ABSTRACT: This paper seeks to examine a critique of Frantz Fanon conception of violence. Fanon’s philosophy of decolonization explores the range of ways in which Frantz Fanon’s decolonization theory can reveal new answers to perennial philosophical questions and new paths to social justice. The aim is to show not just that Fanon’s though remains philosophically relevant but that it is relevant to an even wider range of philosophical issues that has previously been realized.
A CRITIQUE OF FRANTZ FANON CONCEPTION OF VIOLENCE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Frantz Fanon was born in Martinique in 1925. His father, Casimir worked in the customs services and died when fanon was barely twenty-two years. Fanon grew up in Martinique amid the descendants of African slaves who had been brought to the Caribbean to work in the Island’s Sugar Plantation. He studied at the Lycee schoelcher in fort-de-France, and one of his teachers was Aime Casaire. In his teenage, fanon became highly politically active and participated in the Guerrilla struggle against the supporters of the pro Nazi French vicely Government. At this stage, fanon had seriously became perturbed over the French oppression of his native Algeria, hence, one of fanon’s friend , Edourd Glissent a younger compatriot who studied philosophy and history at the Sorbonne remarked of fanon as being “highly sensitive”.
After 1945, Frantz Fanon studied medicine and psychiatry in lyons and began a sort of revolutionary writing. His first analysis of the negative impact of racism and colonialism culminated in the text black skin, white masks. This book published in 1952 became a foundational text for the liberation movements of the 1960s and later became a reference material for postcolonial studies. His other major work is the wretched of the Earth (1965), a book that is regarded as one of the central documents of the black liberation movement. His other works include the ordeal of the Black man (1952). Algeria’s European minority, which first appeared in les Temps mordenes in June 1959 and later reprinted in A Dying colonialism (1965), and decolonization and independence etc. Fanon’s revolutionary writing had profound influence on the radical movements in the united states and Europe, and even grained audience in the Caribbean Islands. In Africa where colonialism was raging during that time, fanon’s writing spurred up anti-colonial writings from the like of Ngugi Wa thiong O, Tsitsi Dangaremba of Zimbabwe, and Senegal’s Osumane Sembene.
A CRITIQUE OF FRANTZ FANON CONCEPTION OF VIOLENCE
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Racism, a phenomenon that depicts an excessive and irrational belief in or advocacy of the superiority of a given group, people, or nation over the other, especially and perhaps, solely on physical differences, for example, colour of the skin, has been a long standing and contentious socio-political issue. It has led to demoralizing and devastating effects, especially on the so called inferior race, more often than not regarded as less human, less rational, devilish, primitive, backward and savage.
The salient point raised by Fanon which was violence as a veritable tool for decolonization constitutes the problem which this work shall give due attention to.
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study is to examine frantz fanon’s conception of violence with the view to exploring it strength and weaknesses in other to see it’s applicability.
This study is undertaken with the sole aim of examining the concept of violence and show that violence has the potential to be liberatory, in the sense that it allows the colonial subject to free themselves and recreate a positive identity.
Originally posted on April 19, 2021 @ 2:14 pm
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