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Article Excerpt
Although Frantz Fanon's writings were intimately tied to colonial Algeria, his reflections have found resonance among a wide variety of audiences because of their theoretical and ideological value. Possibly, Fanon's limited proximity to Algerian culture and society contributed to the relevance of his writings elsewhere. This essay argues that, in spite of Fanon's involvement in the struggle for Algerian independence, his position in North Africa remained that of an outsider.
Oh, Frantz, the wretched of the earth again.
--Josie Fanon, 1988
The above exclamation was voiced by Frantz Fanon's widow during a phone conversation with her friend the Algerian author Assia Djebar after she witnessed scenes of violence in the streets of Algiers in October 1988. It was reported in Algerian White and is cited by Homi Bhabha in "Framing Fanon," his foreword to the new English translation of The Wretched of the Earth. As he considers the relevance of studying Fanon's work today and reflects on the dynamics of decolonization and nationalistic struggle in "the era of globalization" and "our global century," Bhabha writes that "Fanon's best hopes for the Algerian revolution were taken hostage, and summarily executed, first by bureaucratized military rule [...], and then by the rise of fundamentalist groups like the Islamic Salvation Front" (x). Although Fanon's theories remain strongly tied to the Algerian context, his reflections on the organization of colonial society beyond the particulars of a given case made his ideas resonate among wide audiences. According to Bhabha, "The Wretched of the Earth, well beyond the immediacies of its colonial context--the Algerian war of independence and the African continent--anticipates configurations of contemporary globalization" (xiii). Fanon's proleptical analysis and his imbedding of the Manichean nature of twentieth-century colonialisms in their larger historical context make his theories equally relevant to a range of other audiences, including decolonizing nations elsewhere, the Black Panthers, a Zimbabwean novelist, or--as Homi Bhabha believes--children working in factories in Third World countries and former World Bank senior vice president Joseph Stiglitz. (1) In this light, Josie Fanon's exclamation need not necessarily have been uttered in Algiers; it could have been induced by numerous situations in various locations, as the perspicacity of Fanon's observations contributed to the wide-ranging acceptance of his ideas internationally. In fact, if Fanon's theories are valid anywhere power is exerted, one could question the directness of their link to Algeria, as well as the extent to which Fanon was an outsider to that society and how much this exteriority contributed to the significance of his writings.
It is doubtful that the entire content of The Wretched of the Earth was of uniform interest to all its readers in different times and places. Participants in the black struggle in the United States in the 1960s, for instance, turned to Fanon for a theoretical and ideological foundation to their movements, but many are unlikely to have found the passages on the mental disorders of French officers as exciting and relevant to their own situation as passages such as the conclusion, with its manifesto-like enthusiasm for the overthrow of European oppression. One should also credit the success of the book among such a wide readership in part to its preface by Jean Paul Sartre, as alluded to by Bhabha when he refers to Hannah Arendt and describes Sartre as fanning the flames (xxi).
A crucial element of Fanon's impact is certainly the symbolic value attached to his persona. Strikingly, in the eyes of his public, Fanon's own person is as important as his writings (if not more), which gives more weight to those writings' emblematic nature and their prophetic value than to their intellectual or even historical significance. Indeed, the numerous biographies of Frantz Fanon are a testament to the value attributed to his personal life. (2) Another, perhaps more obvious, example of Fanon's importance as a man is to be found in the work of the artist Mustapha Boutadjine, whose portraits of Fanon hang alongside those of other emblematic black figures such as Mohammed Ali, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Tommie Smith, and Angela Davis in his Black is Toujours Beautiful collection. (3) There even exists a documentary by the filmmaker Isaac Julien, Black Skin, White Mask, which outlines Fanon's life by means of archival film footage, interviews with family and friends, and the representation of Fanon himself by actor Colin Salmon. While such a project might be sanctioned by the wide impact of his writings, the subject of the documentary is not Fanon's theories but the man himself. When his writings are mentioned, it is only in direct relation to his experiences as a student in France and as a psychiatrist in Algeria. As a result of the iconic value attributed to Fanon, his very identity emerges as the strength behind his ideas. Consequently, according to public perception, his involvement in the Algerian struggle for independence is associated with a natural connection imagined to exist between colonized non-white peoples. The assumption underlying such an association is that all non-white peoples unequivocally identify with one another, regardless of historical, racial, social, or cultural disparities that may exist between them.
Stuart Hall intervenes in Julien's documentary to point out that Fanon did not have significant insights regarding the place of religion in Algerian culture, and did not see the role it was going to play in the revolution. This remark can be substantiated by comments such as the one made in 2004 by veteran resistance leader Mohammed Harbi who, when asked in an interview for the documentary Remembering History about the dynamics of recruitment for the decolonization party, said, "In a certain sense, for the party, the rules of mobilization applied to a Muslim society faced by a non-Muslim authority. It wasn't openly stated, but it was implicit that these rules were what led the people to follow them." In this light, it is possible to consider Fanon's theories as significantly removed from the context in which they...
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