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Also Published by Grove Press Frantz Fanon Black Skin, White Masks A DYING COLONIALISM Toward the African Revolution The Wretched of the Earth Translated from the French by Haakon Chevalier With an Introduction by Adolfo Gilly �. • GROVE PRESS New York Also Published by Grove Press Frantz Fanon Black Skin, White Masks A DYING COLONIALISM Toward the African Revolution The Wretched of the Earth Translated from the French by Haakon Chevalier With an Introduction by Adolfo Gilly �. • GROVE PRESS New York Contents 1 Introduction English translation copyright © 1965 by Monthly Review 2� Press Preface �5 l. Algeria Unveiled 64 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in Appendix any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or the 69 2. This is the Voice of Algeria facilitation thereof, including information storage and retrieval 99 systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, 3. The Algerian Family except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a 121 4. Medicine and Colonialism review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to 147 photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or 5. Algeria's European Minority publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the 16� Appendix I work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to 176 Appendix II Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003. 179 Conclusion First published as Studies in a Dying Colonialism Originally published in France as L 'An Cinq, de la Revolution Algerienne © 1959 by Franyois Maspero Published simultaneously in Canada Printed in the United States ofA merica ISBN-I0: 0-8021-5027-6 ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-5027-1 Grove Press an imprint of Q[9ve/A tlantic, Inc. 841 Broadway New York, NY 10003 Distributed by Publishers Group West www.groveatlantic.com WI"il\illilmlilllll��illilrnlllllr�iies 07 08 09 10 11 12 26 2 8227990 Contents 1 Introduction English translation copyright © 1965 by Monthly Review 2� Press Preface �5 l. Algeria Unveiled 64 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in Appendix any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or the 69 2. This is the Voice of Algeria facilitation thereof, including information storage and retrieval 99 systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, 3. The Algerian Family except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a 121 4. Medicine and Colonialism review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to 147 photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or 5. Algeria's European Minority publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the 16� Appendix I work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to 176 Appendix II Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003. 179 Conclusion First published as Studies in a Dying Colonialism Originally published in France as L 'An Cinq, de la Revolution Algerienne © 1959 by Franyois Maspero Published simultaneously in Canada Printed in the United States ofA merica ISBN-I0: 0-8021-5027-6 ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-5027-1 Grove Press an imprint of Q[9ve/A tlantic, Inc. 841 Broadway New York, NY 10003 Distributed by Publishers Group West www.groveatlantic.com WI"il\illilmlilllll��illilrnlllllr�iies 07 08 09 10 11 12 26 2 8227990 Introduction Revolution is mankind's way of life today. This is the age of revolution; the "age of indifference" is gone forever. But the latter age paved the way for today; for the great masses of man kind. while still suffering the greatest oppression and the great est affronts to their dignity as human beings. never ceased to resist. to fight as well as they could. to live in combat. The combatant dignity of humanity was maintained in an unbreak able though not always visible line. in the depths of the life of the masses and in the uninterrupted fight-slandered. attacked. but alive in the very center of history-of little revolutionary vanguards bound to this profound human reality and to its socialist future. and not to the apparent omnipotence of great systems. Today the great systems have died or are living in a state of crisis. And it is no longer the age of little vanguards. The whole of humanity has erupted violently. tumultuously onto the stage of history. taking its own destiny in its hands. Capitalism is under siege. surrounded by a global tide of revolution. And this revolution. still without a center. without a precise form, has its own laws, its own life and a depth of unity-accorded it by the same masses who create it, who live it, who inspire each other from across boundaries, give each other spirit and encourage ment, and learn from their collective experiences. This revolution is changing humanity. In the revolutionary struggle, the immense, oppressed masses of the colonies and semi-colonies feel that they are a part of life for the first time. Life acquires a sense, a transcendence, an object: to end exploi tation, to govern themselves by and for themselves, to construct a way of life. The armed struggle breaks up the old routine life of the countryside and villages, excites, exalts, and opens wide 1 Introduction Revolution is mankind's way of life today. This is the age of revolution; the "age of indifference" is gone forever. But the latter age paved the way for today; for the great masses of man kind. while still suffering the greatest oppression and the great est affronts to their dignity as human beings. never ceased to resist. to fight as well as they could. to live in combat. The combatant dignity of humanity was maintained in an unbreak able though not always visible line. in the depths of the life of the masses and in the uninterrupted fight-slandered. attacked. but alive in the very center of history-of little revolutionary vanguards bound to this profound human reality and to its socialist future. and not to the apparent omnipotence of great systems. Today the great systems have died or are living in a state of crisis. And it is no longer the age of little vanguards. The whole of humanity has erupted violently. tumultuously onto the stage of history. taking its own destiny in its hands. Capitalism is under siege. surrounded by a global tide of revolution. And this revolution. still without a center. without a precise form, has its own laws, its own life and a depth of unity-accorded it by the same masses who create it, who live it, who inspire each other from across boundaries, give each other spirit and encourage ment, and learn from their collective experiences. This revolution is changing humanity. In the revolutionary struggle, the immense, oppressed masses of the colonies and semi-colonies feel that they are a part of life for the first time. Life acquires a sense, a transcendence, an object: to end exploi tation, to govern themselves by and for themselves, to construct a way of life. The armed struggle breaks up the old routine life of the countryside and villages, excites, exalts, and opens wide 1 2 A DYING COLONIALISM INTRODUCTION the doors of the future. Liberation does not come as a gift from revolution and counter-revolution in Spain, or in his moving anybody; it is seized by the masses with their own hands. And pages on the centuries-old struggle of the Sicilian people, a by seizing it they themselves are transformed; confidence in struggle which has forged the character, the pride, and the si their own strength soars, and they turn their energy and their lence of Sicily and which is at the root of its present and its experience to the tasks of building, governing, and deciding future. their own lives for themselves. The masses resist and fight in a thousand ways, not only with This is the climate in which the immense majority of man arms in hand. These means include violence because in a world kind lives today in one way or another. Algeria has been, and where oppression is maintained by violence from above, it is continues to be, one of the great landmarks in this global battle. only possible to liquidate it with violence from below. Ulti And Frantz Fanon's book bears witness to Algeria's role. mately, once the struggle reaches a certain point, arms in hand The book continues to have for the reader years afterwards are indispensable. the same freshness it had at the time it was written, because On November 1, 1954, a small group of Algerian leaders Fanon's main preoccupation was not to document the facts of launched an armed struggle, breaking with a whole pattern of exploitation, nor the sufferings of the people, nor the brutality negotiation and procrastination established by the old leaders. of the imperialist oppressor. All this is demonstrated in passing. In a very short time, they had the entire population behind But his main interest has been to go to the essentials: the spirit them. The decision to take arms did not spring full-blown from of struggle, of opposition, of initiative of the Algerian masses; the heads of this handful of leaders. They simply interpreted their infinite, multiform, interminable resistance; their daily what was already there in the population as a whole. And the heroism; their capacity to learn in weeks, in days, in minutes, people, in turn, were influenced by revolutions in the rest of the all that was necessary for the struggle for liberation; their capac world. In 1949 China tipped decisively and definitively the bal ity and decision to make all the sacrifices and all the efforts, ance of world power in favor of revolution. In 1951 she risked among which the greatest was not giving one's life in combat, her own existence to send hundreds of thousands of volunteers perhaps, but clt�nging one's daily life, one's routines, preju to support the Korean revolution. In 1954, Dien Bien Phu was dices, and immemorial customs insofar as these were a hin a culminating disaster, marking the end of French domination drance to the revolutionary struggle. in Indo-China. This was the signal for Algeria to launch her Frantz Fanon died at 37, in December of 1961, days before struggle. And in 1960-1961, the defeat of French imperialism in the appearance of the first edition of Les Damnes de la Terre.1 Algeria unleashed the great tide of African revolution. He was not a Marxist. But he was approaching Marxism The revolutionaries of Zanzibar took advantage of this unin through the same essential door which for many "Marxist" offi terrupted chain of revolutionary stl uggles to realize one of the cials and diplomats is closed with seven keys: his concern with greatest deeds of the epoch: stonning the center of power with a what the masses do and say and think, and his belief that it is small nucleus, they expelled imperialism from a backward coun the masses, and not leaders nor systems, who in the final analysis try with only 300,000 inhabitants. They took the road of social make and determine history. This is the dominant line of all of ist revolution, arms in hand, with no other support than the Marx's analyses of historical events, whether in his articles on determination of the masses of Zanzibar-barefoot, poor, illiter ate, armed as well as they could manage-and their own revolu 1 Published in English under the title The Wretched of the Earth, tionary courage. New York, 1965. 2 A DYING COLONIALISM INTRODUCTION the doors of the future. Liberation does not come as a gift from revolution and counter-revolution in Spain, or in his moving anybody; it is seized by the masses with their own hands. And pages on the centuries-old struggle of the Sicilian people, a by seizing it they themselves are transformed; confidence in struggle which has forged the character, the pride, and the si their own strength soars, and they turn their energy and their lence of Sicily and which is at the root of its present and its experience to the tasks of building, governing, and deciding future. their own lives for themselves. The masses resist and fight in a thousand ways, not only with This is the climate in which the immense majority of man arms in hand. These means include violence because in a world kind lives today in one way or another. Algeria has been, and where oppression is maintained by violence from above, it is continues to be, one of the great landmarks in this global battle. only possible to liquidate it with violence from below. Ulti And Frantz Fanon's book bears witness to Algeria's role. mately, once the struggle reaches a certain point, arms in hand The book continues to have for the reader years afterwards are indispensable. the same freshness it had at the time it was written, because On November 1, 1954, a small group of Algerian leaders Fanon's main preoccupation was not to document the facts of launched an armed struggle, breaking with a whole pattern of exploitation, nor the sufferings of the people, nor the brutality negotiation and procrastination established by the old leaders. of the imperialist oppressor. All this is demonstrated in passing. In a very short time, they had the entire population behind But his main interest has been to go to the essentials: the spirit them. The decision to take arms did not spring full-blown from of struggle, of opposition, of initiative of the Algerian masses; the heads of this handful of leaders. They simply interpreted their infinite, multiform, interminable resistance; their daily what was already there in the population as a whole. And the heroism; their capacity to learn in weeks, in days, in minutes, people, in turn, were influenced by revolutions in the rest of the all that was necessary for the struggle for liberation; their capac world. In 1949 China tipped decisively and definitively the bal ity and decision to make all the sacrifices and all the efforts, ance of world power in favor of revolution. In 1951 she risked among which the greatest was not giving one's life in combat, her own existence to send hundreds of thousands of volunteers perhaps, but clt�nging one's daily life, one's routines, preju to support the Korean revolution. In 1954, Dien Bien Phu was dices, and immemorial customs insofar as these were a hin a culminating disaster, marking the end of French domination drance to the revolutionary struggle. in Indo-China. This was the signal for Algeria to launch her Frantz Fanon died at 37, in December of 1961, days before struggle. And in 1960-1961, the defeat of French imperialism in the appearance of the first edition of Les Damnes de la Terre.1 Algeria unleashed the great tide of African revolution. He was not a Marxist. But he was approaching Marxism The revolutionaries of Zanzibar took advantage of this unin through the same essential door which for many "Marxist" offi terrupted chain of revolutionary stl uggles to realize one of the cials and diplomats is closed with seven keys: his concern with greatest deeds of the epoch: stonning the center of power with a what the masses do and say and think, and his belief that it is small nucleus, they expelled imperialism from a backward coun the masses, and not leaders nor systems, who in the final analysis try with only 300,000 inhabitants. They took the road of social make and determine history. This is the dominant line of all of ist revolution, arms in hand, with no other support than the Marx's analyses of historical events, whether in his articles on determination of the masses of Zanzibar-barefoot, poor, illiter ate, armed as well as they could manage-and their own revolu 1 Published in English under the title The Wretched of the Earth, tionary courage. New York, 1965. 4 A DYING COLONIALISM INTRODUCTION 5 Algeria was prepared by the incessant waves of revolution tariat, as reflected, for example, in the film The Salt of the that inundated the world from 1943 onwards, and in its turn Earth. opened the gates to Zanzibar, to the Congo, Mali, Portuguese It is in this kind of struggle that the woman stands firm in her Guinea. The Algerian revolution shares with the revolutions own strength, throws all the energy she has accumulated during that preceded it and with those that are continuing it, certain centuries of oppression, her infinite capacity to resist, her cour essential features which can be summed up in the words "mass age. It is in this kind of struggle that family relations change participation." and the woman prepares for her role in the society that is being The women, the family, the children, the aged-everybody built. She also prepares for it in battle. This is what Fanon participates. The double oppression, social and sexual, of the describes, and what he describes is no different from what the woman cracks and is finally shattered; and its essential nature as Chinese and the Cuban women did. The Algerian woman who the social oppression of the family as a whole is revealed. It is carries arms or who participates directly in combat is like the simply that its weakest parts-the children, the elderly, the wife of the Bolivian miner who takes up arms to defend the women-must bear the most exaggerated forms of oppression. occupied mines or who keeps watch, gun in hand and dynamite But in the revolutionary struggle, the relative weakness, the at her waist, over the hostages taken by the miners to be ex apparent defenselessness of these groups disappear. What was changed for the liberty of their own imprisoned leaders. She is formerly a disadvantage becomes an advantage for the revolu like the Guatemalan peasant woman who diverts the attention tion. The old man or woman who walks with halting steps past of the army at the cost of her own life, to cover the retreat of a the military patrol, the timid woman hiding behind a veil, the guerrilla patrol in which her son, or her husband, or simply her innocent-faced child do not seem to the enemy to be dangers or neighbor is marching. This is the kind of life that is being lived threats. So they can pass arms, information, medicine. They can and the kind of revolution that humanity is passing through prepare surprise attacks, serve as guides and sentries. They can today. And Fanon shows how, after it is over, the place of even take up arms themselves. Every sort of cunning is a legiti women can never again be the same as it was before. Women, mate weapon to use against the enemy-and an embattled popu like the proletariat, can only liberate themselves by liberating lation is not composed solely of men but also of women, chil all other oppressed strata and sectors of the society, and by act dren, and old people. ing together with them. This is true not only in Algeria-or in armed struggle. The To describe a revolution one doesn't have to describe armed decision of the men never comes alone; it is never isolated. It is actions. These are inevitable, but what defines and decides any supported by the decision of the whole family, of the whole revolution is the social struggle of the masses, supported by population, united for a common objective. \Vhen the striking armed actions. Fanon shows that this was the Algerian way. The worker occupies the factory, or makes a decision in a union guerrillas in the mountains, the army of liberation, did not meeting to stick to the struggle against all odds, it is not he defeat the French army militarily: it was the whole population alone who decides. Behind him are his wife, his children, his supported by the guerrilla army which defeated and destroyed parents, the entire family supporting him, intervening and de the imperialist enemy as a social force. For each Algerian soldier ciding with him. This is what happens in Bolivia in the great who died, says Fanon, ten civilians died. This indicates the mass miners' strikes; it happens in Argentina in the general strikes; it character of the struggle. But it also indicates the complete happened in the great struggles of the North American prole- impotence of an army, of modern weapons, and of all the tactics
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