The Wretched of the Earth rantz Fanon (1925–1961) was an advocate of Third World revolution, guerrila warfare, and could only be removed by violence. He joined the Algerian National Liberation Front and became a prominent spokesman for their cause. Fanon was dying of leukemia in 1961 while writing his most bitter indictment of colonialism, The Wretched of the Earth (1961). and socialism. Born on the Caribbean island of Martinique in the French West Indies, Fanon vol- unteered for service in the Free French Army and was wounded during the liberation of France in 1944. After training in Paris as a psychiatrist, he was stationed in North Africa. During the Algerian war Fanon's medical practice included psychiatric treat- ment of both French practitioners and Arab and Berber victims of torture. From this experience he concluded that colonialism was intrinsically violent Sources: From Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York Grove, 1963), pp. 36, 39 41, 43, 45, 59, 61, 312, 315-316. Reprinted by permission; David Macy, Frantz Fanon (New York: Picador, 2000), p. 483. Decolonization is the meeting of two forces, opposed to each other by their very na- ture.... Their first encounter was marked by violence and their existence together-that is to say the exploitation of the natve by the settler-was carried on by dint of a great array of bayonets and cannons.... mire.... The look that the native turns on the settlers' town is a look of lust, a look of envy; it expresses his dreams of possession-all man- ner of possession: to sit at the settler's table, to sleep in the settler's bed, with his wife if possi- ble. The colonized man is an envious man.... The violence which has ruled over the ordering of the colonial world, which has ceaselessly drummed the rhythm for the de- The naked truth of decolonization evokes for us the searing bullets and bloodstained knives which emanate from It. For if the last struction of native social forms and broken shall be first, this will only come to pass after a murderous and decisive struggle between the two protagonists.... The settlers' town is a strongly built town, all made of stone and steel. It is a brightly lit town; the streets are all covered with asphalt, and the garbage cans swallow all the leav- ings, unseen, unknown, and hardly thought about. ... The settlers' town is a town of white people, of foreigners... The native town is a hungry towm, starved for bread, of meat, of shoes, of coal, of light. The native town is a crouching village, town on its knees, a town wallowing in the up without reserve the systems of reference of the economy... that same violence will be claimed and taken over by the native at the moment when, deciding to embody history in his own person, he surges into the forbid- den quarters.... As if to show the totalitarian character of colonial exploltation the settler paints the na- tive as the quintessence of evil. Native soclety is not simply described as a society lacking in values.... The native is declared insensible to ethics; he represents not only the absence of values, but the negation of values ... and in this sense he is the absolute evil.... The violence with which the supremacy of white values is affirmed and the aggressive- ness which has permeated the victory of these values over the ways of life and thought of the native mean that, in revenge, the native laughs in mockery when Western values are mentioned in front of him.... In the perlod of decolonization, the colonized masses mock at these very values, insult them, and vomit them up.... produce an explosive mixture of unexpected power.... Come, then, comrades, the European. game has finally ended; we must find some- thing different. We today can do everything so long as we do not imitate Europe, so long as we are not obsessed with desire to catch up with Europe.... European achievements, European techniques, and European style ought to no longer tempt us and to throw us [When the urban militants] get into the habit of talking to the peasants they discover off our balance. When I search for Man in the technique and style of Europe, I see only a succession of negations of man, and an avalanche of murders. ... It is a question of the Third World starting a new history of Man, a his- tory which will have regard to the sometimes prodigious theses Europe has put forward, but which will also not forget Europe's crimes.... For Europe, for ourselves, for humanity, com- rades, we must turn over a new leaf, we must work out new concepts, and try to set afoot a that the rural masses have never ceased to pose the problem of their liberation in terms of violence, of taking back the land from the forelgners, in terms of a national struggle. Everything is simple. ... They discover a generous people prepared to make sacrifices, willing to give of Itself, impatient and with a stony pride. One can understand that the encounter between militants who are being hunted by the police and these impatient masses, who are instinctually rebellious, can new man.

The Wretched of the Earth rantz Fanon (1925–1961) was an advocate of Third World revolution, guerrila warfare, and could only be removed by violence. He joined the Algerian National Liberation Front and became a prominent spokesman for their cause. Fanon was dying of leukemia in 1961 while writing his most bitter indictment of colonialism, The Wretched of the Earth (1961). and socialism. Born on the Caribbean island of Martinique in the French West Indies, Fanon vol- unteered for service in the Free French Army and was wounded during the liberation of France in 1944. After training in Paris as a psychiatrist, he was stationed in North Africa. During the Algerian war Fanon's medical practice included psychiatric treat- ment of both French practitioners and Arab and Berber victims of torture. From this experience he concluded that colonialism was intrinsically violent Sources: From Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York Grove, 1963), pp. 36, 39 41, 43, 45, 59, 61, 312, 315-316. Reprinted by permission; David Macy, Frantz Fanon (New York: Picador, 2000), p. 483. Decolonization is the meeting of two forces, opposed to each other by their very na- ture.... Their first encounter was marked by violence and their existence together-that is to say the exploitation of the natve by the settler-was carried on by dint of a great array of bayonets and cannons.... mire.... The look that the native turns on the settlers' town is a look of lust, a look of envy; it expresses his dreams of possession-all man- ner of possession: to sit at the settler's table, to sleep in the settler's bed, with his wife if possi- ble. The colonized man is an envious man.... The violence which has ruled over the ordering of the colonial world, which has ceaselessly drummed the rhythm for the de- The naked truth of decolonization evokes for us the searing bullets and bloodstained knives which emanate from It. For if the last struction of native social forms and broken shall be first, this will only come to pass after a murderous and decisive struggle between the two protagonists.... The settlers' town is a strongly built town, all made of stone and steel. It is a brightly lit town; the streets are all covered with asphalt, and the garbage cans swallow all the leav- ings, unseen, unknown, and hardly thought about. ... The settlers' town is a town of white people, of foreigners... The native town is a hungry towm, starved for bread, of meat, of shoes, of coal, of light. The native town is a crouching village, town on its knees, a town wallowing in the up without reserve the systems of reference of the economy... that same violence will be claimed and taken over by the native at the moment when, deciding to embody history in his own person, he surges into the forbid- den quarters.... As if to show the totalitarian character of colonial exploltation the settler paints the na- tive as the quintessence of evil. Native soclety is not simply described as a society lacking in values.... The native is declared insensible to ethics; he represents not only the absence of values, but the negation of values ... and in this sense he is the absolute evil.... The violence with which the supremacy of white values is affirmed and the aggressive- ness which has permeated the victory of these values over the ways of life and thought of the native mean that, in revenge, the native laughs in mockery when Western values are mentioned in front of him.... In the perlod of decolonization, the colonized masses mock at these very values, insult them, and vomit them up.... produce an explosive mixture of unexpected power.... Come, then, comrades, the European. game has finally ended; we must find some- thing different. We today can do everything so long as we do not imitate Europe, so long as we are not obsessed with desire to catch up with Europe.... European achievements, European techniques, and European style ought to no longer tempt us and to throw us [When the urban militants] get into the habit of talking to the peasants they discover off our balance. When I search for Man in the technique and style of Europe, I see only a succession of negations of man, and an avalanche of murders. ... It is a question of the Third World starting a new history of Man, a his- tory which will have regard to the sometimes prodigious theses Europe has put forward, but which will also not forget Europe's crimes.... For Europe, for ourselves, for humanity, com- rades, we must turn over a new leaf, we must work out new concepts, and try to set afoot a that the rural masses have never ceased to pose the problem of their liberation in terms of violence, of taking back the land from the forelgners, in terms of a national struggle. Everything is simple. ... They discover a generous people prepared to make sacrifices, willing to give of Itself, impatient and with a stony pride. One can understand that the encounter between militants who are being hunted by the police and these impatient masses, who are instinctually rebellious, can new man.