Frantz Fanon & Wretched of The Earth

1 Major Themes of The Wretched of the Earth
Frantz Fanon
Frantz Fanon’s full name is Frantz Omar Fanon, (born July 20, 1925, Fort-de-France,
Martinique—died December 6, 1961, Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.), also known as
Ibrahim Frantz Fanon. He was Algerian political theorist, Psychiatrist, philosopher,
revolutionary, Marxist, and a writer. His works are influential in the fields of post-colonial
studies, critical theory and Marxism. He volunteered for the French army during World War
II. He was a part of Algerian War of Independence.
In 1956 became an editor of its newspaper, El Moudjahid, published in Tunis. In 1960 he
was appointed ambassador to Ghana. That same year Fanon was diagnosed leukemia.
His important books are:

 Black Skin, White Masks (1952)
 The Wretched of the Earth (1961)
 A Dying Colonialism (1959)
 Toward the African Revolution (1964)
Wretched of The Earth
Franz Fanon was a distinguished Black psychiatrist and anticolonialism from Algeria.
He published Wretched of the Earth in 1963. “The Wretched of the Earth”, is considered by
many to be one of the canonical books on the worldwide black liberation struggles of the
1960’s. He is writing in anger because of the need of independence for his country in this
book. He addresses the role of violence in decolonization and the challenges of political
organization and the class collisions and questions of cultural hegemony in the creation and
maintenance of a new country’s national consciousness. His approach to the matter is by
no means a settle approach, but instead his attack is revolutionary. One of his main points is
that the first will be last and the last will be the first. He also uses many other ideologies
that support his beliefs and viewpoints. This book is very interesting and can be utilized in
many different ways.
Key Points of The Wretched of the Earth
He speaks of the divided self-perception of the Black Subject who has lost his native cultural
originality and embraced the culture of the mother country.
As a result of the inferiority complex engendered in the mind of the Black Subject, he will try
to appropriate and imitate the cultural code of the colonizer.
The behavior, Fanon argues, is even more evident in upwardly mobile and educated Black people
who can afford to acquire the trappings of White culture.
The Wretched of the Earth is a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized and their
path to liberation.
Composed by M. Arif & Ghulam Ali M.A English Part-2 Govt. College Civil Lines Multan
Fanon defines and explains colonialism and decolonization from a political, philosophical,
historical, and socio-cultural perspective.
Defines colonialism and its constructs, the psychology of colonialism and its subtle effects
on the colonized, the use of language as a tool of oppression, and—most important—the
need for a (violent) revolution against the colonial, ruling class.
Colonization is a creation of two conflicting societies, one of the colonizer and one of the
colonized.
This book concentrates on the unlawful and unjust treatment given by the invaders, which
are the Europeans.
Fanon advocated violence against the settlers as the way for colonized people to regain their sense
of self-respect.
Even if anticolonial violence were the only way to regain a sense of self-respect, however,
such violence would not be automatically justifiable.
Major Themes of The Wretched of the Earth

 Politics and Psychology
 Liberation and Consciousness
 Cycles of Violence
 Race vs. Tribe
 Manichaeism
 Nation vs. Culture
 History and Theory
Politics and Psychology

Fanon, a psychiatrist, was especially interested in how colonialism affects the
psychological makeup of the colonized. In his understanding, the colonist subjugates the
colonized not only economically and politically, but also psychologically, by imposing an
inferiority complex on those they subjugate. The colonized also experience psychological
problems due to the trauma of violence at the hands of the colonist. As a result, political
problems and psychological health are deeply connected. When the colonized experience
neuroses, depression, and other disorders, the cure is as much political as it is personal.
Colonialism creates the very identities of colonized and colonist, which makes it not only a
political regime, but also a psychological one.
Liberation and Consciousness
Related to the connection between politics and psychology, Fanon argues that
decolonization will not only liberate the colonized from exploitation, but will also free his
mind. A persistent theme throughout The Wretched of the Earth is the different forms of
consciousness, or self-awareness, that liberation and independence can bring. Most
important, for Fanon, is a national consciousness, or an awareness of oneself as belonging

to a free and sovereign nation. Under colonialism, Africans have no nation, because they are
controlled by European authority. But in decolonization, Africans are liberated to think of
themselves as having control over the conditions of their life. The freeing of their land from
colonial control is also a freeing of their minds from submission and subjugation.
Cycles of Violence
Violence is a frequent theme in The Wretched of the Earth, and Fanon is
particularly interested in showing how different forms of violence repeat in colonial and
post-colonial history. Colonialism first maintains the authority of the colonist through
violence, eliciting submission from the colonized through the police and soldiers. But this
means that the colonized can only free themselves by reversing the dynamic and
themselves exercising violence against the colonist. The colonized learn violence from the
colonist, and then use it against them. At the same time, after independence, the most
powerful within the new nation may, like the old colonists, once against use violence to
elicit the submission of the rural masses. Thus, the cycle begins again.
Race vs. Tribe
Under Manichaeism, which sets up white vs. black as the primary difference in the
world, a number of other differences get erased. To the colonist, all Blacks, no matter their
tribe or religion, are the same, because it is race that is the primary marker of worth and
humanity. Race subsumes tribe. But this can also be a resource for the colonized who are
fighting back against colonization, because it allows people to form coalitions against a
common enemy: the colonist. Multiple tribes can come together to fight the colonist. In
turn, the colonist may try to have a different strategy, once decolonization begins, of
breaking up a nation into tribes, pitting one tribe against the other, in order to weaken the
opposition. In all cases, the relation between race and tribe is of central importance in The
Wretched of the Earth.
Manichaeism
Manichaeism was a dualistic religious system in early Christianity that split the
world into good and evil, light and dark. Fanon uses Manichaeism to refer to the
colonist's simplistic, dualistic worldview in which the world is divided into good and
evil, white and black, colonist and colonized. But, just like colonial violence, the
dichotomy can be reversed. Under decolonization, the colonized begin to think of the
colonist as evil in the same way that the colonist used to think of the colonized. Thus, a
dualistic worldview is a theme through colonialism and decolonization alike.
Nation vs. Culture
Another important theme throughout The Wretched of the Earth is the relation
between culture and nation, especially the decolonized nation after independence. The
colonized intellectual at first tries to assert an African culture to counter the hegemony or
self-proclaimed superiority of European culture. To do this, the intellectual might try to
excavate cultural materials from African history. In this view, finding culture is a way of
finding legitimacy for the new nation. But Fanon argues that, in the end, culture actually
arises from the process of nation-building itself. It is when men are fighting for their
freedom that culture is produced and comes into being. Cultural production—and the
intellectual—must then be an integral part of the work of achieving political freedom.
History and Theory
One of The Wretched of the Earth's most important achievements is its
combination of history and theory, and Fanon makes the relation between these a theme of
the book. On the one hand, Fanon narrates the history of decolonization, in
particular how people come into a consciousness that leads them to overthrow colonialism
and how people organize during and after independence. On the other hand, Fanon is also
theorizing about why events unfold the way they do, drawing upon both Marxist theories of
class and revolution and psychological theories about the mental state of men under
conditions of violence. By weaving history and theory together, Fanon makes a powerful
argument about how decolonization happens, and why it is important.

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1 Major Themes of The Wretched of the Earth

His important books are:

Wretched of The Earth

Major Themes of The Wretched of the Earth

Politics and Psychology

important, for Fanon, is a national consciousness, or an awareness of oneself as belonging

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