The Wretched of the Earth

Fanon opens Part 1 with the assertion that “decolonization is always a violent phenomenon” and proceeds to explain why (27). He argues that decolonization means overturning a political and ontological system. In essence, it means elevating those who are at the bottom of the social hierarchy, or the “wretched,” to the top. Such a reversal is impossible to achieve without destabilizing the existing order, which can happen only by employing violence.

According to Fanon, the colonized world is divided in two opposing parts. The first is the “white” side, where everything is clean, calm, and prosperous. The second is the “black” or “Arab” part, which is poor, starved, and unsanitary. These two sides are mutually exclusive, or Manichean, and can only exist in opposition to each other. The people who inhabit the first side feel superior to and disregard the “natives.” The colonizers believe Western culture to be the pinnacle of human civilization and attempt to force it onto the native inhabitants by demeaning their beliefs and even substituting their language. They want to preserve the status quo. The colonized, in contrast, are dissatisfied with their conditions and feel envious of those in the “white” world. Consequently, when Westerners talk about the achievements of European cultures, the natives react negatively and aggressively as a way to protest and counteract the results of colonialism.

Decolonization, then, according to the author, is “no more and no less that the abolition of one zone, its burial in the depths of the earth or its expulsion from the country” (31). This process is not immediate but happens in several stages.

The colonialized elite often embrace elements of Western culture, and local intellectuals often attempt, initially, to find a way for the settlers and the natives to coexist. Compromise is also attractive to the national politicians, as they are afraid of violence and colonial retaliation. Fanon, however, highlights that numbers are no longer the decisive element in an armed conflict. He brings examples from the American War of Liberation and the Spanish War against Napoleon, in which native soldiers overcame much larger enemy numbers through guerilla warfare.

Additionally, Fanon points out that most colonies in the 20th century have also developed local markets and manufacture. Business owners in the mother country cannot support a government that aims to eradicate the native population, so they require intervention that will safeguard the manufacturers’ interests in the colonized countries—some kind of compromise that preserves the status quo.

Religion is no help in the decolonization process, as one outcome of colonialism is the fatalistic attitude of the natives toward their misfortune. They accept that the presence of the colonizers is the result of God’s will. Additionally, the local tribe leaders and wise men often collaborate with the settlers to preserve their relatively privileged positions. In this way religion becomes one more control mechanism in the hands of the settlers.

In this situation, Fanon argues that real help in the decolonization process can come from the communist countries who are already opposed to the capitalist West.

Finally, he argues that in areas that have not been thoroughly affected by the liberation struggle, a colonized local elite takes the place of the settlers without changing the extant structures and uses the ensuing political instability for personal gain. Without violence there cannot be a fundamental shift in the socio-political order.

Fanon also quotes a long passage from Aimé Césaire’s (1913-2008) poetry collection Les Armes Miraculeuses (1946), which examines the psychology behind violence in colonized places. The passage, in the form of a dialogue between a mother and her rebel son, underscores that no compromise can be reached between the two sides. Even if the masters behave kindly, they remain in a position of absolute power, so killing them is the only way to reclaim a sense of identity and remove the concept of owner and slave.