Table Of Content

Albert Camus and Franz Fanon, world-famous authors shaped by French colonialism, are compared in this profoundly philosophical book. They came to opposite conclusions about Algeria’s war against French colonial rule, but both were idealists who, in their own distinct ways, sought impossible solutions. Had they lived to see the consequences of this war both would have been terribly disheartened. Today, we still face the same dilemma: How can we deal with terrible injustice without falling into the same trap as too many revolutions which replace old forms of brutal exploitation with new, awful tyrannies that betray their original ideals? Professor Daniel Chirot, Emeritus Herbert J. Ellison Professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Jackson School of International Studies that is part of the University of Washington, Seattle “Even as the anti-colonialism that so much drove Fanon has become a powerful force in today’s world, so too do we seem, in recent times, to have been plunged back into what is almost a replay of the events of the 1930s and 1940s that so shaped Camus’ thinking. Algeria is the landscape in which the contrast between Camus and Fanon was largely played out historically and biographically; that contrast is now being played out, in broader terms, across the world. Tabensky’s ground-breaking, rigorous, and thoughtful book is thus a timely intervention in a past debate that nevertheless remains very much alive – a book for the present and for the future.” Jeff Malpas, Emeritus Distinguished Professor, University of Tasmania, Australia “This book puts two significant writers, Camus and Fanon, in con- versation for the first time. Tabensky moves us beyond superficial or anachronistic depictions to consider the options for social change in the face of entrenched colonial structures. These two would not, and did not, agree on much apart from the necessity of foreign and racial domination to disappear, but considering the two together allows us to see the options for resistance.” Bruce B. Janz, University of Central Florida, USA Camus and Fanon on the Algerian Question This is the first book to offer a systematic comparison of the philosophies of Albert Camus and Frantz Fanon. It shows how the ethical, political, and psychological outlooks of these two influential thinkers can further our understanding of how to bring about justice in the face of deep power imbalances. The author foregrounds the bloody Algerian war of independence in his analysis of the philosophies of Camus and Fanon. Although neither supported the French colonial occupation of Algeria, they held radically different views of the conflict. Fanon supported emancipation through violence, which the author argues has been uncritically romanticized. Camus, on the other hand, supported an ethics of moderation that shunned indiscriminate violence. The author argues that Camus has been unfairly accused of being an apologist for colonialism. Finally, the author draws out the common endorsement of humanist values that drive both Camus’s and Fanon’s thoughts. Camus and Fanon on the Algerian Question will appeal to scholars and advanced students interested in 20th-century continental philosophy, postcolonialism, existentialism, and African philosophy. Pedro Tabensky is Director of the Allan Gray Centre for Leadership Ethics, Department of Philosophy, Rhodes University in South Africa. He has drawn on the work of Fanon and Camus intellectuals in recent publi- cations. Tabensky is currently working on a book exploring the relation- ship between education, ethics, and freedom. Routledge Studies in Twentieth-Century Philosophy Wittgenstein’s Liberatory Philosophy Thinking through the Philosophical Investigations Rupert Read Walter Benjamin’s First Philosophy Experience, Ephemerality and Truth Nathan Ross The Legacy of Nietzsche’s Philosophy of Laughter Bataille, Deleuze and Rosset Lydia Amir Heidegger’s Ecological Turn Community and Practice for Future Generations Frank Schalow Lectures on a Philosophy Less Ordinary Language and Morality in J.L. Austin’s Philosophy Niklas Forsberg Heidegger and the Contradiction of Being An Analytic Interpretation of the Late Heidegger Filippo Casati Camus and Fanon on the Algerian Question An Ethics of Rebellion Pedro Tabensky For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.routledge. com/Routledge-Studies-in-Twentieth-Century-Philosophy/book-series/ SE0438 Camus and Fanon on the Algerian Question An Ethics of Rebellion Pedro Tabensky First published 2023 by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 and by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 Pedro Tabensky The right of Pedro Tabensky to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. ISBN: 978-0-367-74598-1 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-367-74991-0 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-16067-0 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003160670 Typeset in Sabon by SPi Technologies India Pvt Ltd (Straive) To Sally, Lithalelanga and Noah viii To go back to the Encyclopaedists and the Marxists and all the other movements the purpose of which is the perfect life: it seems as if the doctrine that all kinds of monstrous cruelties must be permitted, because without these the ideal state of affairs cannot be attained – all the justifications of broken eggs for the sake of the ultimate omelette, all the brutalities, sacrifices, brain-washing, all those revolutions, everything that has made this century perhaps the most appalling of any since the days of old … all this is for nothing, for the perfect universe is not merely unattainable but inconceivable, and everything done to bring it about is founded on an enormous intellectual fallacy. Isaiah Berlin (2020: 27–28) Reference Berlin, Isaiah. 2001. The Power of Ideas. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Contents 1 Introduction 1 PART I Fanon 17 2 The Pure Peasant-Warrior-Philosopher 19 3 Dreams, Lies and the “New Man” 36 4 “The Trials and Tribulations of National Consciousness” 49 5 The Therapeutic Function of Violence? 58 6 The New Man? 69 7 Liberation Psychiatry 78 PART II Camus 87 8 Almost Brushing Shoulders 89 9 Bad Faith 93 10 Sisyphus 106 11 An Unlikely Solution 112