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Contents Introduction Life Influences Black Skin, White Masks Necessity of Violence The Violent Revolution Reactions to Fanon Colonial Violence Conclusion

Frantz Fanon’s argument that violence is sometimes the only means for a colonized people to free itself from a colonizer is in many ways irrefutable. Unimaginable pain, genocide and dehumanizing acts have been inflicted upon native peoples throughout the earth and throughout history by dominating forces who do not afford natives even the basic humanity that could appeal to colonizers’ better selves.

Yet it is also essential to remember that Fanon’s post-colonial solution is “an ethical and political project” in which violence is only a necessary means to a better life, not a universally justifiable act for the foreseeable future (Bhabha xvi). It is in the context of Fanon’s discussion of violence that we can ask where the line is really drawn, where pacifism meets its limits, and when violence has gone too far. This is why Fanon’s work remains relevant, and why, in a world where racism is still very much alive and systems of domination and oppression will always have their victims, Fanon’s work is still a revelation.

List of Visuals

1. Frantz Fanon on the cover of an English translation of Les damnés de la terre (The Wretched of the Earth).
   http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fe/Frantz_Fanon_The_Wretched_of_the_Earth.jpg
   Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

2. R.A. propaganda poster "Révolution Algérienne" (The Algerian Revolution).
   http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/27/29-juin-1962-rocher-noir-algeria-propaganda.png
   Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

3. Cover of Aimé Césaire's work, Moi, laminaire (1982). Césaire was a member of the Négritude Movement.
   http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/16/Aim%C3%A9_C%C3%A9saire_Moi_laminaire.jpg
   Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

4. Senegalese poet, politician, and cultural theorist Léopold Sédar Senghor. Senghor was a member of the Négritude Movement.
   http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Leopold_Sedar_Senghor_%281987%29_by_Erling_Mandelmann.jpg
   Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

5. Baricades set up during the Algerian War of Independence. January 1960. Street of Algier.
   http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Semaine_des_barricades_Alger_1960_Haute_Qualit%C3%A9.jpg
   Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

6. "Rebellion Spreads in North Africa," an August 25, 1955, Universal newsreel covering the Algerian War. As of that date, 1700 rebels died fighting French soldiers in Algeria.
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rebellion_spreads_in_north_africa_1955.ogg
   Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

7. Hannah Arendt on a German stamp issued in 1988 as part of the Women in German history series.
   http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Hannah_Arendt.jpg
   Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

8. World map of colonialism at the end of the Second World War in 1945 a little over 60 years ago.
   http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/World_1914_empires_colonies_territory.PNG
   Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

1. Bhabha, Homi K. “Foreward: Framing Fanon.” The Wretched of the Earth.By Frantz Fanon. New York, New York: Grove Press, 2004. vii-xli. Print.


2. Césaire, Aimé. Discourse on Colonialism. New York, New York: Monthly Review Press, 2000. Print..


3. Fanon, Frantz. Black Skin, White Masks. New York, New York: Grove Press, 1967. Print.


4. Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York, New York: Grove Press, 2004. Print.


5. Frazer, Elizabeth, and Kimberly Hutchings. “On Politics and Violence: Arendt Contra Fanon.” Contemporary Political Theory. 7.1 (2008): 90-108. Print.


6. Martin, Guy. “Revisiting Fanon’s Life, Times and Thought.” African Studies Review. 47.3 (2004): 165-171. Print.


7. Poulos, Jennifer. “Frantz Fanon.” Postcolonial Studies at Emory. Emory University, Spring 1996. Web. 10 Sept. 2011.


8. Reyes, Alvaro Andrés (2009). Can’t go home again: Sovereign entanglements and the Black Radical tradition in the twentieth century. Diss. Duke University, 2009. Ann Arbor MI: ProQuest, 2010. Print.


9. Sanders-Phillips, Kathy. “Racial discrimination: A continuum of violence exposure for children of color.” Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review. 12.2 (2009): 174-195. Print.


10. Sartre, Jean-Paul. “Preface.” The Wretched of the Earth. By Frantz Fanon. New York, New York: Grove Press, 2004. Print.


11. Sekyi-Otu, Ato. Fanon’s Dialectic of Experience. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1996. Print.


12. Zulfiqar, Adnan Ahmad. Jihad of the wretched: Examining Islamic militancy through the thought of Frantz Fanon. Diss. Georgetown University, 2009. Ann Arbor MI: ProQuest, 2010. Print.