FANON’S EXPOSITION OF COLONIALISM: VIOLENCE IN THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH

By Anshul Sajip

The ideology presented by Frantz Fanon in The Wretched of the Earth heavily focuses on the pivotal role of violence in the processes of both colonisation and decolonisation. To a large extent, personal experiences of colonial racism on his home island of Martinique and his time as a psychiatrist in Algeria during its brutal fight for independence helped in shaping his perfervid socialist and anti-colonialist views. The Wretched of the Earth, a book which rapidly became popular and inspirational in Third World politics, provides a philosophical and journalistic discussion on decolonisation in Africa in which violence plays a salient role. For Fanon, the European imperialist regimes that dominated global affairs in his time had founded their successes in the murderous oppression of native peoples; they not only physically overpowered the natives with tanks and machine guns, but fostered a controlling psychological violence to reduce them to sub-human. In outward sedition, this text represents his advocacy for violent insurgency as the only possible pathway to true liberation for the oppressed, allowing for the expulsion of the settler from the land and the rebuilding of the native individual's identity. While The Wretched of the Earth is heavily slanted, its primary function, evident through its impassioned rhetoric, is to mobilise the masses, showing Fanon's belief in the necessity of violence to overthrow colonialism.

Colonisation is the military occupation of a country typically by a European mother nation which then extends its political, social, economic and judicial control over it. It is a process defined by violence. The coloniser's industrial and technological superiority, with tanks and aeroplanes, allows for the physical domination of the native population. In Algeria for example, one million settlers of European origin were present by the 1950s, against the nine million indigenous people, and yet the strong presence of police and army forces "imposed [the foreigner's] rule by means of guns and machines". The foundation of colonial systems across French Africa then, lay in the initial violence utilised by the settlers in order to subdue the native population, enabling exploitation to benefit the metropole. The ardent nature of Fanon's analysis only aids in bringing to light the sheer extent to which Europe owes its wealth to the plundering of African resources. Two centuries of slave trading, violently protected and carried out by soldiers of aspiring imperialist nations, succeeded by another 100 years of "colonial despotism" hugely undermined the stability of societies in nations seeking liberation and those already independent. A strong theme throughout the first chapter 'Concerning Violence' in The Wretched of the Earth is that of the injustices of "deportations, massacres, forced labour and slavery" used by capitalist powers "to increase [their] wealth, gold or diamond reserves and to establish power." Colonialism as portrayed in the book is clearly not a mutually beneficial process; theorist and writer Walter Rodney similarly describes it as a "one-armed bandit" as the force used to serve the interests of mother nations was never reciprocated in developing services and infrastructure in underdeveloped countries. One only has to look at the enslavement of natives as dispensable labour and the stealing of natural resources, be it diamonds from South Africa and India, or ivory and rubber from Africa, in order to prove Fanon's point. In his eyes, violence is the essence of this exploitative process.

As the settler is so hugely outnumbered, the existence of an authoritarian state carefully marshalled by the police and army is essential to maintain the sovereignty of the metropole in its colonies. In his preface, Sartre manages to effectively give justification for the use of violence from the standpoint of the coloniser in order to impose his authority; simultaneously, he sarcastically exposes the irony of Europe professing elevated moral values of "liberty, equality, fraternity, love, honour, patriotism" while subjugating the native to racist oppression. Writing on the other side of the Mediterranean, Fanon attacks the same issue of Europeans "murder[ing] men in all corners of the globe." His description of the unchallengeable judicial authority of the coloniser explains a culture of violence without reprimand, immediately evoking images of show trials and mass executions in the mind of readers, who at the time would have been well aware of the thousands of deaths in Sétif (1945) and Phillipeville (1955). "They can freely arrest [the native], beat him, starve him." In a post-war period characterised by the collapse of empires around the globe, both Fanon and Sartre utilise a blunt, violent realism to raise sympathy for the cause of Algerian independence.

Furthermore, The Wretched of the Earth highlights how repression under colonial administrations perpetuates a "Manichaean" and dualistic world. The use of military force is one tool to compartmentalise society, with the European settlers filling up strongly built towns, and enjoying electricity, paved roads and running water. Meanwhile, Fanon emphasises, the colonised were resigned to the overcrowded and crime-filled bidonvilles without access to adequate food and water supplies. This exacted segregation "by dint of a great array of bayonets and cannons" only reinforces economic and social inequalities between settler and native.

Fanon's dialogue on "Manichaeism" is not restricted to the physical sectionalisation of the people, but delves deeper into the psychological violence exercised by European colonisers to reduce the native to a mere 'thing'. The colonisation of Africa was more than its simple physical domination, but included its concomitant "racialism", the denial of educational opportunity and the degradation of the native's identity. This abasement of national culture keeps the masses under control by convincing them of their unworthiness, their inferiority to Western ways of life and has profound impacts not only on a national level, but affects the individual's self-worth, portraying him as an embodiment of evil. As Fanon argues, this perhaps surpasses the brutality of physical conquest, for after all, by reducing the under-developed people to sub-human, it provides an excuse for the atrocities committed against them, to "justify treatment of them as beasts." The topic of psychological violence features heavily in the first chapter of the book, forming an integral part of the colonisation process. The supremacy of European values can only be achieved through the use of violence and aggression to portray the indigenous peoples as desensitised to any ethical ideals. It is precisely in this way that The Wretched of the Earth expounds the murderous brutality of the colonial regime in dehumanising the native into a mere 'thing'. This violence comes hand in hand with military domination. An environment is therefore created, where the submission of the original inhabitants is the norm, and the task of policing becomes considerably easier. Fanon's Manichaean world, a world separated into "the white against the dark; the rich against the poor; the indigenous against the foreigner", is marked by psychological and physical divisions strengthened by the army's violence and the subsequent inferiority complex instilled in the minds of the natives.

The book presents these theories about the vital role that violence plays when an imperialist European nation initiates its colonisation of an underdeveloped country and then confirms its political, social and judicial control. For Fanon, the colonial system is forged through the violence of the settler and so it must be this same violence returned by the native that leads to true liberation. Sartre compares this process both to a boomerang and a mirror, since "the savagery of the oppressed peasants" is a reflection of the coloniser's own past savagery. The more violence perpetrated against them, the greater the "volcanic fury" that will erupt in the fight for liberation.

Hence, there is no question of integration or reforms to the colonial system; Fanon adamantly ridicules the notion of a peacefully negotiated decolonisation process, strongly influenced by his experiences in Algeria. He gives the example of Gabon, which obtained a black, national-bourgeois leader through "peaceful handovers and moderate means." Fanon's socialist views greatly demonise the urban intellectuals of colonial societies who enjoyed European-based education and adopted a Western-style culture. Without violent insurrection, these "national bourgeoisie", as Fanon derogatorily called them, would seize power and continue the status quo of colonialism - exploitation and social inequality - simply under a different name. While he may underestimate the social and economic importance of the upper middle classes and their significant positions within state institutions, The Wretched of the Earth asserts that the true revolutionary force is the peasantry. In Fanon's theories, "the starving peasant, outside the class system, is the first among the exploited to discover that only violence pays." Though urban intellectuals may form political parties and propose equality between the settler and native, the rural lumpenproletariat favours the elimination of the coloniser and the takeover of their arable land. The book places great emphasis on violence led by the true revolutionary force of the peasantry - the total overthrow of colonialism through brute strength is the only recourse to prevent the succession of the national bourgeoisie.

This starts with what is described as an atmosphere of violence and the gradual escalation of inter-racial and inter-class tensions. He presents the example of Dien Bien Phu, a climactic confrontation in French Indochina where guerrilla soldiers prevailed over colonialist forces. In the eyes of Fanon, this was not just a Vietnamese victory, but served as an inspiration for colonised people worldwide. So, a mood of rebellion begins to spread - in Algeria, for example, the anticipation of a successful violent movement to seize independence worsens tensions between the coloniser and the indigenous people. "'Good' natives become scarce, silence falls when the oppressor approaches, attitudes and remarks are openly aggressive." This is countered by the increase of European army reinforcements, police and military show parades. Inevitably, fighting breaks out, and decolonisation, in its purest form "always a violent phenomenon", can take place.

The political philosophies put forward by Fanon in the text glorify the violent confrontation needed in order to reverse the power relationships that define the colonial state. Firstly, the use of violence is accepted as the absolute line of action because, as seen earlier, no Frenchman had ever been indicted "when the native [was] tortured, when his wife [was] killed or raped." Consequently, the colonised feel as though the law no longer restricts them. To add to this, The Wretched of the Earth optimistically conveys the unifying qualities of violence, engendering a strong sense of communalism among the population. Only the struggle that brings the nation together and establishes solidarity can break down colonial structures and prevent the ascendancy of the national bourgeoisie. Fanon was of course imagining a utopian socialist state, but time has not borne out his visions of peasant-led revolutions in all colonised nations. Rather, it can only be loosely linked to the Algerian War of Independence as most other African colonies under European sovereignty such as Morocco, the Gold Coast and Senegal had already negotiated independence from their metropoles. The book is nevertheless "a call to arms", and at the time of its writing in 1961 motivated many in the fight for liberation in Algeria. Much of the rhetoric used in the text inspires a common objective to work for the death of the settler and to destroy a repressive colonial regime that "will only yield when confronted with greater violence." Fanon vehemently advocates for this national battle against the French in Africa, pointing out the irony in a morally bankrupt regime owing its legitimacy to the use of violence, actually showing the native his only route to freedom. His years as an active supporter of the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN) in Algeria certainly shaped his radical views on the importance of a "murderous and decisive struggle" in order to physically expel the settler from the colonised country. This allows for Fanon's envisaged establishment of new socialist systems of governance and the eradication of social and economic inequality.

Just as the takeover of Africa by Europeans was compounded by both the military domination of the native and his psychological degradation, the process of decolonisation not only gives the indigenous population back its birthright of land and self-determination, but frees the native's consciousness. Violence not only liberates the nation, but "is a cleansing force" for the individual. "It makes him fearless and restores his self-respect." Fanon suggests that an aggressive uprising against the colonial administration purges the consciousness of the native of his inferiority complex. In doing this, he counters the sub-human features attributed to him by the coloniser and rediscovers his sense of self. Fanon's background in psychiatry helped him to analyse this further, focusing on the new-found purposefulness of an indigenous people. Once they have chosen to undertake a violent path to independence, they are mobilised and bound together and "the future of the nation is already indivisible." However, despite the conviction with which this is delivered in the text, the author did not live to see his theories be disproved in Algeria after independence in 1962 - the ideological and political differences of different FLN factions, once forgotten for the common cause, resurfaced, leading to "open confrontations" and incoherent decision making in government. It seems that Fanon's hypothesis on violence acting almost as glue to preserve national unity does not hold up in the long term.

It could also be argued that the final chapter named 'Colonial War and Mental Disorders' appears to contradict the glorification of violent struggle found at the beginning of the book. Here, Fanon draws on his analytical psychiatrical experience in Algeria to explore the personally ruinous consequences of violence during the country's war for independence. Although he focuses on the use of torture by the French army, the extensive description of the psychological consequences of such brutality on any man, be it the torturer of an Algerian or an FLN member bombing European settler civilians, is truly disturbing. His case studies of morally bankrupt violence seem to highlight its futility, as it causes the deaths of innocents without substantial reasoning. For example, in Series B: Case 1, two young Algerians (13 and 14 years old respectively) murdered their European playmate, highlighting the immense psychological consequences of a violent war on the average person. "We weren't cross with him," one boy said, "We decided to kill him because Europeans want to kill all the Arabs." Surely this highlights the counterintuitive nature of creating a vicious circle of violence comprising of reprisals and more reprisals? On the contrary, Fanon's overarching argument lies in the fact that the native should always be ready for violence if he is truly willing to upend the colonial regime and establish a new system. This involves sacrifice - "a whole generation of Algerians steeped in wanton, generalised homicide will be the human legacy" of colonisation and its eventual destruction. As Sartre highlights, when the native is faced with the choices of servitude and supremacy, he must choose the latter and be determined to achieve it through brute force.

More than anything else, a sense of idealism perpetuates The Wretched of the Earth, demonstrating Fanon's fundamental belief in the colonised peoples of the world prevailing over their European oppressors through violent means. His moral imperatives proclaim violent rebellion to be a mere starting point in establishing a new society with different ideals and values, using European imperialism as a negative role model. In other words, it is only through taking the initiative to rise up against colonial regimes that "a new species of man [can] be created." The reader gains an idea of his remarkable optimism for the concept of revolution in the concluding pages of the book. From his standpoint, violence lays the foundations for independence and by extension, the radical transformation of society for the better. In the same way that Sartre describes "irrepressible violence [as] man recreating himself", Fanon's resolution is a direct appeal to the people to "try and set afoot a new man."

After the book's publication in 1961, "the violence and inspiration in its rhetoric" ensured its success among contemporary readers. The large emphasis placed on violence demonstrates the strength of anti-colonialist sentiments around the globe that Fanon wanted to capitalise on. Just as colonists mistreated and exploited the native, the native should retaliate with an even more forceful nationalist violence. Just as colonists reduced the native to sub-human, the native should use violence to liberate himself and re-establish his sense of self. This is the message that Fanon spread with The Wretched of the Earth, focusing on the brutal Algerian War of Independence. However, for the modern audience, perhaps his work has lost much of its relevance. The Third World no longer fights imperialist oppression; the main fight is now against poverty, hunger and inequality. And the solution for these is certainly not violence.

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