FRANTZ FANON
Frantz Fanon is generally regarded as having produced the most penetrating and thorough analysis of colonization, the psychology of the oppressor and the process of revolution. His insights extended past simple discription and encompassed a critical assessment of the various perspectives within the oppressed population. Fanon correctly identifies a unity in terms of the desire for freedom from oppression, but also makes his most critical assessment for the conflicting goals within the movement, among class and culture lines. The greatest division occurs between the upper class people of color, educated nd schooled and groomed by the oppressor. They wish to have freedom also, yet, they are trained to merely impersonate the oppressor, and in practice, only look out for their own good. Probably due to his clinical skill and intimate knowledge of human psychology, he correctly identifies the cultural infection of the upper class oppressed as one of a full acceptance of the cultural traits of exploitation, an allegiance to classism and a conscious choice to supplant the oppressor. In the philosophy of Fanon, Class and Class struggle, embues those who come from the lower classes, with a belief in the legitimacy, by the very nature of their ascendancy which validates their belief in upper class superiority and its perogative of exploitation of the lower classes.
Fanon was born in Martinique. As a youth Fanon witnessed the atrocities commited on his people by French forces displaced due to the Nazi invasion. This is an experience that set as a foundation from which all of Fanon'ss future ideas sprang forth.
Fanon traveled to Dominica at 14, and eventually joined the French Army and had a natural capacity and innate understandig of the life and death struggle of man against man on the battlefield. Fanon left the service as a decorated soldier in World War II.
Fanon was influenced by Cesaire and then went to france for university and eventually was professionally trained as a psychiatrist and then he left for Algeria in service to the French. While in Algeria, Fanon engaged in culture based treatment of his patients and from his position, he he became involved in the Algerian revolution. Through his experiences of the inhumane treatment and tortures of Algerians Fanon was moved to join the FLN. This is the position from which Fanon wrote both Black Skin, White Masks and also The Wretched of the Earth.
Fanon became world renowned and one of the most quoted and studied theorist for people of color seeking to understand the condition of perpetual 2nd class citizenhood found the world over.
Fanon eventually was diagnosed with leukemia and died at the age of 36.
Fanons writing style was unique and carried the weight of his own personal authority. He freely wove other ideas into his thinking, and yet was wholly original. He did not waste time engaging in the European academic style of quoting sources and buttressing his arguments with white classics. Instead, he used his personal experiences, the force of logic and the movements, dance, folklore and prose of the Algerian people to give his writings context and that rare quality of cultural relevance.
In his works, he preached that true liberation did not occur with the simple defeat and banishment of the oppressor. Liberation occurred when the psychology and practices of the oppressor were rooted out and violently dismantled, leaving only the naked and raw foundation of the pre-existent African nature and thought and way of life, completely devoid of European influence.
Frantz Fanon is honored by The Woozy for his bravery, his strategic analytical deconstruction of colonization and de-colonization and his willingness to live his principles rather than to remain above the fray as an academic philosopher and critic. His example of activism, and singular commitment has left an enduring legacy. His writings, have reached out influenced the minds of hundreds of thousands and has affected the lives of hundreds of millions. Even today, Fanon remains the most articulate and penetrating writer on imperialism, capitalism and colonization in the history of the world.