Children of Violence
Children of Violence: An Essay on Liberation and Independence in Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth
By Jenica Amalita
A provocative polemic that has raised significant debates, asked questions that require introspection, urged millions to respond to the call of taking up arms and understanding the true nature of liberty for those who have been denied it, Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth is a revolutionary text holding significant value and timeless truths even today.
The Wretched of the Earth analyzes the process and nature of decolonization and independence. It outlines the changes that the colonized man undergoes as he moves from subjection to realization, from realization to liberation, and from liberation to independence. Exposing the nature of exploitation, both of the ‘settler’ or the white man, and the ‘national bourgeois’ or the independent middle-class black man, it provides remedies for the imposed colonial nature that the colonized has adopted as a means to survive the colonial world. He emphasizes the role that violence plays in bringing about the liberation of the colonized because it is only through violence that a man creates himself—or rather, recreates himself. Fanon writes, “It is not only necessary to fight for the liberty of your people. You must also teach that people once again, and first learn once again yourself, what is the full stature of a man; and you must do for as long as the fight lasts.” Even though many criticize Fanon for his emphasis on violence, I personally believe he is willing to use any means available, including violence, to achieve liberation.
Set in the backdrop of Algeria’s war for independence, the book acts as an exposé on the true nature of liberation and independence. Interestingly, even though liberation signifies independence, Fanon uses his prognostic sense to prove that a country can gain independence but still not be liberated.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines independence as “freedom from being governed or ruled by another country.” Interestingly enough, its definition of liberation is “an occasion when something or someone is released or made free; activities connected with removing the disadvantages experienced by particular groups within society.”
Fanon first touches upon the liberation of consciousness. A colonized man is made to believe that he is nothing, that he is weak, that he is an animal, that he is subject to the colonizer for his betterment. Fanon’s process of liberation of consciousness entails the colonized man’s realization of his desire not only to be equal to the colonizer but to usurp his position and his affluence. While he initially fights and kills his fellow men, it is only his conditioned response to the colonizer’s methods. He cannot conquer the colonizer, so he, in turn, attacks the colonized. The white man, a seeming savior, brings religion, and the fear of the supernatural consumes the colonized. Fanon separates independence into two distinct phases – the first phase of decolonization where the masses remain indistinct, and the second phase of liberation is characterized by the colonizer’s use of culture and morality to try to dominate the masses. The colonized man, in his liberated consciousness, is not deterred by these religious symbolisms and embarks on the struggle to freedom.
This liberation of consciousness involves not only the realization that the black man is equal to the white, but also the realization that the black man has been conditioned to adopt and imitate the intellectual, social, and economic structures of the settlers and their mother country. The ‘native intellectual,’ who has been fed European ideals, is unable to accept the lifestyle and attitude of the lumpenproletariat, the unorganized and unpolitical lower orders of society who are not interested in revolutionary advancement. The colonizers hold the peasants in contempt, and the native intellectual has also been trained to do the same. However, Fanon notes that the rural areas still follow the traditional native culture, and live as an organic collective, uninfluenced by Western notions. Their very existence is proof of their ability to resist colonization. However, the nationalist party leaders are conditioned into negating the peasants while the peasants remain suspicious of the national bourgeoisie due to their Western acculturation.
Further, the national party excludes the rural masses from the decolonization struggle since they are unable to understand the ideals of the intellectuals. Fanon criticizes this negation of the rural masses, who have the ability to collectively overthrow the colonizer. Using the example of Dien Bien Phu, a town in Vietnam, he expounds to the intellectual that taking time to explain to the peasants the need for liberation will only hasten the arrival of independence. This intellectual and social restructuring of native identity and organization is necessary to prevent the economic exploitation that will inevitably follow if the national bourgeois is not reorganized in a decentralized manner. The national bourgeois, like the intellectual, has been conditioned to imitate the colonial economic structure, leading to their creating an intermediary class that profits from the nation and increases their wealth while the country as a whole suffers. Fanon outlines the entire process for his readers to understand that unless they are also liberated from the European model of civilization, they will only create a caricature of European society despite their independence from them. Decolonization and independence as such only involve political freedom to govern one’s own country. If the colonizer still has influence over intellectual, social, and economic thought, the colonizer is still ruling the nation. Its independence is then a farce.
Fanon, in his essay on ‘National Culture’, also brings to light the idea of cultural liberation. He writes about how Africans are deceived into believing that they have only one single culture when they are a diverse nation. He also exposes the fallacy of the intellectual rediscovering his past culture but trying to explain it using the methods of the colonizer. He outlines the process to this realization, as well, and explains that this will inevitably lead to the native bringing about changes to the expression of their culture. This struggle for liberation, as mentioned above, is met with colonial use of culture to prevent the transformation of the native. The native will rediscover their past and will understand that the only way to go is forward. This forward movement of developing their new cultural identity will be their cultural liberation. When the nation unites along cultural lines, their unity cannot be dissolved. Halford H. Fairchild in his 1994 paper ‘Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth in Contemporary Perspective’ writes that “Fanon sees cultural nationalism as a prerequisite to national liberation and liberation of the nation as necessary for the renewal of culture.”
Fanon, while trying to explain the psychological impact of the independence struggle, very subtly brings in the idea of psychological liberation. His series of case studies focuses on both Europeans and Algerians and their varied responses to the torture they inflicted or were inflicted with. The idea that one will suffer the consequences of violence, but must overcome it in order to ensure liberation of the nation is brought out through these case studies. There is no doubt that Fanon came across a multitude of patients having worse psychological disorders as a result of their exposure to violence. However, out of that great multitude, he has chosen and organized specific cases. The most obvious answer is that these cases bring out aspects of Fanon’s conceptualization better than he himself could. When a thirteen-year-old boy explains that he killed his white friend because he was white and because a stranger would have refused to accompany him to the hill, that he killed his friend because his people were being killed, he is a living testament to Fanon’s idea that colonialism “is naked violence and only gives in when confronted with greater violence.”
While Fanon does not deny that the independence of a nation does not depend on its absolute liberation, he is very clear in noting, “Independence is not a word which can be used as an exorcism, but an indispensable condition for the existence of men and women who are truly liberated...”
References:
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Grove Press, New York. 1963.
Fairchild, Halford H. “Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth in Contemporary Perspective”. Journal of Black Studies, Vol 25, Issue 2, 191-199. Dec, 1994. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2784
