FANON
IN SEARCH OF THE AFRICAN REVOLUTION
Fanon: In Search of the African Revolution is different from other books on Fanon in that it approaches him as both a political philosopher and political sociologist of the African experience. It suggests that Fanons political writings be viewed in terms of his concern with how relations are structured in colonial and post-colonial Africa and the implications of those structural arrangements for political conflict in Africa.
Fanons attempt to explain the pathologies and contradictions of African politics in terms of class and the historical processes that influence and constrain class political behaviour is provocative and insightful. But the moral dimension that informs Fanons theoretical perspectives is no less important, if only because it attests to his strong advocacy of the need for revolutionary change as a condition for the restructuring of African political systems.
FANON
IN SEARCH OF THE AFRICAN REVOLUTION
L. Adele Jinadu
First published in 2003 by
Kegan Paul Limited
Published 2014 by Routledge
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ISBN 13: 978-0-7103-0185-7 (hbk)
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Applied for.
For Gloria and MusRash and also in memory of my father and grandmother, Mama Campos
Contents
This study is a revision of my doctoral dissertation, The Political Ideas of Frantz Fanon: Essay in Interpretation and Criticism,submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota in November, 1973. I am grateful to Mulford Sibley, Ellen Pirro, August H. Nimtz, Jr. and Homer Mason, for their comments on initial drafts of the dissertation. For his comments on Chapter 6 of the present work, I am grateful to Vincent Ostrom. I have also benefitted from interminable discussion on Fanon with Emmanuel Hansen.
The revision of the dissertation was started and completed during a 10-month period I spent at Indiana University as a Fulbright Scholar in the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis and the African Studies Program there. I am grateful to Vincent Ostrom and Elinor Ostrom, Co-Directors of the Workshop and also to Patrick OMeara, Director of the African Studies Program for making my stay both socially and intellectually rewarding.
The secretarial and research facilities placed at my disposal by the Workshop are particularly appreciated. I thank Patty Zielinski, Kathy Solt, and Cheryl Weir for typing the manuscript.
Frantz Fanons Critical Spirit
This book is concerned with answering the question: How does Fanon aid our understanding of the nature of political processes in colonial and postcolonial Africa? In other words, the purpose is to offer a critical examination of the ideas about man and society in colonial and postcolonial Africa set forth in the political writings of Frantz Fanon.1
This is necessarily a two-fold task: first, there is the task of exposition, by means of which one aims at a better understanding of the man and his ideas, of the connection between his thought and the milieu or environment within which he wrote. Pertinent questions to ask, in this respect, include the following: What did Fanon mean? How did his ideas on colonialism and postcolonial African politics relate to one another? How did those ideas develop what were the social, historical, biographical and intellectual contexts which determined and shaped their development? Second, there is the task of criticism and evaluation. To do this is to inquire about how valuable, valid, insightful and convincing those ideas are; it is to assess their explanatory power, to see if they will stand up to close scrutiny and withstand the weight of evidence that may be adduced against them. It is also to evaluate the cogency and force of criticisms made of those ideas by other critics of Fanon.
Both tasks are indeed closely related, if only because it is by a critical assessment that one will come to have a sympathetic understanding and admiration for the thought of Fanon. Indeed, throughout much of this study critical remarks and evaluations are juxtaposed with the exposition of Fanons ideas on man and society.
The portrait of Fanon that should emerge is that of a moralist and humanist. He had a passionate concern for, and commitment to humanity and the human condition; he felt uneasy in a hypocritical world where lip service was paid to the ideals of social justice, equality and freedom. He brought moral concerns and perspectives to bear on social and political questions.
Organization of the Book
In is concerned with Fanons analysis of politics and political change in postcolonial Africa and the policy implications that can be inferred from that analysis.
My argument is that there is a direct link between these parts of the dissertation. An analysis of colonial society and its heritage leads to an analysis of the conditions under which change can be effected. It is after all Fanons contention that problems of modernization and nation-building in postcolonial Africa are directly tied to colonial rule and its heritage.
Fanon on Man and Society in a Colonial Milieu
of this book is, then, concerned with the views of Frantz Fanon on man and society in a colonial milieu. The concern here is to raise and answer a number of questions:
What conception of human nature does Fanon entertain? How does this conception affect both his critique of colonial society and his conception of the ideal society? What criticisms of colonialism and colonial rule does he offer and how are the criticisms related to his conception of human nature and the ideal society? What is the connection, if any, between his thesis that violence is cleansing and purifying and his critique of colonial society, on the one hand, and his conception of human nature on the other hand?
In attempting to answer these questions I shall relate Fanons political writings to a wider context of western and nonwestern social and political thought. The purpose of so relating Fanons thought is neither to establish the influence of any particular social theorist or school of social theory on Fanon, nor to stake a claim for the influence of Fanon on some other social theorists. Skinner has brilliantly illuminated some of the methodological and conceptual problems involved in establishing influence in the history of political ideas.2
