Political Philosophy

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 Political Philosophy

Introduction

Frantz Fanon was a thinker who inspired the movements for radical liberation in places

ranging from the United States, Palestine, and even South Africa. His famously known work is

the book "The Wretched of the Earth," which is always comprehended as an aspect of

revolutionary violence. Numerous questions have been asked regarding that literary work,

including: does the book reveal a fair trait of Fanon, or rather does it oversimplify richer or

deeper contents of the work? What is the exact violence philosophy, according to Fanon, and

how does it relate the psychological Colonialism? HOW HAS Fanon influenced our thoughts

when it comes to identity politics? Therefore, this paper describes Colonialism's psychological

and philosophical accounts as asserted by Fanon and how they are related to his revolutionary

theory of violence.

Fanon’s Philosophical and Psychological accounts of Colonialism

It becomes questionable if violence is a perfect response towards colonial oppression, and

Fanon's whose work strongly advocated for rebellious violence, forms the stasis point of this

argument. Many argue that non-violent approaches, similar to those advocated for by Gandhi

(Kebede, 2001, p559), seem more ethical. Others tend to view these non-violent approaches as

tools that colonialists used in quelling their subjects. Notably, those being colonized can end up

being colonized deeply that they rightly reject violence citing reasons like keeping the values of

their oppressors such as dignity, individualism, and equality. However, reading Fanon's work

violently never recognizes his objective of helping those colonized to rebuild their post-colonial

world despite the underlying historical struggles. The question now translates to how those who
have been colonized can develop a new consciousness that will enable them to resist the

influence that comes with Colonialism. Arguably, the other works of Fanon, that is, "White

Masks" and "Black Skin," are seeking to expound on the process that individuals use to

internalize oppression as a result of the shortcomings of the colonizers to keep their professed

promises towards universal equality.

On the other hand, there is a tension between Fanon's commitment towards the persistent

struggle between those being colonized and the colonizers themselves and cosmopolitanism.

Therefore, it is a collective struggle for the latter to ensure that the colonized are liberated from

the conditions they are subjected to and give them an independent national consciousness that is

sovereign. Moreover, the colonizers should not be fully pervasive because certain elites can pick

up the vital roles of leading revolutions and prioritize liberating the colonized.

While roving the philosophical report, an overview of the biography of Fanon resurfaces.

Initially, when Fanon was still a teenager, he joined the French struggle mounted against

Nazism. These liberal ideals by the French motivated him, and he grew to comprehend himself

as a colonialism subject. Furthermore, as an academician, he gained a reputation by fiercely

rejecting the ideals that were deemed democratic and favored the violent revolution. However,

numerous academicians criticized the extent to which he recommended violence. However, one

aspect remains certain: in the present political economy, the work of Fanon has been more

relevant. This philosophical aspect has brought in some historical contexts to Fanon's latest

literary work, "The wretched of the earth." There is a claim that violence usually begets violence

considering the kind of conflict that was happening around the world at the time when the book

was published.
 People were always being called upon during the colonial period to fight against human

injustices and oppression. However, after the countries were liberated, the same people resorted

to fighting against social challenges like illiteracy, underdevelopment and even poverty. They

insisted that the struggle must always carry on and this made them accept the fact that life is

always a contest that never ends (Fanon, 1970, p94). Fanon insisted that native violence was a

unifying factor but colonialism was a regionalist and separatist from its very own structure.

How Colonialism relates to the Revolutionary Theory of Violence

The dimensions of politics of negrification (Kebede, 2001, p 545) that called for

decolonization received a complete treatment in the Dying colonialism Algerian revolution

(Fanon, 1970, p90) and Les Damnes. Though, Fanon fails to diagnose the political symptoms

simply regarding the view of the world in which dehumanized both black women and men.

Fanon situated his diagnosis with a very complex ethical commitment to equality when it comes

to the right of every human to have their dignity under-recognition by others. These assertions

that entitle everyone to moral considerations that put everyone indispensable is the core principle

of the theory of revolution violence, also known as the decolonization theory. This theory has

continuously inspired activists and scholars who dedicated their lives to defending human rights

and advocating for social justice.

Moreover, Fanon did narrate how the people of Algeria mobilized themselves (Fanon,

1970, p93) to mount a revolutionary fight to repel the French colonizers. There are numerous

lessons that the upcoming revolutionary movements can grasp from the presentations made by

Fanon with regards to the tactics and strategies that were embedded in specific Algerian contexts
but had adaptable evidence. Additionally, in describing the adoption strategy utilized by the

French in its empathetic civilian population, Fanon traced the ideological interplay and the

pragmatic choices made concerning communications technology. When the colonizers resorted

to suppressing news, there was a need to rethink the stand on boycotting radio stations, the

leading digital communication medium that the French colonizers used. The colonized had to

develop a new strategy of establishing a radio station, a nationalist one for that matter, to

challenge the propaganda that the colonizers were spreading. Another fundamental challenge that

they presented to the colonizers was to radically include all the Algerian people as the citizens of

the new nations. This translated to a primary contest of European imperialism like the one in

Haiti, which tried to break down the social privileges hierarchy based on skin color and the

declaration that all the citizens of Haiti were considered blacks. Both these declarations are

strong decolonizing moves since they looked down upon the Manichean structure (Fanon, 1970,

p93) outlined by Fanon as the framework of the colonizers. This signifies a significant

relationship with Colonialism.

As much as Colonialism provides all the hopeful insights from a historical document, Les

Damnes is an abstract full of detailed colonialism analysis and revolution. It is regarded as a

black revolution handbook as it ranges over the significant responsibility that violence has to

play in decolonization struggles, as Fanon thinks. The unreal paths that colonists' nations decide

to follow after entrusting their negotiation freedom between former colonizers and the native

intellectual class rather than just mass mobilization signify a united fighting force. Moreover, the

necessity to re-establish a national culture via arts of revolutions and movements of literature and

a psychiatric disorder invention was unleashed by colonial repressions. These philosophical

perspectives tend to speak the philosophical language and employ both the Hegelian and Marxist
arguments that one expects in liberal philosophy. Fanon converses with this by giving a piece of

advice to the revolutions from third-world countries.

Critique of the Theory of revolutionary Violence

There is a controversy that revolves around this theory, thereby establishing a point of a

critic. The Peau Noire feminist critique needs an in-depth reading and analysis of Fanon's

questions never asked. Arguably, he does not justify violence by the decolonizing natives to

impact their guaranteed end. Still, his point in the introductory chapter concerning violence is

that violence is a fundamental colonization element initiated by the colonizers and reinforced by

those being colonized. Through this, it became part and parcel of colonial oppression. According

to Fanon’s point of view (Srivastava, 2010), the colonized native must either continue to accept

violence or take back that violence in the colonizer’s faces since they are the ones that started it.

Therefore, this consistent commitment by Fanon to choose a single trait via one’s actions

illustrates that this theory can just take place when the natives assume their subjecthood role and

declines to take the position of absorbing violence as a passive victim.

Conclusion

Pan-Africanism that Fanon regarded as his contribution in his literary works in the best

interest of the citizens of the third-world counties, never materialized as a movement in politics.

It should be recalled that during Fanon's days, the term Third-World never had the meaning it

has presently. Today, the word means a collective developing country reduced to charity objects

from developed countries. Back then, in the 1960s and 1950s, the term meant the hope of an

upcoming alternative to political groupings with either the first world that included the United

States and Europe, or the Second World, the Soviet Union. The trial to create an expressive
power politically and politically between the new African countries that had gained

independence ended up being foundered because their former colonies were victims of client-

statism and fake decolonization that Fanon cautioned against.

References

Fanon, F. (1970). Black skin, white masks. London: Paladin. Pp. 216-222.

Fanon, F., Sartre, J. P. (1963). The wretched of the earth. NY: Grove Press. Pp. 1-8 and pp. 42-

52

Kebede, M. (2001). The rehabilitation of violence and the violence of rehabilitation: Fanon and

Colonialism. Journal of black studies, 31(5), 539-562.

Srivastava, N. (2010). Towards a critique of colonial violence: Fanon, Gandhi and the restoration

of the agency. Journal of Postcolonial Writing, 46(3-4), 303-319.

https://doi.org/10.1080/17449855.2010.482382