When Fanon talks about intellectuals he refers to them as men. The struggle is by men and the book is, on the surface, for men. There are significant problems with the book which are clear now. Fanon examines nationalism, imperialism and the colonial inheritance and manages to turn the traditional definition of the lumpenproletariat on its head. It is written before Vietnam, before the changes in the sixties and by an eminent psychiatrist enmeshed in the struggle for freedom in Algeria. It is the classic critique of colonialism from the Marxist left with a powerful introduction by Sartre. This book is angry passionate, but written with great clarity and purpose. The Wretched of the Earth has had a major impact on civil rights, anticolonialism, and black consciousness movements around the world, and this bold new translation by Richard Philcox reaffirms it as a landmark.
Bearing singular insight into the rage and frustration of colonized peoples, and the role of violence in effecting historical change, the book incisively attacks the twin perils of post-independence colonial politics: the disenfranchisement of the masses by the elites on the one hand, and intertribal and interfaith animosities on the other.įanon's analysis, a veritable handbook of social reorganization for leaders of emerging nations, has been reflected all too clearly in the corruption and violence that has plagued present-day Africa. The Wretched of the Earth is a brilliant analysis of the psychology of the colonized and their path to liberation. Fanon's masterwork is a classic alongside Edward Said's Orientalism or The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and it is now available in a new translation that updates its language for a new generation of readers.
A distinguished psychiatrist from Martinique who took part in the Algerian Nationalist Movement, Frantz Fanon was one of the most important theorists of revolutionary struggle, colonialism, and racial difference in history.
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