Frantz Fanon’s Liberation Philosophy

Colonialism rests on violence, and only violence can overthrow violence.

That is to say, decolonialization can proceed only by violence (self-defense by peoples, by one “species” of men from the violence of another, the “settler”).

Truth is politically determined: colonialism’s violence includes disinformation/brainwashing. “The native is declared insensitive to ethics; he represents not only the absence of values, but also the negation of values.”

Compare Marx on psychological determinism: economic factors determine consciousness.

Anti-colonial violence liberates the native from an “inferiority complex” induced by the violence of colonialism.

Individualism is a colonialist strategy of division of natural (“native”) communitarianism.

Fact: In Algiers, alcoholism, gambling, and prostitution were eliminated or much reduced after the revolution.

Fanon’s prediction: “The settler will go home.”

Fact: Over a million French left Algeria at the time of Indepedence (July 1962).

Call for reflection: The non-violence (ahimsa) and ethical appeal (satyagraha) of Mahatma Gandhi (against British colonialism in India) and Martin Luther King (against segregation and racism in the American South) would appear an alternative to the politics of Fanon and violence. Is this correct? Does the success of passive disobedience against unjust laws or policies depend on special circumstances, in mores or facts?

Some challenges to Fanon’s way of thinking:

1. Are there really different “species” or “tribes” of humans? Should the nation state be tribal? Note: at least some nation states are not founded on ethnic origin (U.S., Canada, France, Great Britain, etc.).

2. Cannot interests of disparate cultural groups converge?

3. Is communitarianism a viable modern political option?

4. Would not Algeria be more prosperous today if the nationalist revolution had been less violent?

5. Do ends justify means? (Recall Gandhi’s criticism of the ends/means distinction: p. 245. And is there anything that is just an “end” without being instrumental for something else?)