Concerning violence

Frantz Fanon. (1968). In The Wretched of the Earth (pp. 35-106). New York: Grove Press.

Fanon radically cries out for decolonization from the bottom up by criticizing colonial intellectuals and nationalist leaders on the ground that decolonization is the veritable creation of new men and is obtained only through violence.

"The naked truth of decolonization evokes for us the searing bullets and bloodstained knives which emanate from it" (p.37).

The colonized intellectuals, Fanon stresses, do not carry revolutionary actions because they are lack of "concrete conflicts" in which the people are engaged with (p.47). They are ingrained with the Western essentials, such as individualism, that colonialist bourgeois brought in. Related to this issue, Fanon points out that decolonization does occur in areas where movements for liberation are not mature yet smart intellectuals are found. These intellectuals demand a drive for nationalism. Fanon write they behave like an opportunist in this phase.

"They are insistent in their demands for the nationalization of commerce, that is to say the reservation of markets and advantageous bargains for nationals only. As far as doctrine is concerned, they proclaim the pressing necessity of naitonalizing the robberty of the nation" (p.48).

In reading the agressiveness against their own people of the colonized, Fanon finds a seed for motion grounded in their certain emotion.

"[The native] is always overpowered but not tamed; he is treated as an inferior but he is not convinced of his inferiority. He is patiently waiting until the settler is off his guard to fly at him. The native's muscles are always tensed...[W]e know that in certain emotional conditions the presence of an obstacle accentuates the tendency toward motion" (p. 53).

Fanon criticizes the ambiguity that the colonial elites have in term of violence by saying they are violent only in their words.

"The native intellectuals have clothed his aggressiveness in his barely veiled desire to assimilate himself to the colonial world. He has used his affressiveness to serve his own inividual interests" (p. 60).

Observing the colonies' transformation from a source of raw materials to a market, Fanon asserts elevated elegance and lessened bloodthristy as a trend of today's wars of repression and examines relaxation of violence driven by the political leaders in colonial countries. They are progressive yet authorative and do not allow explosion of tension, which stem from the native's realization that nothing changed in spite of the nation's independence.

"In their speeches the political leaders give a name to the nation. In this way the native's demands are given shape... They avoid the actual overthrowing of the state, but in fact they introduce into their readers' or hearers' consciousness the terrible ferment of subversion" (p. 68).

"[A]ll parties are aware of the power of such violence and that the question is not always to reply to it by a greater violence, but rather to see how to relax the tension" (p. 73).

The influx of capitalism caters to this peaceful violence/co-existence. However, Fanon puts an emphasis on the single combat between the settler and the native, an armed and open struggle. This violence against the native in turn binds them together.

"The appearance of the settler has meant in the terms of syncretism the death of the aboriginal society, cultural lethargy and th petrification of indivisuals. For the native, life can only sprin gup again out of the rotting corpse of the settler" (p.93)

"Their destruction is the preliminary to the unification of the people. At the level of individuals, violence is a cleansing force. It frees the native from his inferiority complex and from his despair and inaction...Yesterday they were completely irresponsible; today they mean to understand everything and make all decision. Illuminated by violence, the consciousness of the people rebels against any pacitication." (pp. 94).

[His insinuated perspective about violence turning to political power needs more explanation. Otherwise it remains as a fantasy. Related to this, Chambers also asserts bottom-up decision making based on self-organization.]

Regarding the nationalist movements, Fanon argues that one common discourse against decolonization is that independence will bring socio-economic regression, thus demanded independence deserves poverty; in this given situation, certain nationalist leaders ask for enourmous efforts from their peple while others opt for economic dependency voluntarily.

Lastly, he regards the decolonization movement as the rehabilitation of mankind and the victory of man everywhere once and for all.