╰┈➤ Paper : 203 the postcolonial Studies.
➹ M. A English Sem : 3
➹ Paper : 203 the postcolonial Studies.
➹ Topic : characteristics the wretched of the earth by Frantz Fanon.
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╰┈➤ About the author :-
➢ Born :-
Frantz Omar Fanon
20 July 1925 Fort-de-France, Martinique, France.
➢ Died:-
6 December 1961 (aged 36)
Bethesda, Maryland, U.S.
➢ Citizenship:- France
➢ Spouse:- Josie Dublé Fanon (m. 1952)
➢ Partner:- Michèle Weyer (1948)
➢ Children:- Mireille (of Michèle)
Olivier (of Josie).
➢ Education:- University of Lyon (MD, 1951)
Philosophical work.
➢ Era:- Contemporary philosophy.
➢ Region:- Africana philosophy.
➢ School:- Black existentialism.
➢ Critical theory:- Existential phenomenology.
➢ Main interests:-
Decolonization, postcolonialism, revolution, psychopathology of colonization, racism, psychoanalysis.
➢ Notable works:-
Black Skin, White Masks (1952).
The Wretched of the Earth (1961).
➢ Notable ideas:-
Double consciousness, colonial alienation, to become black, sociogeny, total liberation, by any means necessary.
╰┈➤ Early Life and Military Service:-
➢ Birth :-
Born on July 20, 1925, in Fort-de-France, Martinique, a French colony in the Caribbean.Frantz Omar Fanon was born on 20 July 1925 in Fort-de-France, Martinique, which was then part of the French colonial empire, into a middle class family. His father, Félix Casimir Fanon, worked as a customs officer. Fanon's mother, Eléanore Médélice, who was of Afro-Caribbean and Alsatian descent, was a shopkeeper.
Fanon was the third of four sons in a family of eight children. Two of his siblings died young, including Fanon's sister Gabrielle, with whom he was very close. The young Frantz Fanon was an avid football player, and played the sport in Martinique, later organizing football matches for patients and staff while working at the Blida-Joinville psychiatric hospital in Algeria.
➢ World War II:
Left Martinique as a teenager to join the Free French Army and fight against Nazi Germany.
June 1940, the German victory in the Battle of France resulted in the French Third Republic capitulating to Nazi Germany. Martinique came under the control of French Navy elements under Admiral Georges Robert, who were loyal to the collaborationist Vichy regime in France. The war disrupted imports from Metropolitan France to Martinique, leading to major shortages on the island, while Robert's authoritarian regime repressed Martinican Allied sympathizers, hundreds of whom escaped to nearby Caribbean islands. Fanon later described the pro-Vichy regime in Martinique as taking off their masks and behaving like "authentic racists". In January 1943, he fled Martinique during the wedding of one of his brothers, and travelled to the British colony of Dominica in order to link up with other Allied sympathizers.
Robert's regime was overthrown by a local uprising in June 1943, which Fanon would later acclaim as "the birth of the [Martinican] proletariat" as a revolutionary force. Following the uprising, Fanon "enthusiastically" returned to Martinique, where the pro-Allied Free French leader Charles de Gaulle had appointed Henri Tourtet as the colony's new governor. Tourtet raised the 5th Antillean Marching Battalion to serve in Free French Forces (FFL), and Fanon quickly enlisted in the unit at Fort-de-France.
He underwent basic training before boarding a troopship bound for Morocco in March 1944. After Fanon arrived in Casablanca, he was shocked to discover the extent of racial discrimination in the FFL. Fanon was transferred to a Free French military base in Béjaïa, Algeria, where he witnessed firsthand the antisemitism and Islamophobia of the pieds-noirs, many of whom had supported racist laws promulgated by the Vichy regime.
In August 1944, Fanon embarked on another troopship at Oran to participated in Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of German-occupied Provence. After the American VI Corps secured a beachhead, Fanon's unit came ashore at Saint-Tropez and advanced inland. In Doubs, he participated in several engagements near Montbéliard and was seriously wounded by shrapnel, which resulted in him being hospitalized for two months. Fanon was awarded a Croix de Guerre by Colonel Raoul Salan for his military service. In early 1945, he rejoined his unit and fought in the Battle of Alsace.
After German forces had been pushed out of France and Allied troops crossed the Rhine into Germany, Fanon and his fellow black troops were removed from their formations and sent southwards to Toulon as part of de Gaulle's policy of removing non-white soldiers from the French army.[10] Fanon was transferred to Normandy to await repatriation to the West Indies.
Although Fanon had been initially eager to participate in the Allied war effort, the racism he witnessed during the war disillusioned him. Fanon wrote to his brother Joby from Europe that "I've been deceived, and I am paying for my mistakes... I'm sick of it all." In the fall of 1945, a newly-discharged Fanon returned to Martinique, where he focused on completing his baccalauréat in philosophy at the prestigious Lycée Schœlcher in Fort-de-France. During this time, he campaigned for Aimé Césaire - one of the founders of Négritude and a teacher at the Lycée - who was running to become Martinique's deputy to the first National Assembly of the French Fourth Republic. Though Césaire never taught Fanon directly, his writings had a profound impact on Fanon's thought.[23] Staying in Martinique long enough to finish his baccalauréat, Fanon returned to Metropolitan France in 1946 to study medicine.
➢ Education:
Studied medicine and specialized in psychiatry at the University of Lyon in France.
╰┈➤Psychiatric Work and Political Activism:-
➢ Algeria:
Moved to Algeria in 1953 to direct a psychiatric ward at Blida-Joinville Hospital.
➢ Revolution:
Witnessed harsh colonial abuse, resigned from his post, and joined the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) to fight French rule.
➢ Diplomacy:
Served as an ambassador for the provisional Algerian government to Ghana.
➢ Death:
Died of leukemia at age 36 in Bethesda, Maryland, on December 6, 1961, while seeking medical treatment in the United States.
╰┈➤ Major Works and Ideas:-
➢ Black Skin, White Masks (1952):
An exploration of the psychological damage inflicted by racism and colonization on Black individuals, detailing how colonized people internalize the values and standards of the colonizer.
➢ The Wretched of the Earth (1961):
A seminal critique of the violence of colonialism and the psychological and political challenges of achieving true decolonization and national consciousness.
➢ Core Philosophy:
Argued that colonialism is an absolute evil that distorts the human psyche, and maintained that true liberation requires total structural and psychological transformation.
➢ Biography :
Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) was a Martinique-born psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary, and writer. He was the author of classic works such as Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the Earth (1961). He was one of the most significant anti-colonialist, anti-imperialist and anti-racist thinkers of the 20th Century.
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╰┈➤ The Wretched of the Earth (French: Les Damnés de la Terre) is a 1961 book by the philosopher Frantz Fanon, in which the author provides a psychoanalysis of the dehumanising effects of colonisation upon individuals and nations, and discusses the broader social, cultural, and political implications of establishing a social movement for the decolonisation of a person and of a people.
➢ Author :- Frantz Fanon
➢ Original title :- Les Damnés de la Terre
➢ Translator :- Constance Farrington (1963)
Richard Philcox (2004).
➢ Language :- French
➢ Subjects :- Racism, colonialism, violence, post-colonialism, third-world development, revolution.
➢ Publisher :- François Maspero
➢ Publication date :- 1961
➢ Publication place :- France
➢ Published in :- English 1963
➢ Media type :- Print
➢ Pages :- 251
➢ ISBN :- 0-8021-5083-7
➢ OCLC :- 11787563
╰┈➤ Some believe that the French-language title derives from the opening line of "The Internationale",which is reflected in the English title as well.However, Fanon biographer Adam Shatz has stated that it originates from the poem "Sales nègres" (Dirty Negroes), published posthumously in 1945 in the collection Bois-d'ébène by the Haitian poet Jacques Roumain (1907-1944 ).
╰┈➤The Wretched of the Earth Summary
The Wretched of the Earth begins with Frantz Fanon’s explanation of violence within the “colonial situation.” According to Fanon, the act of decolonization will always involve violence. Decolonization cannot occur with merely a “gentleman’s agreement,” as colonialism itself is steeped in violence. The colonists took control of the colonized through violent means with military tanks and rifles with bayonets, and they maintain control in the very same way. The colonial world is divided by military barracks and police stations, and it constitutes two very different spaces: the colonists’ world is impeccably maintained with modern convinces and opportunity, whereas the world of the colonized is “a disreputable place inhabited by disreputable people,” which is saddled with poverty, famine, and illiteracy. Fanon refers to the colonial world as “a Manichaean World” that is divided into light and dark, in which the white colonizers are seen as the light, and the black colonized individuals are viewed as darkness and the epitome of evil. The colonial world keeps the colonized individual continually on edge with their muscles tensed in violent anticipation. There is a constant “atmospheric violence” in colonial society, and the colonized seem to inherently know that their liberation can only be achieved through violent means. During the Cold War, both the socialist Eastern Bloc (the Soviet Union and their allies) and capitalist Western Bloc (the U.S. and their allies) try to sway underdeveloped Third World countries to their respective causes, and while Fanon argues that nation building is an inherently capitalist venture, the Third World remains politically neutral. They will not support the capitalist West, which, through colonialism, has grown rich through the exploitation of the people and natural resources of the Third World.
The masses of a colonized country and the country’s nationalist political parties are usually not on the same page, Fanon claims. Such political parties are comprised of the colonized intellectuals—the urban proletariat—and they represent less than one percent of the actual population. The urban proletariat is the most privileged of colonial society, and they stand to lose everything through decolonization. They constitute the national bourgeoisie, and they live Western lifestyles, espouse Western ideas, and work Western jobs. The peasant masses—which an undeveloped country is primarily composed of—live traditional lives in outlying villages, and they are at complete odds with the national bourgeoisie and approach them with a general mistrust. While the peasant masses are usually neglected by the nationalist political parties, these people are “the only spontaneously revolutionary force in the country,” and they are crucial in the fight for liberation and decolonization. The lumpenproletariat, the absolute lowest rung of society—criminals, prostitutes, juvenile delinquents, and the like—are the most valuable, Fanon argues, and are the “urban spearhead” of the rebellion. While several countries are fighting and winning independence, they cannot rest, Fanon warns, as new forms of oppression are always brewing in the underdeveloped nation.
In a newly independent nation, the national bourgeoisie takes political control, and they slide right into the place of the exiting colonial power. Underdeveloped like their nation, the national bourgeoisie know nothing about actual economics, and they run a limited economy and keep all the profits. Under this system of neocolonialism, the peasant masses continue to suffer in much the same way they did under colonial rule, and conflict between the classes grows. This leads to building tensions among ethnic and religious groups, as well as continued racism and persecution from the ruling class. Politics often turns to a single-party system, and the nation is transformed into a dictatorship, with a single leader driving the nation in the favor of the national bourgeoisie. In order to avoid this, Fanon says, government must be decentralized, moved to rural areas, and run by the peasant masses. The national bourgeoisie is the single most destructive thing to a developing country, and a new nation cannot possibly progress until the national bourgeoisie is removed from power.
After independence, the formerly colonized intellectual—the cultural class—fights for “the recognition of a national culture and its right to exist.” Colonial racism has long since assumed that black nations are devoid of culture and intellect, and the colonized intellectual toils tirelessly to prove this isn’t true. The colonized intellectual turns to past pre-colonial culture and reclaims black culture on a “continental scale.” They advocate for the creation and acceptance of “Negro” culture, especially “Negro” literature, which encompasses the entire continent of Africa and all the black individuals of the African diaspora. This “black world” stretches from Africa, to the Caribbean, and through the United States; however, Fanon says, they have little in common other than the fact that they all “[define] themselves in relation to the whites.” Culture, Fanon argues, is national, not continental, and it cannot be combined into one large cultural representation. Furthermore, Fanon asserts, culture is not something that can be isolated to pre-colonial times. Rather, culture is created through the developing national consciousness of a struggling and newly independent nation.
Colonialist oppression and the violent struggle for liberation leads to, perhaps not surprisingly, a slew of mental disorders. Fanon, a practicing psychiatrist, includes several case files from former patients he treated during the Algerian War of Independence. Fanon includes assessments and notes from Algerians, as well as Europeans, and he describes the ways in which the colonial situation has negatively affected their mental health and well-being. Fanon’s case files range from anxiety, depression, and anorexia, to major psychotic breaks and homicidal tendencies—each case with trauma stemming directly from the French colonization of Algeria and subsequent war. Fanon examines the psychological impact of prolonged brainwashing and excessive torture, especially through electrocution. He touches on the use of truth serum, considers those Algerians sent to internment camps, and even debates the antiquated theory of Algerian criminality as a product of an underdeveloped Algerian brain and nervous system. For Fanon, Algerian criminality is rooted in the same cause as all the other problems plaguing Algeria: the colonial situation.
Fanon concludes his book with a call to action. He calls to end all colonialism and neocolonialism once and for all, and urges developing nations not to look to Europe as an example. Another developing nation looked to Europe centuries ago, Fanon warns, and now that nation—the United States of America—is “a monster” where the “flaws, sickness, and inhumanity of Europe have reached frightening proportions.” Developing African nations must not look to the past, or to Europe, but instead should start a new history, with a “new man” and “a new way of thinking.”
╰┈➤ Analysis:-
Right away, Fanon makes it clear that liberation cannot occur without violence, which is one of his major arguments throughout the book. The use of the word “species” harkens to the animal terms colonists use to describe the colonized, who the colonists believe are savage and bestial. Decolonization cannot occur through a “gentleman’s agreement,” or handshake, as it absolutely did not start this way. The expectation that the colonized must achieve liberation through nonviolent means reflects the double standards that plague colonialism.
Fanon again uses the word “species,” which further reflects animal terms such as “bestiary” used to dehumanize colonized people. Of course, by referring to the colonists as a “species,” too, Fanon implies that the colonists are in fact the animals. Fanon’s use of the word “other” here also upends traditional use of the word. Typically, the colonized are viewed as “other,” because they are something other than the colonist. But here, Fanon makes the colonist the “other,” which effectively dismantles the colonial situation. Fanon’s description of the colonial world as a “Manichaean world” reflects the absolute racism of colonialism, and Christianity, the “white man’s Church,” further perpetuates this racist worldview.
Fanon frequently describes decolonization as “the last becom[ing] the first,” which again dismantles the colonial situation. In overcoming oppression, the colonized are no longer at the mercy of the colonists. Fanon’s use of words such as “reasonable” and “regression” are highly ironic, as they highlight the fact that there is nothing "reasonable” about colonialism and that regressing beyond the violence and immorality of it seems quite impossible.
As the colonized intellectuals often take the place of the colonialist bourgeoisie after decolonization, the channels and oppression of colonialism remain intact, even in the official absence of the colonial power. This is known as neocolonialism, and Fanon argues that it is just as bad as colonialism. He goes deeper into the implications of neocolonialism later in the book, arguing that it is the absolute enemy of decolonization despite initially seeming like progress in the right direction.
Fanon ultimately argues that true decolonization can only occur if the people band together and, most importantly, strip the bourgeoisie of their power. Just as the best interests of the colonists have nothing to do with the best interests of the colonized, the bourgeoisie do not accurately represent the people, and what is in their best interest is not in the best interest of the nation as a whole. A nation must be driven by and for the majority—in this case the peasants—not the minority bourgeoisie.
Decolonization is simple: get back the nation and find a way to sustain the people. “Bread and land” are the absolute bare bones of this struggle. A “demagogue” is a political leader who uses exploitation and prejudice (like the colonists) to rule. By becoming demagogues, the colonized intellectuals become the oppressors in more ways than one. Thus, the intellectual is a “mimic man,” following suit after the example set by the colonialists.
Again, Fanon’s use of the word “penned in” connotes a racist and dehumanizing colonial interpretation of the colonized, as it hearkens to animals and cages. The colonists believe the colonized are savages, thus they pen them in. Fanon repeatedly mentions the tense muscles of the colonized individual, and these muscles are a symbol of the stress and violence of colonialism, but they also represent the colonized people’s dedication to and readiness for decolonization. They are tense, which obviously suggests anger, but they are also ready to rise and fight for their dignity and right to exist.
Fanon contends that much of the preexisting culture is lost during decolonization. Nation building drastically changes the national consciousness, which means that culture will change radically as well. Fanon is a medical doctor—a practicing psychiatrist—and medical lingo is frequently incorporated into the book, such as his description of the emotions of the colonized like a “running sore flinching from a caustic agent.” Fanon again mentions the muscles, where these emotions seem to be stored.
In order to completely dismantle colonialism and challenge the colonial situation, colonial thinking must be eliminated. The new nation cannot be realized in a Western image and ideal, as it does not exist in the West and the same rules don’t apply. In taking the place of the colonists, instead of competing with them, Western thoughts and ideas are eliminated by the colonized masses. To maintain the colonial situation as the colonized intellectuals want (according to their Western education and political views) does not challenge the colonial situation, it merely modifies it, allowing it to continue in another form.
Fanon again draws attention to violence and the fact that colonialism cannot be overcome in a peaceful way. His argument is simple: that which is violent only responds to violence. Fanon’s theories on decolonization and overcoming oppression were quite popular during the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. during the 1960s. Notably, Malcolm X and the Black Panthers were proponents of Fanon’s theories
The demonstrations and boycotts are ultimately unsuccessful because they are peaceful. Violence is needed for successful decolonization, Fanon insists, and anything less basically amounts to a waste of time. Fanon implies several times that capitalism is needed in a developing nation. While it is most certainly damaging—the colonized people have been used as slaves to satisfy capitalist greed—capitalism is much like violence as it is wholly necessary to decolonize and grow as a nation.
The colonist giving the colonized examples of heroes who forgave trespassing is subtle brainwashing. Of course the colonists want the colonized to be forgiving people, especially in terms of trespassing, since the colonizers quite literally trespass on the land of the colonized. Again, Fanon implies that liberation will not be won with talk. There is no way to convince the colonialist power with language, even if that language strongly represents the nation and its people.
The people of the Third World are “shattering their chains” because they will not be slaves to the West anymore. For centuries Europe has taken those from the Third World, shackled them in chains, and sold them into slavery against their will. This atrocity is the epitome of violence, and it can’t be overcome with anything less than violence. This violence is also reflected in Fanon’s language. The violence is “atmospheric,” meaning it is in the air—essentially everywhere—which makes the people “trigger-happy” and ready to fight at all times.
Fanon later implies that the colonized have been “robbed” by the West, particularly Europe. Europe is exceedingly wealthy, especially when compared to the Third World. But that wealth, Fanon contends, was essentially stolen from the Third World in the form of people, culture, and national resources
America wants Europe to decolonize not because it is the right thing to do, but because decolonizing is better for the current global economic climate. Politically speaking, it is better for Europe to keep the Third World under control and away from socialism. The colonized individuals know that they are little more than pawns for the rest of the world, and they use this knowledge to their benefit whenever possible.
The colonized individual is a “political creature in the most global sense of the term” because they have been created by everyone else’s politics. Newly independent nations are “indeterminate” because it is not yet known what they will be. The postcolonial situation is an entirely new situation to which old precolonial views and thoughts cannot be applied. Everything must born anew in the postcolonial period, Fanon argues, which takes time. Thus, Fanon implies that the suffering of colonialism will be felt for years to come.
Neutrality during the Cold War was often seen as “taking handouts,” but Fanon argues this isn’t the case with the Third World, since the West owes the Third World more than could ever be repaid. Still, the West begrudgingly gives to the Third World and believes that they should just be thankful for the “handout.”
Both the East and West want to gain the support of the Third World so they can just continue to exploit them in a slightly different—but essentially the same—way. “Everyone wants a piece of them,” Fanon says, which is ironic because the West, namely Europe, already has most of them.
Fanon repeatedly hammers home how important violence is to the struggle for nationhood. He doesn’t just imply it; he explicitly says it time and time again. This gained Fanon a bit of a reputation among intellectuals—especially white intellectuals—as a proponent of violence. However, Fanon does imply that since those white intellectuals have not experienced the violence and oppression of colonialism firsthand, they can’t possibly understand the absolute and ever-present threat of violence that is colonialism.
The Algerian War of Independence, which Fanon mentions several times, lasted eight years. By the end of the war, Algeria was free, but they had lost nearly 300,000 Algerians, and another 2,000,000 had been displaced or fled the country. Conservative numbers of French and other European losses during the war are around 25,000. Clearly, the force and violence are incredibly unequal, but the viewpoint of the Manichaean world is that the colonized is automatically evil and in the wrong.
Again, Fanon’s assessment is very bleak and violent. Algerians are killed every day under colonial rule. So, Fanon therefore asks, shouldn’t violence be expected in overcoming that rule? The fact that the colonized expect violence and don’t complain speaks to the dire nature of their position. Their everyday lives are unimaginable to many Europeans or Westerners, who would likely be the first to react in a profoundly violent way if their own existence and dignity were threatened in the same way.
Here, Fanon implies that viewing violence as a wholly bad thing is a Western ideal. To the Third World, after independence is won through violent means, this violence serves a positive purpose. Fanon later writes about the mental health issues associated with colonialism, and this “cleansing” violent uprising is a way to treat and quell this psychological stress. In many, if not all, of the medical cases Fanon presents, colonialism is the direct cause of symptoms. Here, that causative agent is removed.
╰┈➤ The Wretched of the Earth Characters
➢ The Colonized :-
The members of a Third World nation who have been taken over by an outside colonial force with the intention of exploiting them economically and politically. The colonized are oppressed, neglected, and abused by the colonists, and they have been stripped of their precolonial culture and way of life. They are forced to endure endless racism and maltreatment, and their muscles are in a constant state of flexion waiting to revolt. The colonized live a life of violence under the control of the colonists, and they understand that their liberation can only be achieved through violent means.
➢ The Colonists/Colonialists :-
The members of a colonial country who take a weaker Third World nation over by force with the intention of exploiting them economically and politically. The colonists are exceedingly violent, and they oppress and neglect the colonized at every turn. They spread racist assumptions about the colonized, and systematically strip them of their nation, their culture, and their dignity.
➢ The National Bourgeoisie :-
Made up of the urban proletariat, the national bourgeoisie is the ruling class of colonial society and the developing nation. The national bourgeoisie live Westernized lives, and they are in constant conflict with the peasant masses, with whom they have nothing in common. After the exit of a colonial power, the national bourgeoisie slips into the place of the colonists and exploits the peasant masses politically and economically. The national bourgeoisie have limited experience and little political wherewithal, and they stand to lose everything through decolonization. They support dictatorships and have zero intention of helping the peasant masses to rise from poverty, widespread hunger, and illiteracy. The national bourgeoisie are wholly damaging to a developing nation, which cannot expect to progress and prosper until the national bourgeoisie are stripped of their ruling power.
➢ The Lumpenproletariat :-
A class within the peasant masses that is the absolute lowest rung of the social strata. The lumpenproletariat are the criminals, the unemployed, the prostitutes, and the juvenile delinquents, and they represent a serious security threat to society. They are also “the most spontaneously and radically revolutionary forces of a colonized people,” and Fanon refers to them as the “urban spearhead” of the liberation struggle. The lumpenproletariat are crucial in the fight for independence, and Fanon believes that any national liberation movement would do well to utilize them their advantage.
➢ The Peasant Masses :-
The largest social class of the Third World. The peasant masses are largely made of rural farmers, and they live traditional lives that still resemble precolonial culture. The peasant masses are “the only spontaneously revolutionary force in the country,” and, Fanon contends, they are exceedingly important to the revolutionary cause. The peasant masses are the first to be oppressed and neglected when systems of neocolonialism take over, and they are generally mistrusting of the national bourgeoisie.
➢ The Young Frenchwoman :-
One of Fanon’s patients while he is working as a psychiatrist in Algeria during the Algerian War of Independence. The young Frenchwoman presents with anxiety after her father, a civil servant, is killed in an ambush. She is deeply ashamed of her father’s involvement in the oppression of the Algerian people, and before his death, she finds it difficult to look him in the eye. After her father’s death, the French government offers her restitution, but she refuses. The Young Frenchwoman claims that she would fight on behalf of the Algerians if she could, and she serves to illustrate Fanon’s contention that the colonist is negatively affected by colonialism as well.
➢ The Algerian Man :-
One of Fanon’s patients in the psychiatric hospital in Algeria during the Algerian War of Independence. The Algerian man is arrested for a “terrorist attack” after suffering a psychotic break. He is not involved with the rebellion in any way and is dedicated to his career in data processing. As a result, he begins to feel guilty for not participating in the national struggle and grows depressed and increasingly withdrawn. He begins to hallucinate and finds himself in the European sector of the city where Algerians are being harassed and arrested by police. He runs up to an officer screaming “I am an Algerian!” and attempts to take his gun. The Algerian man is beaten and sent to the hospital. After several weeks he begins to improve and is discharged.
➢ The 13-year-old Algerian Boy :-
A patient of Fanon’s at the psychiatric hospital during the Algerian War of Independence. Along with the 14-year-old Algerian boy, the boys kill their European friend because they heard that the Europeans want to kill all the Arabs. They couldn’t kill an adult, the 13-year-old-boy says, so they killed their young friend instead. The 13-year-old boy is further proof of the psychological effects of colonialism on the colonized.
➢ The 14-year-old Algerian Boy :-
Another patient of Fanon’s at the psychiatric hospital in Algeria during the Algerian War of Independence. Along with the 13-year-old Algerian boy, the 14-year-old kills a young European friend after hearing that the Europeans want to kill all the Arabs. The 14-year-old boy refuses to talk, other than to ask why the Europeans are not arrested for killing the Algerians. The 14-year-old boy again underscores the psychological effect of colonialism on the colonized, but he also raises a valid point: the Europeans often killed the Algerians with impunity, and they were not held accountable.
➢ R :-
A 30-year-old European police officer and another patient of Fanon’s during the Algerian War of Independence. R is tasked with torturing Algerians for the French, and he has taken to beating his wife and children as well. R won’t quit his job, but he is hoping that therapy will allow him to stop abusing his family and do his job without guilt. R is an example of the rampant violence of colonialism and the mental disorders that plague those who are involved.
➢ A :-
One of Fanon’s patients during the Algerian War of Independence. A is a 28-year-old European police officer, who suffers from depression after the French order him to start torturing Algerians. A feels immense guilt and wants to quit his job, especially after he runs into an Algerian he had previously tortured, who is also at the hospital being treated for post-traumatic stress. A is yet another example of the mental disorders that plague the colonial situation, and he is further proof that colonialism negatively affects the colonist as well.
➢ B :-
One of Fanon’s patients in the psychiatric hospital in Algeria during the Algerian War of Independence. B is 26 years old and is suffering from impotence, migraines, and insomnia after the rape of his wife by a French soldier. B is a militant in the Algerian Liberation Front, and his wife is raped when she won’t give up information on him. B finds it difficult to be with his wife after her assault, and he wonders if he will ever get over it. B and his wife are another example of the widespread violence of colonialism and the lasting psychological impact of such violence.
➢ S :-
Another one of Fanon’s patients in Algeria during the Algerian War of Independence. S is a 37-year-old man from an outlying village. He had nothing to do with the war until the French ambushed his village and shot 29 men at point-blank range. S sustained two gunshot wounds, and after his injury when he was recovering in the hospital, he suffered a psychotic break. He was sent to the psychiatric hospital for treatment, and he is discharged after one month. S also represents the psychological effects of violence on the colonized individual.
➢ D :-
One of Fanon’s patients in the psychiatric hospital in Algerian during the Algerian War of Independence. D is a 19-year-old man who joins the liberation movement, and after he kills a European woman at a white settlement, he suffers a psychotic break and begins to dream that his victim is haunting him. D remains in the hospital until his nightmares subside and he is discharged. Again, D’s symptomology is directly related to colonialism and the war in Algeria, which also underscores the psychological effects of colonialism.
╰┈➤ Minor Characters :-
➢ The Urban Proletariat :-
The most privileged of colonial society and the developing nation, making up less than one percent of the total population. They are the tradesmen and civil servants, such as doctors and lawyers, and they constitute the national bourgeoisie.
╰┈➤ Key Takeaways from the Conclusion:-
➢ Rejection of Europe:
Fanon declares that the "European game has finally ended" and warns the Third World not to imitate or try to "catch up" to Western capitalist societies, which are morally and spiritually exhausted.
➢ New Humanism:
Instead of mimicking Western exploitation and materialism, newly liberated nations must pioneer a new humanism and invent discoveries that benefit all of humanity.
➢ Avoiding Neocolonial Traps:
Fanon stresses that copying European systems will only perpetuate misery, inequality, and the psychological scars of colonial rule.
➢ An Open Dialogue:
Rather than imposing a rigid dogma like orthodox Marxism or capitalism, the conclusion functions as an open-ended invitation for postcolonial societies to creatively rebuild and rethink human relations.
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