Post-Colonial Studies

 

Assignment

Postcolonial-Studies

Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English, M.K.Bhavanagar University.

Vachchhalata Joshi

Vachchhalatajoshi.14@gmail.com

Roll no – 20  

Words: 2254

Paragraphs: 24

Topic: The Wretched of the Earth

The Wretched of the Earth 

The Wretched of the Earth is a 1961 book by the psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, in which the author provides a psychological and psychiatric analysis of the dehumanizing effects of colonization upon the individual and the nation, and discusses the broader social, cultural, and political implications of establishing a social movement for the decolonization of a person and of a people. The French-language title derives from the opening lyrics of "The Internationale". 

Colonialism, Racism, and, Violence

When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe.

Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth is a critical look at colonialism, the practice of taking political control of another country with the intention of establishing a settlement and exploiting the people economically. Colonialism began in Europe around the 15th century, and it is still practiced today in some parts of the world. Fanon, a French West Indian from Martinique, a French colony located in the eastern Caribbean Sea, had a personal interest in colonialism, and his book focuses on the ways colonialism historically sought to oppress and subjugate much of the Third World through blatant racism and repeated violence. At the time Fanon wrote his book in 1961, many colonized nations were struggling for independence, and the damage of hundreds of years of racism and exploitation was acutely felt by many. The Wretched of the Earth serves as a sort of guidebook for understanding the colonized and their struggle, and in it, Fanon ultimately argues that colonialism, an inherently racist and violent practice, can only be overcome by using violence in return.

Everything can be explained to the people, on the single condition that you want them to understand.

Fanon maintains that colonialism divides the world into light and dark—or in this case, black and white—in a process he refers to as Manichaeanism. Manichaeanism is a Persian religious practice from the 3rd century that is based on the basic conflict of light and dark, and, Fanon claims, it serves as the basis for the racist practice of colonialism. Since “the colonial world is a Manichaean world,” Fanon says, the colonized individual is seen as the “quintessence of evil” and is considered void of any morals or ethics. Manichaeanism assumes that light—the white settler—represents good, whereas dark—the black colonized individual—represents evil. To Fanon, colonialism is rooted in this basic racist belief. Based on the same Manichaean concept, the colonial world is likewise divided into the civilized and the savage. In keeping with the themes of light and dark, the white colonist is considered civilized, and the colonized is a savage. The colonized individual is “reduced to the state of an animal” and is referred to in “zoological terms.” Under the racist practice of colonialism, the colonized individual is completely dehumanized. According to Fanon, colonial countries are further divided into two separate “sectors”: the “colonist’s sector” and the “’ native’ quarters.” The colonist’s sector is clean and well maintained; but the “native” quarters, which are crowded and neglected, are “disreputable place[s] inhabited by disreputable people.” At the very foundation of colonialism, Fanon thus argues, is a basic principle that seeks to separate and oppress people based on the color of their skin. 

Violence is man re-creating himself.

In addition to a system of racism, Fanon argues that colonialism is also a system of violence, which seeks to control and oppress the colonized through violent means. From the beginning, Fanon claims that the colonial situation “was colored by violence and their cohabitation—or rather the exploitation of the colonized by the colonizer—continued at the point of the bayonet and under canon fire.” Colonial control was taken by violence and is maintained in much the same way. The colonized world—which again is separated into the colonizer and the colonized—is divided by military barracks and police stations. In a colonized country, Fanon says, “the spokesperson for the colonizer and regime of oppression, is the police officer or the soldier.” The mere presence of the dividing border between the worlds maintains order through intimidation and the threat of violence. Fanon argues that for the colonized, “all he has ever seen on his land is that he can be arrested, beaten, and starved with impunity.” Thus, Fanon implies, there is no end to the violence of colonialism—it doesn’t stop once power is established. Rather, violence is a constant presence that is front and center in the lives of all colonized individuals. 

Fanon refers to the widespread violence in colonial countries as “atmospheric violence,” which he claims is perpetually “rippling under the skin.” To Fanon, this constant violence is proof that colonialism cannot be overcome through peaceful or passive means. The colonized masses, Fanon asserts, “intuitively believe that their liberation must be achieved and can only be achieved by force.” For the colonized, “violence is a cleansing force,” and it also rids them of the “inferiority complex” forced upon them by the racist ideology of colonialism. As a practice rooted in violence, Fanon thus argues that colonialism must be answered in kind.

Oppression and Mental Health 

Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth is an examination of the psychological effects of colonialism. Fanon was a practicing psychiatrist in France, and later in Algeria during the Algerian War of Independence—a war fought between France and the Algerian National Liberation Front between 1954 and 1962, which resulted in Algeria becoming an independent nation. Fanon was particularly interested in the psychological impact of colonialism on the colonized individual. The colonial situation, Fanon contends, is rooted in racism and violence, and it keeps the colonized living in a constant “state of rage.” Fanon explores this rage and its role as a cause of Algerian criminality, and he looks more specifically at other forms of psychological stress, such as brainwashing and physical torture, including electrocution. In Algeria, Fanon treated both Algerian torture victims and the French soldiers and officers who tortured them, and he reflects on such cases in his book. Through The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon effectively argues that the practice of colonialism is psychologically damaging to both the colonized and the colonist. 

Capitalism, Socialism, and Third World

Imperialism leaves behind germs of rot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land and from our minds as well.

While Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth is primarily focused on the fundamental confrontation of colonialism and anticolonialism, the book is also concerned with the confrontation of capitalism and socialism. When Fanon wrote his book in 1961, the Cold War was in full swing, and it further complicated the colonial situation and the struggle for independence in the colonized world. The Cold War was an extended period of political tension between the socialist Soviet Union and its allies—the Eastern Bloc—and the capitalist United States and their allies—the Western Bloc. The Cold War divided the world into either socialist or capitalist countries, and even the Third World—the developing countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, who did not align with any nation or side during either World War I or World War II—was pressured to pick a side. Through The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon at once argues that while socialism is more conducive to the needs of a developing nation, nation-building is an inherently capitalist venture, and he further argues that most of the wealth and capital of the West rightfully belongs to the Third World.

Culture and the emerging nation

In The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon argues that one of the ways in which colonial forces oppress colonized individuals is through the erasure of black culture. Racist colonial powers claim that colonized countries, especially those on the continent of Africa, are devoid of culture and meaningful artistic expression. The absence of culture is considered the height of barbarism, and colonialism assumes that in the pre-colonial period, Africa “was akin to a darkness of the human soul.” An important step in decolonization, Fanon therefore maintains, is proving the existence of one’s culture and exerting it on a world stage. “The recognition of a national culture and its right to exist” is crucial in building a new nation, and with the widespread decolonization of the continent of Africa came the establishment of “Negro” culture, a unifying black culture that recognized all cultures of the African diaspora. Fanon, however, contends that establishing a universal black culture is not possible, nor is it helpful to decolonization, because black culture is not universal. Instead, Fanon argues that the individual struggle for nationhood is the unifying black culture, and that this can’t be expressed or appreciated on a continental level.  

  

The Negro enslaved by his inferiority, and the white man enslaved by his superiority alike behave in accordance with a neurotic orientation.

 

Fanon explains negritude, an affirmation of African culture and heritage, which attempts to bring a unifying black culture to the world stage. For example, colonized literature in Africa has not historically “been a national literature but a ‘Negro’ literature.” Thus, colonized literature examines the continent of Africa as a whole rather than the individual countries and cultures that make it up. Negritude reached even America, where “the ‘black world’ came into being,” and it includes all black cultures affected by colonization, including those in Ghana, Senegal, Mali, and even those in the United States. Negritude considers these cultures collectively as black culture, not individually as independent nations. However, Fanon argues, a blanket African culture rather than an individual national culture “leads African intellectuals into a dead end.” One unifying African culture can’t possibly reflect the cultural importance of the entire African diaspora, and, Fanon contends, it shouldn’t even try. To do so is to further marginalize and oppress true black culture, and this is counterproductive to decolonization. 

Fanon argues that black or “Negro” culture eventually “broke up because the men who set out to embody it realized that every culture is first and foremost national.” A unifying “Negro” culture attempts to express black culture on a continental scale, which, Fanon says, is wholly impossible and detrimental to the cause. According to Fanon, “culture is the expression of national consciousness,” which also means that “national consciousness is the highest form of culture,” and it is automatically established during the building of a nation. 

Decolonization, neocolonialism, and, Social Class

The Wretched of the Earth follows the struggles of the colonized nation and its move to independence in a process known as decolonization, which, plainly put, is the undoing of colonialism and the oppression that goes along with it. The primary way in which a new nation is built is through the development of national consciousness, a shared national identity that identifies people as collective parts of an independent nation. However, the problem with national consciousness, according to Fanon, is that building a collective identity that encompasses all members of a nation is nearly impossible. The national consciousness of a newly emerging nation revolves around the national bourgeoisie or the ruling class, but this same national identity does not fit everyone and it leaves much of the nation unaccounted for. Furthermore, Fanon argues that a nation built solely on the needs of the ruling class will quickly lead to neocolonialism, and colonial methods of oppression will remain largely intact, even in the official absence of the colonial power. Through The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon ultimately argues that the only way to avoid neocolonialism in the developing nation is to incorporate rural populations into government and to involve the lumpenproletariat—the very lowest social class, but also the most important—in the process of decolonization.

Political parties of the emerging nation are run by and for the national bourgeoisie, which is made up of the urban proletariat and includes tradesmen and civil servants. They are a small part of society and account for less than one percent of the nation’s total population. The national bourgeoisie, Fanon says, are the taxi drivers, doctors, nurses, and lawyers, and they “are indispensable for running the colonial machine.” They stand to lose the most through decolonization, and their politics closely resemble that of colonists. The national bourgeoisie and those who run the nationalist unions “represent the most well-to-do fraction of the people” in a colonized country, and, according to Fanon, they are the most “pampered by the regime” of colonialism. It is better for the bourgeoisie if colonial channels of oppression are maintained, despite the negative impact on the rest of the nation. The national bourgeoisie conflicts with the feudal rulers of a nation, such as witch doctors and other cultural roles, like djembes, the legal and tribal leaders of outlying tribes. The bourgeoisie, which includes medical doctors and lawyers, must eliminate such feudal barriers to grow in an independent nation, even if it is to the detriment of the rural masses and feudal rulers.

Reference:

Work Cited

Fanon, Frantz. “The Wretched of the Earth Study Guide | Literature Guide.” LitCharts, 31 October 2019, https://www.litcharts.com/lit/the-wretched-of-the-earth. Accessed 6 November 2022.