Yo I’m reading the wretched of the earth now and I’m having trouble understanding something. Fanon refers to colonizers repeatedly as “manichaean”, and I don’t understand why. The only meaning I know for that word is in reference to a now extinct central Asian religion. Are you able to help me understand better what Fanon means when he uses this term?
i cant remember specifically with fanon, but people generally use manichean to describe very black-and-white thinking about good and evil (which i guess was one of the big parts of that religion)
edwardligma is exactly right. "Manichean" as Fanon describes it refers to the colonizers tendency to portray their exploitation in humanitarian term - they are bringing the light of "civilization" to the savages (the people being colonized).
Franky, it's a point that comes up a lot in Settlers that really makes a lot of American leftists rage, but it's fact. A lot of historical "change" movements in the US have been dominated by crazy Puritans/"Progressives" who treat colonized and oppressed people as abused children who need to be saved via morality. Not a coincidence that the early-20th century Progressive movement was rabidly opposed to Socialists - who were largely continental Euros or non-white people as opposed to good founding stock Americans.
Yo I’m reading the wretched of the earth now and I’m having trouble understanding something. Fanon refers to colonizers repeatedly as “manichaean”, and I don’t understand why. The only meaning I know for that word is in reference to a now extinct central Asian religion. Are you able to help me understand better what Fanon means when he uses this term?
i cant remember specifically with fanon, but people generally use manichean to describe very black-and-white thinking about good and evil (which i guess was one of the big parts of that religion)
Oh wow thank you! Now I have to go back and read the first few chapters again with that knowledge. It comes up a lot.
edwardligma is exactly right. "Manichean" as Fanon describes it refers to the colonizers tendency to portray their exploitation in humanitarian term - they are bringing the light of "civilization" to the savages (the people being colonized).
Franky, it's a point that comes up a lot in Settlers that really makes a lot of American leftists rage, but it's fact. A lot of historical "change" movements in the US have been dominated by crazy Puritans/"Progressives" who treat colonized and oppressed people as abused children who need to be saved via morality. Not a coincidence that the early-20th century Progressive movement was rabidly opposed to Socialists - who were largely continental Euros or non-white people as opposed to good founding stock Americans.
Manichean generally refers to a great struggle between fundamentally opposed forces - Good and Evil, light and dark, pepsi and coke.