What We Are Reading - Fanon (Patreon)

When I read Frantz Fanon for the first time I was overwhelmed by a recognition of my own ignorance that quickly blossomed into inspiration. For me reading Fanon helped me realize what I did not know & it challenged me to dive deeper into studying the centrality of the colonial system to capitalism. That has been a life-long project. 

As a revolutionary  it is impossible to read Fanon without becoming captured with a revolutionary spirit. As a student of philosophy, Fanon's words cut deeply, "O my body, make of me always a man who questions!"  

So for this week, I have pulled together a phenomenal dossier from the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, which takes the reader through Fanon's thought and its influence & practice. For those interested in continuing to read Fanon, I have also pulled two chapters of his from his work The Wretched of the Earth. The first on the Pitfalls of National Consciousness, is a crucial test on the challenges that face post-colonial societies. The second is the conclusion to this book, where Fanon lays out a thundering vision and a crucial radical break from the European tradition: 

"Let us decide not to imitate Europe; let us combine our muscles and our brains in a new direction. Let us try to create the whole man, whom Europe has been incapable of bringing to triumphant birth.

Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions.

Comrades, have we not other work to do than to create a third Europe? The West saw itself as a spiritual adventure. It is in the name of the spirit, in the name of the spirit of Europe, that Europe has made her encroachments, that she has justified her crimes and legitimized the slavery in which she holds four-fifths of humanity.

Yes, the European spirit has strange roots. All European thought has unfolded in places which were increasingly more deserted and more encircled by precipices; and thus it was that the custom grew up in those places of very seldom meeting man."  

- David Griscom 

What We Are Reading: 

Frantz Fanon: The Brightness of Metal - Tricontinental Institute, 2020

On The Pitfalls Of National Conciousness - Frantz Fanon, 1961 

Conclusion, The Wretched Of The Earth - Frantz Fanon, 1961