Fanon's last book "The Wretched of the Earth", was written as a response to what he and his brothers in Africa were suffering through colonial rule. Fanon addresses major issues with colonialism, focusing largely on its inherent nature as brutally violent and exploitative. He builds his case for violence as a "cleansing force" (Pg. 94) for the natives to embrace and be empowered by so to break from the bonds of the settlers.
Focusing on the French colonial Algeria, where he worked for some time in a psychiatric ward, Fanon provides an observation of the way 'natives' (Algerians) react to the extreme violence being exerted upon them by the French settlers (www.multiworld.org). This pa ...view middle of the document...
The European towns were then and are now still consistently much better built and maintained than the native villages. Fanon describes the European town as "a well-fed town, an easygoing town", in very stark contrast he describes the native's village as a "hungry town, starved of bread, of meat, of shoes, of coal, of light." (Fanon, Pg. 39). This inequality, mixed with the brutal violence that enforces it, leads the colonized natives to dream of freedom and lust for the possessions and lifestyles of the settlers, this drives them even more quickly to violence, and eventual decolonization.
The basis for Fanon's theory on violence as a force for change is built upon the fact that colonization is in itself an extremely violent practice, one which openly dehumanizes, oppresses, humiliates, and murders whole masses of people. Colonialism is a relationship between two artificial entities; the settler and the native; ever since their creation on the day they first met, their relationship has been built upon the violent domination of the native by the settler (Fanon Pg. 36). The violent association between the oppressed native and the dominating settler will reach a climax in which the slave will take up arms against the master and begin individual first steps towards de-colonization. De-colonization will cause both the title of settler and native to disappear, as the colonial relationship no longer exists for those titles to have relevance. Fanon views this kind of violent reaction by the native as necessary to de-colonize due to the inherent violence which defines the colonial system. Fanon powerfully describes the sentiment of the natives when he writes that; "From birth it is clear to him that this narrow world, strewn with prohibitions, can only be called into question by absolute violence" (Fanon, Pg. 37).
Fanon describes the nat...
