★★★★★ 5
Colonialism not dead yet
This is a review of the 2004 Grove paperback edition of Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth
The Wretched of the Earth is the most famous work of Algerian revolutionary Franz Fanon (1925-1961) finished and published shortly before his death (he died of leukemia). Fanon is known above all as a theorist of revolutionary violence and a champion of its therapeutic good for the oppressed. However, this book is not about armed struggle only; it covers many other topics: theory of class conflict in colonies, revolutionary process and subjects of social change in the Third World, the future of new independent states (former colonies), strategies of building Third World—First World relations in a right way, the relationship between the struggle for national culture and national liberation struggles, consequences of colonialism for both the colonizer and the colonized, etc. It’s a book of an angry man; the author's revolutionary pathos and standing with the oppressed (‘the wretched of the earth’) are noticeable.
Though Fanon wrote his book drawing on the experience of the Africa of the 1950s an acute reader can easily notice similarities and parallels with what’s going on in the underdeveloped countries all over the world.
The book can be of particular use for anthropologists, historians, philosophers, sociologists, as well as for those interested in cultural studies. I prefer Richard Philcox’s translation to the one published in 1963. Citizens of the global South can skip Jean-Paul Sartre’s preface; let the author speak for himself.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2019
