By Alhaji Umar N’jai
I bring you The Wretched Of The Earth by Frantz Fanon.*
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon (panafricanist, medical doctor, psychiatrist, revolutionary, military officer, and philosopher) remains a classic, masterful timeless interrogation of race, colonialism, psychological trauma, revolutionary struggle, national culture and consciousness, and a continuing influence on movements from Black Lives Matter to decolonization efforts today.
In Wretched of the Earth, Fanon provided one of the most insightful, precise dissection, and psychoanalysis of the dehumanizing effects of colonization upon the individual and the people, and discusses the broader social, cultural, and political implications of establishing a social movement for the decolonization of a person and of a people.
Over the course of five powerful chapters, Fanon covers a wide range of topics, including patterns in how the colonized overthrow the colonist, how newly independent countries form national and cultural consciousness, and the overall effect of colonialism on the psychology of men and women in colonized countries.
The Wretched of the Earth not only bears insights into the rage of colonized people and the role of violence in historical change, it also incisively attacks post-independence disenfranchisement of the masses by the elite on the one hand, and the corruption, greed, narcissism, mediocrity, and general lack of a decolonial political, social and cultural ideology or consciousness among elites and militants’ post-independence on the other. It also attacks inter-tribal and inter-faith animosities in Africa post-independence.
For Fanon, decolonization and social re-organization that reflects the values, cultures and aspirations of the colonized was always paramount. Unfortunately. what Fanon saw in the immediate periods of independence waves across Africa was the tendency by the elite to continue in the ideas and doctrines of the colonial powers.
In line with Fanon, I coined the term neoliberal clones for the post-colonial African elites who continue to push and propagate neocolonial and neoliberal agenda for national development. Often neoliberal clones (African elites) work in cohoot with foreign interests to mortgage and loot resources from the continent in return for investments overseas or flashy buildings or cars in their countries. The neoliberal clones are willing to engage in deplorable tactics such as state capture and hence move ahead in dishonorable ways in society.
So, decolonization that gives real power to masses is opposed, hence the neoliberal clones become an indirect extension of the colonial hegemony. The colonialist has an excuse to say we have granted you independence and we are no longer there. The average African sees his- or her-kind in power and then says we should no longer focus on the colonialist. Hence, they focus on blaming themselves, fighting one another, and do not realize that they all victims of a larger colonial plot.
Sadly, they do not realize this colonial plot includes neoliberal clones (our very African elites) who look just like them but are an extension of the colonialist and are often selected/promoted to lead because it works for them, the colonialist. The colonialist through neoliberal education and brainwash curriculum in African Universities continue to generate and replicate a latent pool of these neoliberal clones, ready to fulfill their mission and entrenched their values on the colonized.
So, in essence in the immediate periods after independence, long sighted visionary and transformational Panafrican leaders from Nkrumah, Amilcar Cabral to Lumumba were replaced by neoliberal clones, whose greed, narcissism, and short-sightedness are enjoyed by the colonialist as it ensures the chain of dependency and unfettered access to resources is maintained.
Therefore, all efforts to decolonize and carve a unique pathway for our African societies are diluted and hindered by these latent pools of neoliberal clones produced in large numbers by our universities. Hence, the disconnects of these neoliberal clone elites with realities of the masses result in the impotency in solving local problems due to inferiority views of themselves and supremacy views of the colonialist.
Decolonization as put forward by Fanon should be based on the collective aspiration of the people (colonized) and in the process, they become more self-actualized. To be free, the people have to also free themselves of the reality created by the colonizers—for example, our value systems from education, culture to skin color that are now based on the colonial value systems must be decolonized to our own value systems. Many cultures internalized this idea of a dominant colonial culture and value systems, which impacts their mind and creates supremacy views of the colonialist and inferiority views of themselves.
Hence, colonialism may be gone physically but the mental conditioning lingers on forever. Since colonized people are kept this way with force for a long time with mental scars and impacts, decolonization through force or aggressive means is necessary, Fanon states. Fanon believed that the people who are the lowest in society need to be the basis of the revolution. He says that people must find their way back to their national heritage and culture to fight colonialism and heal from being colonized. Mental and physical liberation must be ongoing after the colonists had been kicked out. The “new society”, the liberated “new person” – collectively, socially, and individually – must be consciously and intentionally developed.
So, in the end for Fanon, whether decolonization happens through violence or non-violence means, the new state must be reinvented based on the collective aspirations of the colonized. The ideology for social and political organization by the African elite should reflect the values, cultures and ideals of the colonized and should be different from the reality imposed by the colonialist. National consciousness should be born out of the concerted action of the people which embodies the actual aspirations of people and transforms the state, which depends on exceptionally inventive cultural manifestations for its very existence.
Frantz Fanon was only 36 years old when he passed away, few months after the publishing Wretched of the Earth, which he wrote in three months through dictation to his wife Josie Fanon. Fanon’s legacy extends from civil right movement, black consciousness, psychiatry, anti-colonialism, social justice, anthropology, community sociology, political sociology, critical theory, and decolonization studies.
About the author: Dr. Alhaji Umar N’jai is a Senior Scientist, Associate Professor, Panafrican Scholar, Anthropologist, Founder & Chief Strategist of Project 1808, Inc, Koinadugu College, Kabala, Sierra Leone and Freelance writer ‘Roaming in the Mountains of Kabala Republic’. #Jata #Meejoh #ThePeoplesScientist
