The Wretched of the Earth

The Wretched of the Earth is structured around the unifying theme of violence. The argument for its necessity in the decolonization process is present in all chapters, in one form or another. Fanon sees violence as an essential tool in excising and reversing the detrimental effects colonial rule exerts on the native population. He repeatedly argues that using violence in the struggle for liberation benefits all aspects of a colonized society, from political structures to artistic production to mental illness. Violence serves as a unifying force in destroying the artificial racial segregation imposed by the settlers and as a catalyst for social upheaval, during which an unjust system can be replaced with something new and beneficial to all.

The idea of overthrowing the extant social order for a better one through violent class struggle is a recurring theme in the works of Marx and Engels, as well as Lenin. In the colonial context, however, Fanon sees economic inequality as synonymous with racial discrimination. In other words, class and race become superimposed, which is one of the main differences between colonized and Western or socialist societies. Decolonization is not simply a shift in the power imbalance between different social classes but a deconstruction of racial difference. Consequently, while Fanon’s thinking is in many ways influenced by Marxism and Leninism, he understands that such ideas must be adapted to the colonial context before implementation. Possibly, he is wary of explicitly declaring his allegiance to communism lest the third world be drawn into the Cold War—another largely white preoccupation.

Another potential way of looking at Fanon’s treatment of violence is through Mikhail Bakhtin’s conception of the medieval carnival as a limited period of time when social norms are suspended and anything becomes permissible. During the liberation struggle, prevalent European views of right and wrong become suspended. In Bakhtin’s theory, however, the carnival serves as a sort of pressure valve, and after its end, the status quo is reestablished. In Fanon’s theorizing of violence, physical struggle is also a sort of pressure valve that reduces problems like criminality among the local population, but after it ends, a new order should ideally come about. However, the author acknowledges that this does not always occur and that in societies where the period of violence does not last long enough, the colonial worldview is reestablished with the only difference that positions of power now belong to a small elite group of locals.

A third analytical lens for understanding Fanon’s writing is psychoanalysis. When describing the need to release built-up tension among the natives, he uses sexual imagery and Freudian concepts: “The native’s relaxation takes precisely the form of a muscular orgy […] to allow the accumulated libido, the hampered aggressivity, to dissolve as in a volcanic eruption” (44-45). Fanon suggests that physical exertion, such as dance and even acts of violence, function as a substitute for sexual release, allowing subconscious aggression to manifest in a safe way. The struggle for independence takes the place of these rituals and activities, and brings repressed desires and fears to the conscious level. In other words, violence can have a restorative and therapeutic effect on the subconscious.