Reciprocal bases of National Culture and the Fight for Freedom
Frantz Fanon
:)
Frantz Fanon :)
This is a speech delivered in in 1959 by Frantz Fanon, an Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist, political philosopher, and radical revolutionary whose work significantly influenced how the world today approaches anti-racism, anti-colonialism, political struggle, and post-colonial liberation. Most well known for his works Black Skin White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon’s work calls out the psychopathy of colonialism and concludes that resistance to colonialism and racism is both necessary and possible, but requires an unwavering revolutionary framework that challenges the fundamental structures of power and reimagines a new society based on principals of human dignity and equality.
A little bit of background: So, this speech was delivered at the Second Congress of Black African Writers and it was also added as the closing statement in the 4th chapter of The Wretched of The Earth “On National Culture.” In this piece, Fanon describes in detail the cultural violence of colonialism and how it destroys the cultural traditions of the colonized and replaces them with the culture of the colonizer. He proposes that cultural resistance is an equally necessary component in the fight for liberation as military resistance and that developing a “national culture” is crucial to achieving self-determination and true liberation. He goes on to describe how this culture must be grounded in the people's lived experiences and must be oriented towards the future, creating new forms of art, literature, and music that reflect the struggle for freedom.
Before you dive in… this piece requires your full, undivided attention. It’s likely something you will want to read and re-read for comprehension and clarity — but don’t be discouraged! Frantz Fanon is one of the most influential thinkers in the space of what Little Rad studies and being that he was an immensely advanced intellectual back in the 1950s, his communication style is precise, academic, and a bit tougher to digest than our past reads.
But wait… there’s more!
In order for us to contextualize the point Fanon is making in this piece, it’s important that we understand how Fanon views other aspects of liberation struggle, especially the necessity of violence. So I’ve included an illustrated guide on Fanon’s works by Deborah Wyrick titled Fanon for Beginners.
And for us to get to know the ins and outs of Fanon’s own struggles with colonialism and how they informed his theories on anti-colonialism, we’ve got a link to the documentary “Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask” by Isaac Julien which tells the life story of Fanon.
Note: this is streamed through Tubi and it does have ads every 15 minutes - lol sorry :/
Sources:
Speech/Essay - Shout out to the Marxist Internet Archive for hosting a ton of radical works from ALL disciplines in live text!
PDF of Fanon for Beginners- Shout out to the Internet Archive once again!
Link to Black Skin White Masks- Shout out to Tubi for the free vid! (with ads lol)
https://tubitv.com/movies/599062/frantz-fanon-black-skin-white-mask
PDF of Black Skin White Masks & Wretched of the Earth - Hugeeeee shoutout to Monoskop.org for hosting a ton of easily accessible and immaculately archived texts, art, and for being a general resource of really interesting and sometimes obscure material!