Fanon, Frantz (1925–1961)

Early Years

Fanon was born in 1925 on the island of Martinique, a French colony. Fanon was born to a well-to-do family. His father was a descendant of African slaves, and his mother was a descendant of mixed races. Fanon went to one of the most prestigious high schools in Martinique, Lycée Schoelcher. Aimé Cesairé was his teacher and influenced his thinking on colonialism and liberation.

Fanon was affected by the abuse French soldiers imposed on people in Martinique. Witnessing how the French regime oppressed his people and its racist attitude toward the colonized, Fanon developed his consciousness as a defender of liberation and fought against racism his whole life. He left the Caribbean island at 18 years of age and joined the Free French Forces. In 1944, he received the Croix de Guerre medal for his participation in the military.

In 1954, Fanon joined the Front de Libération Nationale. Devoting his efforts to the liberation and decolonization of the Third World, Fanon made various trips to Algeria to study the life of Algerians. He was expelled from Algeria in January 1957.

Scholarly Contributions

In his well-known work, The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon developed the concept of Black consciousness. He maintained that colonizers viewed the colonized as not humans. He deconstructed the dichotomous system that represented blackness as evil and whiteness as good. He said that to be free from psychological oppression, total revolution, including the use of violence, may be required. Fanon argued that the revolution of African colonies would depend on the peasants. He did not believe that the bourgeoisie and elites could create the revolution needed by African colonies. He believed that the nationalism supported by the bourgeoisie was insufficient given that this class was invested in the system. Fanon argued that White colonialism imposed on African people created a degrading existence for Africans and demanded their conformity to the oppressive system.

Fanon's view of the colonized went beyond developing countries and was also relevant to major social change in industrial countries. For example, Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) made extended references to Fanon in his espousal of Black Power. Ture saw a close relationship between Black Power and Fanon's call for a new force in countries emerging from colonialism during the 20th century.

In Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon continued to develop his theory on the Black consciousness. He explored the psychological relationship between the colonized and the colonizer as well as between the dominated and the dominator. Emphasizing his role as a Black intellectual in the White world, he discussed how he conceived himself as a Black man in relation to Whites. For Fanon, his speaking French signified being coerced into accepting the French consciousness, which supported the hierarchical construction between blackness and whiteness. Being colonized by a language represented the alienation of the Black man from himself. Fanon eventually renounced his French upbringing and education.

...