The Wretched of the Earth

 Hello everyone, in this blog i will discuss about some question related to Fanon's work The Wretched of the Earth. 

Introduction of The Wretched of the Earth 

The Wretched of the Earth is Frantz Fanon's seminal 1961 book, originally published in French, about the effects of colonization on the minds of the colonized, and the efforts by the colonized to overthrow the colonizers. It draws from Fanon’s own experience as a Black man living in Algeria and witnessing the brutal war for independence from France in the 1950s. The book both narrates these experiences and theorizes them in a larger context of racial and national oppression.

The book was very much of its time. In a wave of decolonization following World War II, a number of public intellectuals were discussing how colonized people would create new nations after independence. At the same time, the horrors of colonization were still coming to light, and it was important to discuss how the inherent violence of colonialism impacted the psychological makeup of the colonized. Fanon contributed to all these lines of thought. As a Black man, as a witness of war, and as a psychiatrist, he weaved together philosophy, journalism, and psychoanalysis to describe the colonial and postcolonial situation.

The book is also very much of our own time. It is a classic text in postcolonial theory, and it is still much debated and discussed by scholars of race, nation, and global capitalism. On the 50th anniversary of the book’s publication, the influential academic journal Theory, Culture, and Society published a special symposium on the book. Political philosophers and psychoanalysts alike contributed to the symposium, suggesting the impact Fanon has had in multiple fields and many different schools of thought.

1. Describe what Manichaeism means in a colonial context.

   Manichaeism is a dualistic worldview. In the colonial context, it divides the world into just two classes of people: the colonized and the colonist. To the colonist, the colonized are black and evil whereas the colonist is white and good. The revolutionary opponent of colonialism flips this opposition: to him, the colonized is virtuous, and the colonist is evil and must be overthrown.

2. 2

   What is the role of violence in colonialism?

   Violence is the original means by which the colonist subjugates the colonized. Through violence, it teaches the colonized that they are powerless. But when the colonized begin to use violence against the colonial powers, they unlearn their submissiveness. Through violence, they develop a new post-colonial consciousness.

1. What does Fanon mean when he says “the infrastructure is also a superstructure” in colonialism?

   In Marxism, the infrastructure is the economy and the superstructure is the sphere of culture and society. The infrastructure is supposed to determine the superstructure, which means that social inequalities are determined by economic realities. Fanon says that is not true in colonialism. In colonialism, racial inequality creates economic inequality. The infrastructure (economy) does not determine the superstructure (racial inequality): rather, they are one and the same. Economic equality is maintained through racial inequality.

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   What, according to Fanon, is wrong with the “racialization” of culture?

   The racialization of culture means turning all of culture into matters of race. The colonized intellectual, in reaction to the denigration of African culture by the Europeans, racializes culture in order to assert the legitimacy of culture across Africa. But this means fighting a cultural battle on the colonist’s terms. Instead of lumping everything into a category based on race, ignoring national and ethnic differences, Fanon argues for a national culture that is about a people asserting their own nationhood, rather than race.

3. What is the national bourgeoisie and why does Fanon think it is “useless”?

   The national bourgeoisie are those who are in charge of the economy after independence, when the colonists are no longer in power. They are the African elite in a given nation. But they are “useless” because they end up re-creating the same colonial conditions of exploitation. They are mere “intermediaries” that sell the resources of the country back to Europe. Instead, Fanon calls for a new direction in nationhood that is truly democratic.