ..
April 21, 2021
Libro letto sull'onda dell'entusiasmante Il Militante di Viet Tahn Nguyen, nel quale viene diffusamente citato.
Bastano le prime tre righe della sommaria biografia in quarta di copertina per farsi un'idea della statura del personaggio.
Frantz Fanon (Fort de France, Martinica 1925 - Washington, 1961) di origini martinichesi e di formazione francese, dopo la laurea in medicina e gli studi di filosofia, si specializzò in psichiatria....
La leucemia se l'è portato via a 36 anni, non prima di averci lasciato questi scritti fondamentali e sempre attuali. Il più potente manifesto dell'anticolonialismo detta le linee guida per la ribellione e la rinascita delle coscienze dei popoli colonizzati. Passa in rassegna tutti gli aspetti dell'irriducibile antagonismo che esiste tra dominati e dominatori traendone conseguenze tanto estreme, quanto necessarie (il primo saggio si intitola "della violenza").
Con profetica lungimiranza addita tra i più grandi pericoli le lusinghe di un colonialismo "dal volto umano" che avrebbe instaurato una signoria ancora più subdola. Chissà se fosse vissuto più a lungo come avrebbe valutato il buonismi politicamente corretti ed il concetto di "soft power".
Fanon non fa sconti né cede a questi compromessi. I colonizzatori devono semplicemente andarsene, di danni ne hanno già fatti abbastanza, soprattutto per il fatto di aver negato dignità culturale ed azzerato la storia dei popoli colonizzati.
Quindi lettura niente affatto rassicurante e consolatoria, ma d'altronde, come dice Sartre nella sua prefazione, questo libro non è scritto per noi (Europei).
Poi si sa che l'indipendenza delle ex colonie degli imperi britannici e francesi ha prodotto ulteriori conflitti, genocidi e diffusa corruzione. Ma d'altro canto La Repubblica platonica non si è mai vista, la democrazia borghese si è sviluppata in maniera assai diversa da come pensata nel Contratto sociale, ed anche la dittatura del proletariato ha prodotto i suoi bei danni ed i proletari di tutto il mondo oggi sembrano tutto fuorché uniti.
Non per questo Platone Rousseau e Marx sono etichettabili come visionari falliti. Anzi.
Fanon per lucidità dell'analisi e ricchezza di pensiero rientra a pieno titolo in questa schiera.
Bastano le prime tre righe della sommaria biografia in quarta di copertina per farsi un'idea della statura del personaggio.
Frantz Fanon (Fort de France, Martinica 1925 - Washington, 1961) di origini martinichesi e di formazione francese, dopo la laurea in medicina e gli studi di filosofia, si specializzò in psichiatria....
La leucemia se l'è portato via a 36 anni, non prima di averci lasciato questi scritti fondamentali e sempre attuali. Il più potente manifesto dell'anticolonialismo detta le linee guida per la ribellione e la rinascita delle coscienze dei popoli colonizzati. Passa in rassegna tutti gli aspetti dell'irriducibile antagonismo che esiste tra dominati e dominatori traendone conseguenze tanto estreme, quanto necessarie (il primo saggio si intitola "della violenza").
Con profetica lungimiranza addita tra i più grandi pericoli le lusinghe di un colonialismo "dal volto umano" che avrebbe instaurato una signoria ancora più subdola. Chissà se fosse vissuto più a lungo come avrebbe valutato il buonismi politicamente corretti ed il concetto di "soft power".
Fanon non fa sconti né cede a questi compromessi. I colonizzatori devono semplicemente andarsene, di danni ne hanno già fatti abbastanza, soprattutto per il fatto di aver negato dignità culturale ed azzerato la storia dei popoli colonizzati.
Quindi lettura niente affatto rassicurante e consolatoria, ma d'altronde, come dice Sartre nella sua prefazione, questo libro non è scritto per noi (Europei).
Poi si sa che l'indipendenza delle ex colonie degli imperi britannici e francesi ha prodotto ulteriori conflitti, genocidi e diffusa corruzione. Ma d'altro canto La Repubblica platonica non si è mai vista, la democrazia borghese si è sviluppata in maniera assai diversa da come pensata nel Contratto sociale, ed anche la dittatura del proletariato ha prodotto i suoi bei danni ed i proletari di tutto il mondo oggi sembrano tutto fuorché uniti.
Non per questo Platone Rousseau e Marx sono etichettabili come visionari falliti. Anzi.
Fanon per lucidità dell'analisi e ricchezza di pensiero rientra a pieno titolo in questa schiera.
September 14, 2024
Exemplary leftist work.
Some say the most complete synthesizer of political and psychological struggle.
The question is: was Sartre right that his book was an advocacy of violence? Or was Bhabha right that that is too limited a take. Undoubtedly they are both right.
The colonized are a in a position of being violated and liberating themselves (through violence) in such an extreme context is cathartic, but not without its negative effects (the part about the devastating psychological effects on people in war should be enough to convince this book is no simple propaganda for imbecilic aggressive terrorism).
The discomfort for those of us in the 1st world is where to drawn the line on who is colonized and who is not, whether the colonized are only those of the 3rd world 'natives'.
It would also have been interesting to see Fanon take on the Gandhi non-violence position. Perhaps the difference is merely tactical, and non-violence is equally as violent (preferring allowing violence on oneself instead of on others). A dialectic for another time and another book.
There is also intellectual fodder on the intellectual role in revolution. Fanon controversially believes it is the infamous lumpenproletariat who lack class consciousness (in traditional Marxist theories they are considered the lowest of the low, especially criminals, vagrants, and the unemployed) that should lead the true revolution. The leaders should be those who are not involved in industrial production, particularly peasants living outside the cities. Fanon believed that only they (unlike the industrial proletariat) have sufficient independence from the colonists to successfully make a revolution against them.
Discover why Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth has become a handbook for political leaders faced with decolonization. (Not of minor interest is its importance for the Black Panthers in the US also.)
Some say the most complete synthesizer of political and psychological struggle.
The question is: was Sartre right that his book was an advocacy of violence? Or was Bhabha right that that is too limited a take. Undoubtedly they are both right.
The colonized are a in a position of being violated and liberating themselves (through violence) in such an extreme context is cathartic, but not without its negative effects (the part about the devastating psychological effects on people in war should be enough to convince this book is no simple propaganda for imbecilic aggressive terrorism).
The discomfort for those of us in the 1st world is where to drawn the line on who is colonized and who is not, whether the colonized are only those of the 3rd world 'natives'.
It would also have been interesting to see Fanon take on the Gandhi non-violence position. Perhaps the difference is merely tactical, and non-violence is equally as violent (preferring allowing violence on oneself instead of on others). A dialectic for another time and another book.
There is also intellectual fodder on the intellectual role in revolution. Fanon controversially believes it is the infamous lumpenproletariat who lack class consciousness (in traditional Marxist theories they are considered the lowest of the low, especially criminals, vagrants, and the unemployed) that should lead the true revolution. The leaders should be those who are not involved in industrial production, particularly peasants living outside the cities. Fanon believed that only they (unlike the industrial proletariat) have sufficient independence from the colonists to successfully make a revolution against them.
Discover why Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth has become a handbook for political leaders faced with decolonization. (Not of minor interest is its importance for the Black Panthers in the US also.)
May 24, 2014
كتاب رائع يتحدّث عن الإستعمار والتحرّر ومرحلة ما بعد الإستعمار، ويصف دور المثقف في تلك الفترة، ويفرّق بين المثقّف السلبي والمثقّف الذي يلجأ إلى الريف، ويبيّن الدور السلبي والإيجابي للأحزاب، والأمر الرائع في الكتاب هو الفصل الأول الذي يتحدّث فيه عن العنف كحتمية ضرورية لأي شعب يريد التحرر بشكل كامل من الإستعمار
فانون: " إن الشعوب المتخلفة تحطم أصفادها .. و الأمر الخارق أنها .. تنتصر!" ..
“إن تصرُّف المثقف في هذه الفترة تصرُّف رجُل انتهازي رخيص، والحقُّ أن مناوراتِه لم تنقطع لحظة، والشعب لا يريد أن يُبعِدُه أو أن يُحرجه. فما يُريدُه الشعب هو أن يكون كل شيء مشتركـًا .. وجود ذلك الميل الغريب إلى التفاصيل لدى المثقف هو الذي سيؤجِّل انغماس المثقف في الموجة الشعبية العارمة. لا لأ�� الشعب عاجز عن التحليل، فهو يُحب أن تُشرَح له الأمور، هو يُحب أن يفهم مفاصل استدلال من الاستدلالات، يُحب أن يرى إلى أسن هو ذاهب. ولكن المثقف المُستعمَر، في أول اتصاله بالشعب، يُركِّز اهتمامه على التفاصيل الدقيقة، ويصل من ذلك إلى نسيان هدف الكفاح نفسُه، ألا وهو إلحاق الهزيمة بالاستعمار”
فانون: " إن الشعوب المتخلفة تحطم أصفادها .. و الأمر الخارق أنها .. تنتصر!" ..
“إن تصرُّف المثقف في هذه الفترة تصرُّف رجُل انتهازي رخيص، والحقُّ أن مناوراتِه لم تنقطع لحظة، والشعب لا يريد أن يُبعِدُه أو أن يُحرجه. فما يُريدُه الشعب هو أن يكون كل شيء مشتركـًا .. وجود ذلك الميل الغريب إلى التفاصيل لدى المثقف هو الذي سيؤجِّل انغماس المثقف في الموجة الشعبية العارمة. لا لأ�� الشعب عاجز عن التحليل، فهو يُحب أن تُشرَح له الأمور، هو يُحب أن يفهم مفاصل استدلال من الاستدلالات، يُحب أن يرى إلى أسن هو ذاهب. ولكن المثقف المُستعمَر، في أول اتصاله بالشعب، يُركِّز اهتمامه على التفاصيل الدقيقة، ويصل من ذلك إلى نسيان هدف الكفاح نفسُه، ألا وهو إلحاق الهزيمة بالاستعمار”
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