A Dying Colonialism

This book was originally published, I believe, as "Year Five of the Algerian Revolution." This revolution, which beganon Nov. 1, 1954 and ended in 1962, became the archetype of anti-colonial revolt purely as a result of Fanon's record of it.

Unfortunately, the Algerian, who had suffered under French domination for 130 years, was outmatched --- but not hopelessly outmatched --- by the French occupying forces. Over 1 million Algerians died in the struggle to give birth to a free Algeria, but only 15000 French soldiers. Fanon writes about the cultural transformations that occurred --- that HAD to occur --- to give fighting Algeria a fighting chance.

Westerners often criticize the Arab world for its allegedly sexist treatment of women. Critics often use the veil as a metaphor for this "oppression." French colonizers, whose goal was the complete destruction of Algerian culture, often used the veil to create a rift in Algerian society. They did so by trying to Europeanize Algerian women --- getting them to cast away the veil and wear make-up and immodest dress --- and by forcing Algerian men bring their wives with them to social functions, taboo in Algerian society.

Fanon shows how the revolution not only healed the rift between the traditional Algerian patriarch and the "modern" woman, but created a new culture with new, non-sexist, values.

For instance, the traditionalist Algerian woman, in the course of the revolution, learned to leave the home, alone, even to doff the hajib, in order to pose as a "modern" woman who could fool the French into thinking she was not a spy for the mujahidin. The "modern" woman, conversely, could come back into the fold by wearing the hajib. The French, thinking her harmless, would not realize that, under her garments, she carried supplies for the rebels.

Fanon also talks about how the Algerian's attitude toward modern medicine and modern technology, seemingly backward to the French, changed completely when these instances of modernity ceased to represent French colonialism, but became instruments of Algerian self-determination.

"A Dying Colonialism" is not as gripping as Fanon's other three books, but is nonetheless a classic.


A Voice of the Voiceless   May 5, 2006
Elijah Chingosho (Nairobi, Kenya)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

"A Dying Colonialism" is one of the lesser known books by Franz Fanon, the other better known works being "Black Shin, White Masks"-"Peau noir, masques blancs" (1952) and "The Wretched of the Earth" - "les damn?s de la terre (1961)". Fanon was born on the French colony of Martinique, a descendant of African slaves, who had been brought to the Caribbean to work on the island's sugar plantations.

In this book, Fanon espouses his beliefs and ideas that it is only through violent revolution that colonial repression and cultural trauma in the Third World can be ended. He argued that violence is a cleansing force which frees the native from his inferiority complex and from his despair and inaction, making him fearless and restoring his self-respect.

In his teenage years, Fanon was politically active and participated in the guerrilla struggle against the supporters of the pro-Nazi French Vichy government. He served in the Free French forces. After the war he studied medicine and psychiatry in Paris and Lyons.

Fanon argued that white colonialism imposed an existentially false and degrading existence upon its black victims to the extent that it demanded their conformity to its distorted values. The colonized is not seen by the colonizer a human being; this is also the picture the colonized is forced to accept.

In 1954 the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) started its open warfare against French rule. In 1957 Fanon joined the Algerian liberation movement that sought to throw off French rule. Fanon traveled guerrilla camps, hid terrorists at his home and trained nurses to dress wounds. In 1959 he was severely wounded on the border of Algeria and Morocco. Fanon then worked briefly as an ambassador of the provisional Algerian government to Ghana and edited in Tunisia the magazine "Moudjahid".

Fanon distinguished himself as revolutionary writer, whose writings had profound influence on the anti-colonial as well as revolutionary movements in the 1950s and 1960s not only in third world countries but also in the United States and Europe. Fanon himself died in 1961 and could not witness Algeria's independence.



Informative, Interesting, Sometimes Dry   February 26, 2010
Lacey Losh (Lincoln, NE)
Most parts of this book were fascinating. I read this book to familiarize myself with Algeria's revolutionary changes during the mid 1900s. I'm planning to read collections of essays and novels about this subject in the near future, and I wanted a little background knowledge of the struggle of the Algerian people during this time period.

This book did the job, but for a relatively small book, there were a few parts I found I had to force my way through. Still, it was quite informative and very interesting for the most part.


Strident, but valuable.   December 18, 1998
Adam Scoville (Denver, CO USA)
5 out of 10 found this review helpful

Though I find his anticolonialist views a bit over-vitriolic at times, there's a very interesting piece entitled "This is the Voice of Algeria." It details how the radio went, in Algeria, from being a social embarassment (for Western integrated views on sexual morality and culture, as integrated into the programming were not appreciated) to being the life-giving source of information in just a few years. It also details the French government's attempts to curtail this cultural association by banning the sale of radios and even spare batteries. Moreover, a cautionary tale; though we think we are past censorial press licensing and such, the current restrictive policies on encryption software seem a similar attempt to prevent dissemination of the tools of speech and association.


45 years after, what are the results?   January 7, 2008
Pierrette Komarek (Boca Raton Florida)
0 out of 8 found this review helpful

The results of this glorious de-colonisation is that since the french have left --over 250.000 Algerians have died, women and children included, and the ones that can afford it all moved back to France,with the "oppressors."... While the Pieds Noirs have thrived wherever they have landed.

PS: I am wondering if the authors of this book ever were in Algeria,I doubt it somehow?