Frantz Fanon

Have you ever experienced feeling really close to someone because you shared something about yourself with them that was difficult and painful? Difficult feelings are something we all experience, even if their causes are different.

Frantz Fanon's work as a psychiatrist, helping people from different backgrounds overcome difficulties, was key in inspiring his political thoughts. He delved deeply into the psychology of racism and colonialism and helped to provide an intellectual case for Algerian Independence. In this article, we are going to get to know Franz Fanon's life, thought and works, and we will explore his theory on colonialism.

Frantz Fanon’s early biography and political career

Frantz Omar Fanon was born in 1925 into a middle-class family in Martinique, a French Caribbean island. Like many Martinicans, Fanon was of mixed heritage, and his father descended from African slaves. Fanon's racial heritage and experience of growing up in a majority-black society under French colonial rule were important in shaping his ideas later in life.

Fig. 1 Frantz Fanon representing the FNL at the Pan African conference 1960

At the age of 18, Fanon left Martinique to join the Free French Army, fighting in the Second World War to resist the German occupation of France.

After serving in the Second World War, Fanon went on to university in mainland France, where he studied medicine and psychiatry. Fanon’s experiences as a soldier inspired a paper he wrote titled Black Skin White Masks, which he intended to submit as his dissertation in his final year. However, the university viewed the thesis as too controversial, so he published it as a book after he had finished his studies.

Fanon began working at a hospital in Algeria in 1953, where he was responsible for treating the psychological traumas affecting French soldiers who were involved in the torture of Algerians fighting for independence. Fanon also treated numerous Algerian torture victims. This first-hand exposure to the realities of colonial violence had a profound influence on Fanon's political thought and political stance, and impacted Fanon's attitude towards France.

As a result of this constant exposure to brutality, in 1956 Fanon decided he could no longer support the French state in any capacity. Fanon resigned from the hospital and was subsequently expelled from Algeria. He moved to newly independent Tunisia, where he was able to freely and openly support the Front de Libération Nationale - an Algerian nationalist and military organisation that sought independence.

Fig. 2 Frantz Fanon with the medical team at the Psychiatric hospital in Algeria where he worked

In Tunisia, Fanon became an editor of the FLN newspaper El Moudjahid, and contributed to it until the end of his life. He was diagnosed with leukaemia and sought treatment in the United States, where he died in December 1961. He was later buried in Algeria.

Frantz Fanon Political thought

Frantz Fanon anti-colonial theory key points

Frantz Fanon's theory of anti-colonialism can be summarised by the following key concepts:

Fanon's thinking on colonialism and its effects is explored in his two main books; Black Skin White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth.

Black Skin White Masks

Frantz Fanon's work is particularly valued for this detailed scientific observation of the effects of colonialism on individuals and societies. His theories present an in-depth observation of what colonialism does to the psyche of the colonised person.

Fanon’s Black Skin White Masks is a largely non-violent analysis of the effects of colonialism, cultural assimilation, and capitalism on people of colour and the colonised.

During his time in France, Fanon observed how prevalent anti-black racism was in French society. This inspired his text Black Skin White Masks. Fanon realised that, although black people often had the same viewpoints and ideological positions as white Europeans, their voices were still perceived as different or inferior because of the colour of their skin. Fanon argued that colonialism projects the idea that the only way to be considered fully human is to be white. Therefore, black people are placed in an agonising psychological position in which they are forced to view themselves as less than human.

Fanon’s approach and his theories are an amalgamation of his analysis of different fields such as Marxism, psychiatry, and the Négritude movement. Fanon also draws on Marxist ideas to argue that colonial racism is a socioeconomic issue and that the struggles against colonialism and capitalism have the same roots.

The Wretched of the Earth

The Wretched Of The Earth was Fanon’s final book. Here, Fanon lays out the key elements of a path towards decolonisation. A reoccurring theme throughout the book is the role of violence and an emphasis on the mental impacts of colonialism. Written during a period in which struggles for decolonisation were ongoing across Africa and Asia, Fanon presents his book as a guide for achieving successful and sustainable decolonisation. The Algerian struggle for independence from France is used as the setting of Fanon’s book, but its arguments can be applied to anti-colonial movements anywhere in the colonised world. Despite an emphasis on violence, Fanon speaks not only about the physical nature of liberation struggles, but also looks at the process of decolonisation from a psychological perspective. Fanon states that the psychological condition of colonised peoples needs to change, to achieve full decolonisation.

Influence and impact of Frantz Fanon's works

Fanon’s writings have had a direct influence on both anti-colonial and liberation movements. Fanon’s text The Wretched of The Earth influenced revolutionary leaders like Malcolm X and Che Guevara. The Black Power movement in the USA was also heavily influenced by Fanon's writings. Stokely Carmichael, the leader of the Black Panther Party, directly quoted Fanon's text in his book and used much of Fanon's theory as a framework for setting out his own cause.

Fanon’s work has also been used to address contemporary issues that have arisen in the postcolonial period. In his texts, Fanon refers to the “curse of independence”. He argues that the political independence of a colonised country can still result in a system in which intertribal antagonism, racism, and chauvinism still feature. This is especially the case if the former colony attempts to maintain strong political and economic links with the former colonial power. Fanon suggests that, to achieve full decolonisation, the post-colonial society should reject European capitalism as a path to economic and social development.

Fig. 3 Banner quoting Franz Fanon at the justice for all march, 2014

This idea has influenced many critical perspectives on aid and international development. It also offers an explanation of how some countries in the postcolonial world find themselves in positions of poverty, underdevelopment and civil war. Despite having enjoyed decades of independence, they often experience high rates of debt and external dependence on former colonial powers.