Frantz Fanon – ‘The Wretched of the Earth’

“The settler's work is to make even dreams of liberty impossible for the native. The native's work is to imagine all possible methods for destroying the settler."

We began the year with Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon. In this book, Fanon explores colonialism and the effects it has on both the colonised and the colonisers, as well as the methods through which colonial systems are maintained and how they can be dismantled. Perhaps most famously, Fanon dedicates part of The Wretched of the Earth to the discussion of violence and how violence is a necessary part of decolonisation. He argues that, since decolonisation necessarily involves replacing one group of people with another (the coloniser with the colonised), and because colonisation is always maintained “at the point of the bayonet and under cannon fire”, the liberation of the colonised simply cannot be brought about peacefully. Whilst I find that this is often the biggest take away from the book for many people, and what the book is most often acknowledged for, it feels a great disservice as Fanon covers so much more.

For instance, Fanon offers an in depth look at the kind of language used – by both the coloniser and the “colonised intellectual” – to debase and dehumanise the colonised, to equate all that is native as bestial, savage. This then serves to justify the colonial cause as one of enlightenment of a lesser species, whilst also justifying the violence used to maintain this system as a defence against the violent beasts. The colonised, however, are fully aware that they are not beasts or savages, that “the skin of the colonist is not worth more than the native’s”. This realisation by the natives of their own humanity inevitably leads them to “begin to sharpen their weapons” and “waylay [the coloniser] in such a way that he will have no other solution but to flee”. We can see, then, how the machinations of colonialism itself is what lays the seeds for its own undoing.

Portions of the book are also dedicated to an examination of different groups of the oppressed. This includes the already mentioned “colonised intellectual” who are those that have received a western education, they are often recruited by the colonisers and will usually try to draw the natives into non-violence and legal means of resistance. Then there are the peasants and the lumpenproletariat. These groups, often overlooked by many Marxist theorists, are seen by Fanon as being essential to the liberation movement. This is partly because these groups have not been socialised into the colonial system in the same way that the native proletariat have. As such, Fanon sees these groups as essential in building a “national culture” behind which the native people can unify into a single struggle for independence. Without this, liberation movements may all too easily fall into infighting and ethnic conflict. One particular strength of this book that is clear throughout the text, is that Fanon’s ideas are firmly based in a deep understanding of numerous decolonisation struggles from Algeria and Gabon to Cuba and Congo and beyond. This encyclopaedic knowledge of the fight of native peoples around the globe taking centre stage in The Wretched of the Earth is, for me, something that really sets it apart from some of the other books on colonialism that we have read so far. Admittedly, I did find myself having some trouble with fully understanding everything that Fanon presented in this text. It is not a very easy read at all – possibly this could be due to the translation I was reading – and I will no doubt be revisiting this book in the future to hopefully pick up on the parts that flew over my head. On the whole though, a fantastic book which is quite rightly regarded by so many as essential reading for those who wish to fully understand colonialism. I look forward to reading some of Fanon’s other works with you all.

Fabian Scheidler – ‘The End of the Megamachine’

“If I believe that I have been walking on the right road for a very long time, one that will eventually lead me to ever greener pastures, then I will continue to do so. I will continue on, even if the road becomes potholed, devastation occurs all around me and my water supply runs out. At some point, however, I will inevitably wonder whether my maps are right, if I have interpreted them correctly and whether or not I really am on the right road.”

Fabian Scheidler seeks to gain a greater understanding of the roots of the problems threatening humankind today. To do this, he identifies “four tyrannies” which he then traces back through thousands of years of human civilisation to show how they first came to be and how they have developed since. The four tyrannies Scheidler identifies are: Physical Power (particularly through militarised states), Structural Violence (violence that stems from socioeconomic factors, such as unequal wealth accumulation), Ideological Power (ideologies that legitimise the first two tyrannies, make them seems natural, etc.), and Linear Thinking (assumptions that the world functions according to predictable cause-and-effect and can therefore be controlled). By tracing these tyrannies back to their origins in the beginnings of human civilisation, The End of the Megamachine presents us with a scope of thousands of years of human history and the sheer breadth of the content that is covered in just this one book is incredible. This does, however, mean that the content can be a little short of detail at times and it often left me wishing that Scheidler had gone into more depth with some of the topics and historical events that the book covers. That said, I understand that this probably wouldn’t be possible unless the book was broken into multiple lengthy volumes, and that this would obviously be much less likely to appeal to Scheidler’s intended audience. This aside, the book is a very easy read and easy to follow as it traces the evolution of states, militaries, money, capitalism, and environmental destruction. It should, therefore, be a very good read for anybody wanting to get a general overview of how each of these institutions came into being and became what they are today. The link back to environmental destruction and the threat posed to humanity today by climate change is something Scheidler constantly links back to throughout the text. As such, I highly recommend the book to anybody who wants to gain an understanding of how the climate crisis came about, how it is a product of systemic causes rather than individual actions, and why the maintenance of the capitalist system and the survival of the planet are at odds with one another. The passionate writing with which Scheidler details some of the horrors resulting from the four tyrannies also deserves a mention. There were times in the book that I had to take a moment to process the sheer fucked-up-ness of what I’d just read. The section on the genocide of the natives at the silver mines in the city of Potosi with 8 million killed in a conveyor belt of death over a 300 year period was one part in particular that stands out. As were Scheidler’s accounts of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas, and of the exploits of powerful city-states such as Venice. In all, this piece provides a very good overview of the development of human civilisation that helps to show how we got to where we are today. However, if a more in-depth, detailed account of some of the events and historical periods the Scheidler discusses is what you are looking for, I’d say you’re best looking elsewhere.