Wretched Of The Earth Analysis

In Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon argues in favor of anti-colonial violence. When the colonized are forcibly stripped of their culture, language and of its humanity, they will naturally retaliate with violence, because it is the only option left of achieving decolonization. Fanon asserts that the colonizer uses a language of pure violence against the colonized. Because of this, the only communication possible between the colonizer and the colonized is violence. The French colonial policies stripped Algerians of their culture and their livelihood; the Algerians were dehumanized, and developed an inferiority complex as a result of the continued oppression by the French. Their grief and humiliation from this injustice was expressed through violence, because the colonizer already considered the Algerians to be backward savages, hence non-violent methods would not have a profound effect on the French. Furthermore, nonviolence would require cooperation from both the colonial system and the national bourgeoisie which would not attempt to replace the oppressive colonial system. Fanon disdains the national bourgeoisie, because their idea of …show more content…
Compromise only results in neo-colonialism, where the newly independent state continues to have economic dependence on a former colonial country. Fanon uses the Republic of Gabon as an example where “Monsieur M’ba, president of the Republic of Gabon, to very solemnly declare on his arrival for an official visit to Paris: ‘Gabon is an independent country, but nothing has changed between Gabon and France, the statue quo continues.’ In fact the only change is that Monsieur M’ba is president of the Republic of Gabon, and he is the guest of the president of the French Republic.” Fanon stresses the importance of lumpenproletariat (the lowest of the low, in Fanon’s case: the landless peasants) in the revolutionary movement. “The lumpenproletariat, this cohort of