Introduction to Frantz Fanon
39th Annual Marxist Summer
Intensive
July 18, 2014
Kazembe Balagun
kazembe@gmail.com
Goals of Session
• Understanding of Frantz Fanon’s life and time
• Defining Colonialism and Imperialism
• Looking closely at Fanon’s work Wretched of
the Earth
Who was Frantz Fanon?
• Born July 20 1925 in Martinique, a colony of
France
• Grew up in a middle class household
• Loved the football and the cinema’
• His teacher was…..
Aime Cesaire 1913-2008
Founder of Negritude, Member of the Martinique Communist Party
Despite facing racism at home Fanon joins
the Free French forces and fights in North
Africa. His experience is similar to thousands
of Black soliders from the Caribbean, Africa
and North America who fought fascism
abroad but lived with racism at home.
• Fanon relocates to
France and attends
medical school. He is
drawn to the world of
Parisian culture,
particular the writings
of philosopher Jean
Paul Sarte.
Radical Psychiatry and National Liberation
Fanon and National Liberation
Fanon’s Influence
Key Themes of Fanon’s Work
• Turned Marx and Hegel
on its head
• Looked at the
depersonalizing effects
of racism
• The role of violence and
culture in revolutionary
struggle
• Help shape Third World
Marxism
What is Colonialism/Imperialism?
• Imperialism is the point
when nation states
become monopolized
and foreign capital is
exported from the
home country
(metropole) to the
subordinate countries.
It is monopoly
capitalism at its highest
stage
• Colonialism is a system
of exploitation where a
foreign power or
powers controls the
resources of a given
terrority. It is
settlement of land for
the purpose of profit.
Triangle Slave Trade
Sugar Driving World Market
Invisibility of Colonialism/Imperialism
Master Slave Dialectic
Concerning Violence
• “Violence is a cleansing force for the
oppressed”
• Violence is linked to a global strategy against
imperialism
• Violence is the a link to creating a new people
• The challenge of native leadership
Culture
• Culture is the consent of rule
• Being Black is not enough
Examples of Algerian Revolution
This is the Voice of Algeria