The Wretched of the Earth

Although socialism has seemingly collapsed in the years since Fanon's work was first published, there is much in his look into the political, racial, and social psyche of the ever-emerging Third World that still rings true at the cusp of a new century. --Eugene Holley, Jr.

Product Description
A distinguished psychiatrist from Martinique who took part in the Algerian Nationalist Movement, Frantz Fanon was one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history. Fanon's masterwork is a classic alongside Edward Said's Orientalism or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and it is now available in a new translation that updates its language for a new generation of readers. The Wretched of the Earth is a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized and their path to liberation. Bearing singular insight into the rage and frustration of colonized peoples, and the role of violence in effecting historical change, the book incisively attacks the twin perils of post independence colonial politics: the disenfranchisement of the masses by the elites on the one hand, and intertribal and interfaith animosities on the other. Fanon's analysis, a veritable handbook of social reorganization for leaders of emerging nations, has been reflected all too clearly in the corruption and violence that has plagued present-day Africa. The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on civil rights, anticolonialism, and black consciousness movements around the world, and this bold new translation by Richard Philcox reaffirms it as a landmark.

Romanticizing the rural mass and then marginalizing their ability to coherently rule themselves, Fanon justifies propagandistic manipulation, nationalized education and infrastructure, marginalization of ethnicity and cultural diversity; essentialy what he advocates is the construction of a technocracy that garbs itself in "revolutionary" euphemisms and uses the rural quantity as a check on the independence and economic and educational flexibility of urbanized elites. My professor saw my perspective as skewed, and perhaps it is.

At any rate, given my suspicions about the ends Fanon sees as his structure, I consequently have contempt for his reasoning enunciating violence. First, he eloquently and passionately illustrates the techniques of imperialism in subjugating the colonized. This is his book's greatest strength; however, many readers enamored of this aspect seem incapable of critiquing the rest of the book.

From his economic and social analysis of colonialism, Fanon is able to racialize a state of conflict between the oppressed and oppressor. This constructs social identity in a way that is useful for his arguments for violence. What would be called indiscriminate terrorism in many contexts becomes logically justified by Fanon's racial construct. It is the artifice of identity based on race that allows the justification of violence perpetrated on the basis of being black or white.

Some would argue that despite Fanon's racialization of the conflict, Fanon always sees it as an economic relationship. Thus, his justification of attack on the urban black and the acceptance of the sympathetic white makes sense. Others would argue that this is just a bone thrown to the theorists that ultimately means nothing to the application of violence. I, however, see it as a verbose argument for terrorism committed on black people without removing the racism from his theory. In essence it is a smokescreen for calling the urban black pursuing economic security as an "oreo." Thus terrorism committed on the independent shopkeeper is an attack on the proxy of the white man; while the white sympathizer is a propaganda tool.

In essence, Fanon's theory is a justification for violence based on race; and for the control of people through propaganda and terror while spouting democratic themes. In practice we see this sort of technique used by regimes that prey on their own people and finance their repression with drug smuggling and corruption (re: Myanmar, FARC, the Taleban).

If you read Fanon and find this sort of thing making sense, take a good long look in the mirror. It is important to at least be honest with yourself before becoming enmired in hypocrisy. Fanon clearly despised himself; unfortunately he transferred that emotion onto an entire society.


The truth is here   October 18, 2001
nadav haber (jerusalem Israel)
45 out of 62 found this review helpful

Reading this amazing book in 2001, the first fact that blew my mind was how relevant this book is in today's world, even though it was written in 1961.
This book is an attempt at understanding the processes of decolonialization, and offering a constructive way to make this process successful and meaningful. Seemingly, it has only historic value in today's decolonized world. But as I read the book, from its beginning to its end, I could not help finding parallels to many current world issues. Wherever there is a situation of oppressed groups trying to put an end to their oppression - the words of Fanon are relevant and enlightening.

Fanon helped me understand the attitudes of the oppressed (found today mainly in Africa and Asia), and the pitfalls of the national liberation struggles. Reading this book explained why so many countries replaced colonialism with corrupt dictatorships.

This book shows that Fanon is one of the sharpest and most truthful intelectuals of the 20th century.

I know I did not manage to convey the full impact this book had on me. The impact may become clear when I say that this book must be translated to every language, taught in every high school system, and discussed at every academic and political level.


Fanon Does Not Glorify Violence! (and Other Corrections)   July 12, 2003
35 out of 41 found this review helpful

Those reviews that castigate Fanon for "glorifying violence" ought to be ignored. Fanon is writing, among other things, a phenomenology of anti-colonialism. It is meant neither as a recommendation nor a condemnation but as a description of the objective truth of a historical condition. That is, for Fanon reverse racist violent nationalism is a stage in the emergence of a political consiciousness that will eventually overcome and, indeed, renounce its own beginnings. What is remarkable is that people at present are so manifestly incapable of reading a dialctical unfolding such as this. The violence of the Algerian War had already largely taken place at the time of Fanon's writing and, let it be recalled, it was primarily the murder of Algerians by the French, for whom African imperialism is still a profitable if somewhat unsavory business.
While Fanon tracks the stages in the evolution of a radical anti-capitalist consciousness in the underdeveloped world, there is no question of his endorsing or advocating violence. One has only to read the final chapter on the psychological effects on both the colonizer and the colonized to see that Fanon is acutely aware of the brutality for all concerned of the Algerian War, even or, indeed, especially, for the oppressors themselves. There is certainly no question of his endorsing the indiscriminate horrors committed that were committed by the FLN against their oppressors.
The other thing, of course, that the petulant, anti-intellectual, ahistorical reactionaries who have shared their opinions here conveniently ignore is the violence inherent in the settler colonialism Fanon was addressing. As for the comparison with India, it is indeed illuminating, and one might profitably develop Fanon into a critique of the post-colonial India elite. After all, the real thrust of the book is its attempt to push anti-imperialism in a genuinely democratic direction, insofar as this was even possible for a largely peasant agricultural society caught within a much larger capitalist cosmos. At any rate, contra one reviewer, in the much-vaunted democracy of India, were peasants substantially liberated by the Indian National Congress from their indebtedness and from coercive labor practices? For his part, Fanon is not content with such liberal eye-wash as the talk of "Indian democracy" achieved through non-violence. In stark contrast to many other romantic commentators, he is keenly aware that there is nothing save radical democratic organized politics that can prevent post-colonial societies from a descent into poverty, despair, and the reactionary resurgence of "leadership" and virulently post-traditional "ethnicities" and "religiosities" though, in the face of the further defeat of the radical left in the West, most likely there is nothing to prevent the implosion of the Third World and the exhaustion (and extermination) of progressive energies there. Pages 95ff. in which Fanon discusses the terrible brutality of the very attempt to create industrialism in a country such as Algeria, and the awful irony of "independence" from the wealth of the colonizer are powerful and utterly ignored by most "radicals" who refuse to see that the resources already exist for the world to enjoy both opulence and sustainability.
Another thing - Fanon is inconceivable without Marxism. It informs his every argument, even if his point is only to criticize actually existing Marxisms. Therefore, the claim that "Fanon is great, except for the Marxist bit" is absurd and puerile. The real problem is that that entire intellectual language and with it the vast majority of the history of 20th century social hope is being actively forgotten. The nuances of so much of Fanon lies in the way he handles, refashions, and pushes up against the limits of the Marxian legacy as it came to him. (The idea that Fanon is a "genius" and that there are none else like him is similarly an indication of a tragic social and political amnesia, and this is not meant to detract in the slightest from the incredible achievement that is both this work and youthful masterwork "Black Skins, White Masks").
Finally, to uncritically drag Fanon into the American context, as some other reviewers want to do, is, it seems to me, potentially extremely misleading. Far more so than "Black Skins," "Wretched" is a book of its time and place. Certainly, any comparison with Malcolm X, who was no leftist and certainly no Marxist, is hopelessly misguided. Never mind the fact that Fanon's project of a liberated Algeria can scarcely be compared with the project of black American radical activists. American blacks were not colonized but forcibly transported and enslaved. More importantly, American blacks live within the heart of capitalism and Fanon's recommendation to the New World descendents of slaves would never be so crackpot as a separatist black nationalism.
There are many good grounds for criticizing Fanon, but since few reviewers seem capable of even approaching those matters, a more basic commentary seemed necessary.


Must Read   March 6, 2004
LS (Gambia, West Africa)
22 out of 26 found this review helpful

This is a very useful book to anybody interested in understanding colonialism and its effects in Africa. Colonialism was a military project, and Fanon explained that clearly. Fanon does not shy away from suggesting the use of force, if necessary, to achieved freedom. But this book is not about the use of force/violence to achieve freedom, and should not be regarded as such. It is a book that explains western attitudes towards the colonized world, their willingness to use violence, their assault on African culture, and the curruption of African leaders after independence. Do not forget that independence came to Africa, after the French, the British and Belgians were given a clear warning about the fate that was awaiting them in other parts of Africa by the FLN (in Algeria), the MAU MAU movement (in Kenya), and the very aggressive movement for indepence in the Congo and Ghana. Europe was distoryed after World War II, and their armies could no longer sustain their military projects in Africa. This vulnerability was exploited by African leaders. That is why they failed in maintaining direct colonial control of their former colonies. When you ready this excellent material, you will appreciate Fanon's foresight:-his warning to Africans(and every colonized country)to take their destiny into their own hands: saying that every generation must out of relative obscurity, find its mission, fulfill it or betray it. A warning that most Africans ignored after independence. To anybody interested in the works of people like Dr. Walter Rodney, Aime Cesaire, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, and Basil Davidson, this book is a "Must Read". Please read other Fanon material: Toward African Revolution, Dying Colonism, Black Skin White Masks. Interesting reading! Every African must read Fanon's books!


The Horde of Rats   May 2, 2002
JB (Sandy, UT USA)
20 out of 26 found this review helpful

I pulled the title of my review from page 130, which states, "This lumpenproletariat is like a horde of rats; you may kick them and throw stones at them, but despite your best efforts they'll go on gnawing at the roots of the tree." One of my favorite lines of many from Fanon that still, and perhaps now more than ever, resonate in the magazines, newspapers and op-ed pages of the West today.

"The Wretched of the Earth," along with Dubois' "The Souls of Black Folk," was a book I found repeatedly mentioned both in the "Autobiography of Malcolm X" as well as the writings of Black Panther leaders Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and Eldridge Cleaver. I couldn't quite understand some of the ideas of these great black activists until I read Fanon's "Wretched." Now I see that they took many of Fanon's observations and revolutionary theories and applied them to the plight of the African-American of the 1960s. For example, when the Panthers would decry the police as "fascist, gestapo pigs," and demand their withdrawal, they sounded much like Fanon, who writes,"In these poor undeveloped countries (or the slums of Oakland, Chicago, New York), where the rule is the greatest wealth is surrounded by the greatest poverty (the horde of rats), the army and the police constitute the pillars of the regime; an army and a police force(another rule which must not be forgotten) which are advised by foreign experts." This is one example of many of Fanon influence of these men. In the Congo dissidents or opponents had their hands cut off. In Guinea they had their lips pierced and padlocked shut. In Oakland the Panthers were confronted with billyclubs, bullets or bars, and again, they drew the analogy. "Colonialism only loosens its hold when the knife is at its throat...it is violence in its natural state, and it will only yield when confronted with greater violence." The Panthers, who viewed themselves enduring 500 years of colonization, took up arms.

"Individualism is the first to disappear," a line seen early on in the work that was echoed by Che Guevara in his heyday, key to coming together collectively, the only means of having a chance at throwing out the imperialists. I don't know which is more beneficial, to read works like the biography of Che, some of the Panthers' biographies, and then Fanon's "Wretched of the Earth," or vice-versa. Regardless, "The Wretched of the Earth" is the Machiavelli of revolutionary theory. I am still, unfortunately, not very versed in African politics and revolutionary movements. However, switching to Latin America, reading the "Wretched of the Earth" feels like being in the hills of Cuba with Fidel. It's practically a play-by-play, giving one greater appreciation for the struggle and the sacrifice.

Particularly impressive if Fanon's analysis of the developed versus the underdeveloped world, and the former's contempt for and repression of the latter as the underdeveloped world tries to climb out of their hole, moreso he himself being not a native African, but a Frenchman, knowing both sides equally well. It seems as though there is never any alternative, on the subject of revolutions, to colonialism or communism. Either business continues as usual (colonialism), or nationalist governments are hit with labels such as "upstart," in that time becoming part of the great international conspiracy, in our time anti-capitalist. Fanon is right on when he cites the colonialists as saying,"If you wish for independence, take it and go back to the Middle Ages...since you want independence, take it and starve." The application doesn't end with the '60s but continues on in our day, when the world's major financial players are offering assistance only in exhange for the right to "exploit."

There is so much more to be said for this book. Admittedly this is a poor review, unworthy of Fanon's brilliant presentation of how to revolt and succeed doing so. Just read the book, read some of the others on who Fanon had such an impact, and make your own application.