Frantz Fanon and colonialism

Introduction
The Life of Fanon
Frantz Fanon and its Contribution in the Society
Fanon’s comprehension of Colonialism and its relationship to Marxist Ideology
Conclusion

Introduction

This article examines Fanon's work which questions and attempts to question colonialism

understand the consequences of this regime, not only on a social level, but also on an individual level

level. Fanon was able to understand its depth through his practice in the field of psychiatry

resentment and suffering within the fabric of colonialism of the Algerian people. This first

manual experiences of alienation due to colonialism were later expressed in works such as

The wretches of the earth, A dying colonialism inside, Black Skin White Mask and the book with the title Towards the African Revolution. This module presents the factors that led to Fanon

such a vision of colonialism and how he thought this situation could be overcome. He was one

supporter of the group of revolutionaries FLN who practiced violent means to threaten and

terrorize the colonial administration.

He believed that colonialism created a situation where natives disciplined themselves and accepted that they were submissive, second-class citizens. Colonialism, through its practice and knowledge construction, creates the myth of white superiority which is in turn internalized by the natives. This leads to a situation where the native starts underestimating himself and also feels worthless. This colonial episteme forces an individual to hate himself for the way he is biologically and culturally formed. Fanon's contribution over time has influenced postcolonial discourse on colonialism and natives and how and what kind of knowledge system he created and how this form of knowledge and language is reproduced in various forms to this day. Ashish Nandy used some of his insights to explain how colonial rule in India constructed an episteme in which natives looked down on their own bodies and cultures.

Before we delve into how and why Fanon chose to understand the worldviews of individuals through the field of psychiatry, it is necessary to know a little more about his biography.

The Story of Frantz Fanon

Frantz Fanon was born on July 20, 1925 in Fort-de-France, the capital of Martinique. He was the youngest son of Casimir and Eleanor. He had seven siblings and thus his family was more or less a unit showing bourgeois aspirations. His mother was a shop owner and his father was a government official. His father spent a lot of time working to support the family, so he wasn't much involved in raising the children, and neither was his mother Eléanore. For years, Fanon harbored a hard grudge against his father for not being more closely involved in his and his siblings' lives. This resentment is evidenced in an excerpt from a letter Fanon wrote to his father while serving in the French army during World War II: he can see the expression you'll make reading these lines, but it's the truth. Look at yourself, look at all the past years; bare your soul and have the courage to say: I have failed them.' (page 10). As with all of his brothers, Joby is very close to him. But despite close ties, affection was quite rare in the Fanon household. When he finished elementary school and entered his teens, he began to leave his sports, clubs and friends to spend his time reading at the local library in Fort-de-France and he discovered a keen interest in French literature and philosophy. In short, there were many difficulties he faced, especially during his training.

In 1939, he enrolled at the Lycée Shoelcher in Fort-de-France and the tuition was so high that only 4% of blacks in Martinique could afford it. During this period, there was a war, so his mother sent him with his brother Joby to Le François secondary school, where his uncle Edward was the teacher. At that time, together with his colleague, he attended for the first time to a demonstration of racism by the Vichy French army. After the capitulation of France, he became interested in the war and returned to Martinique after six months. When the war ended in 1945 he was sent to a port at the mouth of the Seine at Rouen to stay for a few months until being shipped back to Martinique.

After his return in October 1945, he decides to re-enroll at the Lycee Schoelcher to complete his secondary education. When he finishes taking an oral exam and gets a baccalaureate, there is a prerequisite for entering a university. The good news is that there are free tuition for those baccalaureate students at the university of their choice. Fanon decided to study dentistry in Paris, France, but after a few weeks he dropped out and chose to study medicine. During his medical studies, he had a relationship with Michelle (a white medical student). In 1948, Michelle gave birth to Mirreille. He did not marry her and instead married Josie in 1952.

Very interested and attracted to psychiatry, he obtained a degree in the discipline, after which he returned to Martinique and began his medical practice. He quickly realizes that “the essential problems of the Martinican natives are of a political and economic nature”. He then found that the root causes of people's suffering were alienation, malnutrition, poor sanitation, and shoddy public health practices. The discovery had touched him, he published an article "The Lived Experience of the Black Man" in the French magazine Esprit. Then he realized that medicines are not enough to meet people's needs, so he decided to take a different action.

He decided to pursue psychiatry as a full-time profession and in November 1951 was selected for the psychiatric residency program at the Hospital de Saint Alban in central France, under the supervision of Professor Fracois Tosquelles. During the residency, he researched electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) with Tosquelles and presented three papers at a professional conference on the subject, concluding that the use of ECT was one of the "ultimate remedies for chronic, desperate, and complicated, in which post-therapeutic deficit would be less of an issue in light of the patient's progressive mental decline.48 In this article, Fanon discusses racism against patients in French medical establishments and describes North African syndrome, a psychosomatic syndrome which he believes is rooted in racism and oppression.

Frantz Fanon and its Contribution in the Society

Fanon was a literary scholar, author, philosopher, Marxist, psychiatrist and member of the National Liberation Front (FLN) during the Algerian Revolution. One of the contributions is his literary work, which consists of four essays in addition to articles in L'Esprit and the journal FLN. His first book, Peau Noire, Masques Blancs, was published in 1952, followed by L'An Cinq, de la Révolution algérienne in 1959. His third and perhaps most prestigious literary work, Les Damnes de la Terre, was published shortly before his death. in 1961 His fourth book, Puor la Révolution Africaine, was published in 1964, three years after his death.

Here, on every page of this book, he expresses his own feelings about his experiences during the revolution in Algeria. In each book, he addresses aspects of oppression through concepts such as racism, alienation, segregation, dehumanization, and psychopathology. He also speaks vividly in these books of his own experiences of struggling with the downtrodden and oppressors. In his book Wretched of the Earth, he vividly explained colonialism, oppression and violent decolonization. This contribution of Fanon, especially in his book Les Miserables of the Earth, had a major impact on the Algerian people to fight for their freedom against white supremacy.

Fanon’s comprehension of Colonialism and its relationship to Marxist Ideology

The Wretched of the Earth written by Fanon as translated by Richard Philcox into English in 2004, was originally published in 1961. It uses the Algerian experience of colonialism to fight for liberation against racism, oppression and the dehumanization of innocent people . An expert practitioner of psychiatry and experience of discrimination caused by colonialism, he encourages the colonized to ask themselves: "Who are they really?".

This question awakens the Algerian people (colonized) to fight and defend their rights against the whites (colonizers). To understand more about colonialism, we need to understand the colonized and colonial world. The two worlds have their own role, motive and intention in society. The colonized world was divided in two, the border represented by the barracks and the commissariat. It is because in the colonies the official, legitimate agent, the spokesman of the colonizer and the regime of oppression is the policeman or the soldier. It is also a world without space, people are piled on top of each other and huts are crowded because people mix. It is a hungry sector, hungry for bread, meat, shoes, coal and light.

Conclusion

Fanon's ideology of colonialism is very relevant in our contemporary context. Today we live in a globalized world where a new form of neo-colonization has made most people suffer because the state has taken their own land from them in the name of corporations and the bourgeoisie. Through impoverishment, the poor have even been deprived of their dignity. In Fanon's book on Dying Colonialism, translated by Haakon Chevalier, he mentions it very clearly; it is the white man who creates the Negro. But it is the Negro who creates Negritude. It means that in colonialism settlers claim to own everything when they go to a place, nation or country with a different race. They claim ownership because they have nothing at all. They want to control and dominate to rule. Colonial governmentality questions the identity of indigenous people themselves. The superiority of the white race over non-whites has been shaped by the myth of the cultural, social and political superiority of Europeans. It is then through hegemonic forms of knowledge systems and superior civilizational ideologies that the colonizer colonizes the indigenous mind. So much so that the native begins to internalize the idea of his subordination, resulting in complete and despotic domination by the settlers.

Bibliography

Blake, H. T. (2011): “ Frantz Fanon and colonialism: A psychology of Oppression” Scientific Psychology
Bulhan, H. A. (1985): “Frantz Fanon and the psychology of Oppression”, New York, NY: Plenum Press.
Fanon, F. (1952): “Black Skin, White Mask”, Translated by Charles Lam Markmann Grove Press Inc 1967, New York.
Fanon, F. (1961): “Wretched of the Earth”, Translated by Richard Philcox, Grove Press New York.
Fanon, F. (1964): “Toward the African Revolution”, translated by Haakon Chevalier, Grove Press, New York 1967.
Fanon, F. (1959): “A Dying Colonialism”, Translated by Haakon Chevalier, Grove Press 1965.
Macey, D. (2000): “Franz fanon Autobiography”, New York, NY: Pan book limited.