A Dying Colonialism
(L’An V de la Révolution Algérienneis)
Author: Frantz Omar
Fanon
By: Zubér Dád
Balóc
A Dying Colonialism
(L’An V de la Révolution Algérienneis) is a book written by a Psychiatrist
Frantz Omar Fanon also known as Ibrahim Frantz Fanon, was a French West Indian
Psychiatrist, and political philosopher from the French colony of Martinique.
The book was
written in 1959 in France language and later translated into English by Haakon
Chevalier, and with a introduction by Adlofo Gilly in 1967.
Introduction:
Revolution is
mankind’s way of life today. This is the age of revolution; the “age of
indifference” is gone forever. The revolution is changing humanity. In the
revolutionary struggle, the immense, oppressed masses of the colonies and
semi-colonies feel that they are part of life for the first time. Liberation
does not come as a gift from anybody; it is sized by the masses with their own
hands. And by seizing it they themselves are transformed; confidence in their
own strength soars, and they turn their energy and their experience to the
tasks of building, governing and deciding their own lives for themselves.
Algeria has been,
and continues to be, one of the great landmarks in this global battle. And
Frantz Fanon’s book bears witness to Algeria’s role. Fanon’s main preoccupation
was not to document the facts of exploitation, nor the sufferings of the
people, nor the brutality of the imperialist oppressor. But his main interest
has been to go to the essentials: the spirit of struggle, of opposition, of
initiative of the Algerian masses; their infinite, multiform, interminable
resistance; their daily heroism; their capacity to learn in weeks, in days in
minutes, all that was necessary for the struggle for liberation; their capacity
and decision to make all the sacrifices and all the efforts, among which the
greatest was not giving one’s life in combat, perhaps but changing one’s daily
life, one’s routines, prejudices, and immemorial customs insofar as these were
a hindrance to the revolutionary struggle.
Frantz Fanon died
at 37, in December of 1961, days before the appearance of the first edition of
The Wretched of the Earth. He was not a Marxist. But he was approaching Marxism
through the same essential door which for many “Marxist” officials and
diplomats is closed with seven keys: his concern with what the masses do and
say and think, and his belief that it is masses, and not leaders nor systems,
who in the final analysis make and determine history.
The book is divided
into five chapters:
Algeria
Unveiled:
Fanon believes that
“the way people clothe themselves” is the most distinctive form of a society’s
uniqueness. Arab world, the most noticeable item of clothing is the veil worn
by women. The veil “demarcates Algerian society and its feminine component”
almost like a uniform. To an outsider an Algerian woman is defined as “she who
hides behind a veil. “Fanon believes that veils have become a battleground of
colonial oppression. The colonialists saw the veil as a symbol of a patriarchal
society but Algerians believed that the veil affirmed “the more significant
existence of a basic matriarchy.”
The French occupiers
attempted to disempower Algerian society by making women reject the veil. They
carried different propaganda and men were made to feel guilty if their wives
wore veils. Women were told to reject veil. The colonizer were frustrated by
the veiled women as she limits her availability to be fetishized whereas the
Algerian man deliberately does not look at the Algerian woman. Colonial history
includes the Romanticizing and sexualizing of Algerian women. Removing women’s veils
is equated with sexual conquest. Before the1950s the Algerian men were forced
to defend a “formerly inert” aspect of their society. Men who had never thought
critically about the veil were compelled to defend it as a form of resistance
against the French. The French violence created situation for the Algerian to
break traditional taboos in pursuit of victory. Unveiled women are useful to
the resistance as their lack of a veil suggests an allegiance to the French
colonizers.
Women can remove
their veil and hide themselves in the European districts of the cities. They
can deliver messages, smuggle guns or money, and provide warnings to any fellow
revolutionaries nearby. The Algerian revolutionaries in 1959 realized that they
need to employ terrorist tactics to match the terror of their occupiers. Women
play a key role in this period as suicide bombers or combatants though care is
taken not to target innocent civilians. The removal of the veil is part of an
Algerian woman’s preparation process for an attack. This removal now ironically
harms the French even though they instigated the removal process. The fathers
of these women no longer felt shame for their daughters have rejected their
veil. The fathers were now committed to Algeria and so understand the
sacrifice.
The cultural
meaning of the veil has been completely changed by the revolution. The removal
of the veil has allowed Algerian women to fight back against the colonizers.
The French became aware of the Algerian Women’s tactics so the women used wear
veils again. This is not an acceptance of patriarchal oppression but a
demonstration of the women’s commitment to the revolution. Old cultural norms
are abandoned to defeat the colonizers and their meaning is changed even if
they return.
This is the voice
of Algerian:
Fanon describes the
cultural impact of the radio in Algeria. Radio-Alger has broadcasted French
propaganda for decades but only the Europeans and the Algerian middle classes
had access to radios before 1945. Algerian decided that they don’t need radios
as radios are symbol of the French colonial presence. Radios make European
Colonialists feel connected to their home that make them feel civilized. The
radio reminds Algerians that they are a colonized people. French also banned
Algerians attempts to set up their own news outlets or contribute to existing
media networks. Rumors inflated successes in the war for independence spread in
Algerian community. French became aware that lives they have “built on the
agony of the colonized people slowly losing assurance.” The rumor spreads
through Arab communities: the Arab Telephone. The Europeans begin to think of
the Arab telephone as a high-functioning intelligence network that links
together disparate revolutionary groups. The local media prompts Algerians to
seek objective facts from newspapers imported from mainland France. The
purchase of a French newspaper is considered “a nationalist act” and news kiosk
owners report Algerians to the police. Radio was the only way Algerians can
receive news by 1955. But the cultural meaning of radio changed within times,
it was now longer a part of occupiers tool of cultural oppression but a way to
bring people closer to nationalist struggle.
The French realized
the importance of radio. And they limited the sales of radio sets and
batteries. Algerians were forced to smuggle both into the country. The French
started to jam the broadcast of the Algerian radio stations. The more the
French try to ban the radio, the more Algerians become invested in it. Before 1954
Algerians who associated radio voices with oppression would hear negative,
“highly aggressive” voices during visual images brought about by mental health
conditions. After 1945 the radio was viewed less as a tool of oppression and
more as a tool of liberation. The radio also helped them to soften the
perception of the French language which ceases to be merely a tool of colonial
control. Algerians repurpose the French language and make it another
revolutionary tool. Radio ceases to be a metaphor for colonial control. This
use of radio reflects the Allied forces’ radio broadcasts in World War II
(1939–45). Information was broadcast from London to occupied countries to give
them a sense of unification, hope, and belonging. By 1957 there are numerous
Algerian radio stations all serving the same purpose: to unite Algeria against
the colonial occupiers.
The Algerian Family:
In this chapter
Fanon explains how the Algerian family has been challenged by revolution. The
most important change is that the family unit has become to be a single, same
nature of entity has broken into separate elements. Rise of political activism
caused cracks in the traditional family unit before 1954. Political activists
freed themselves of everything that proves unnecessary to the revolutionary
situation. The revolution makes people realize that they will need to rebuild
Algerian society from top to bottom. The typical Algerian father creep behind
the typical Algerian son in terms of national consciousness. Almost every Algerian of every
generation has entertained anti-colonial thoughts but these thoughts rarely
turned into explicit revolutionary action Sons openly engage in revolutionary
action while their fathers remain anxious about the inherent violence of the
colonial forces. The sons might push back against their fathers’ anxieties but
they do not condemn them. The sons instead attempt to convert their entire
families to the cause. Father started to join the cause and leave behind their
anxieties and the traditional setup of the Algerian Family Instead of fathers
teaching sons, the sons now teach the fathers. When fathers stopped appealing
to tradition and being to appeal to their son’s military discipline. This new
paradigm has caused problems in cases where the father is a collaborator, an
agent for the authorities, or a traitor to the cause. Sons have been forced to
condemn their fathers to death in the name of the revolution. Algeria has been
traditionally a patriarchal society, fathers considered son’s superior to
daughters as sons could help with the family’s agriculture business. Girls in
Algeria often marry young due to the traditional society so that the father
does not have to think about the new woman in household. Girls were encouraged
to accept husbands in arranged marriage. These all traditions were disrupted by
the revolution. Unveiled Algerian woman became a central figure in the
revolution. Women were no longer only for marriage. Women were now for action.
Women now joined the revolution and they were passionate eager revolutionaries.
Fanon believes that they to be encouraged to be clam, composed, and firm. In
Algerian Traditional society the eldest son as design as father’s successor.
Younger sons then model their relationship with older brother. The relation between
wives and husbands also changed. A wife might also punish her husband not doing
enough for the revolution.
Wives are no longer subordinate to their husbands. The revolution intellectually affects marriage and divorce. Fathers accept that they cannot object to the marriage of a daughter or son who marries while fighting for the revolution. Any babies born in such arrangements are sent to live with grandparents. Algeria’s female society experiences radical changes in certain patterns of behavior. Women share their experiences of the revolution when grouped together in prison camps. Even women who were not previously involved in the revolution leave the camps with revolutionary ideas. Towns and villages attacked by the French must deal with the loss of the men. The remaining women must grit their teeth, pray in silence, and celebrate those who died for the cause. The French colonialist now started to disperse Algerian society and separate out the Algerian people. Thousands of people were disrupted and thousands of families. Many Algerian were forced to leave the country and many have been killed. Algerian society knows that men are killed, women are raped, and children are orphaned by the French so it must make adjustments to succeed.
Medicine and Colonialism:
Fanon explains that
the colonialist used medicine to make their strength strong over on their
colonies. Colonized people cannot help but view the medicine of the colonizer
like every other institution. Hospitals became propaganda tools and it was
difficult for a colonized person to be objective about the health benefits they
provide. People in a colonized country cannot separate medicine from the
presence of the colonizer so they cannot entirely trust their doctors. This
lack of trust means that all deaths in Algerian hospitals are treated with
suspicion. Stories of French doctors experimenting on Algerian patients make
this lack of trust worse. A colonized person visits a doctor in a different
manner than does a member of the colonizing society. The colonized person’s
body proves to be just as rigid and unhelpful since the patient cannot relax.
Sociologists suggest that colonized people expect illnesses to be treated in a
single appointment but Fanon believes that colonized people choose to rely on
traditional medicines for political and social reasons. The europeanized doctor
is no longer considered a member of the colonized society in certain
situations; as such a doctor has violate. A native doctor is like a native
policeman. Native doctors find themselves between two worlds and caught in a
difficult position. European doctors love privileged lives while treating
colonial subjects. Doctors have an economic interest in maintaining the
colonial order. Fanon argues that colonialist doctors should not be considered
part of the medical establishment but as war criminals and tools of colonial oppression.
Doctors and pharmacists provide information about patients to the security
services. Doctors then provide cover for police brutality in court and provide
dangerous drugs to aid brutal interrogations. Doctors have also provided
electroshock treatment to aid torturers and interrogators and have let Algerian
soldiers die rather than treat them. The condition of colonized people made it
difficult to introduce new medical ideas and anti-tetanus drugs were banned by
the French. Algerians struggle to treat their wounded while Europeans have no
trouble acquiring these drugs. Medicine becomes another weapon in the war for
independence. So the Algerian their own health organization and they united
Algerian doctors no longer criticize Algerian doctors for being Europeanized.
Algerian now more likely starting trusting following Algerian doctors the idea
of modern medicine got destroyed.
Algerian’s European
Minority:
Fanon believes that
European intellectuals have “taken over the colonists’ cause” and young French
activists offer no assistance to the Algerians. Algeria’s European minority is
not a “monolithic block” and many Europeans met with Algerians in the years
before the war to discuss ways Algeria could achieve independence. Europeans
with sympathy for the Algerian struggle have done little to stop French
violence. Democracy is much easier to practice in France than Algeria so there
have been demonstrations and contributions to Algeria’s independence in the
French political system. Many Europeans have “behaved like an authentic
militant” When faced with such violence. The Algerians do not want to
overemphasize the role of these Europeans. One-fifth of Algeria’s non-Muslim
population is Jewish. Algeria’s Jewish community is split on the question of
independence. Jewish population of Algeria in 1956 were addressed by
revolutionary people and were asked for their support. Many Jewish committees
started to support them. European sympathizers in the cities also provide
assistance and support. Doctors and nurses provide illicit medical support.
European women and youngsters provide logistical support. And European families
shelter “important political leaders.” Europeans’ cars are not searched at
roadblocks so they are used to smuggle arms. Europeans fight and die for the
cause of Algerian independence. Fanon describes how people come to support the
movement for Algerian independence through the stories of Charles Geromini and
Bresson Yvon. The use of violence to achieve a political goal was inconceivable
to Geromini at first but he was slowly converted to its necessity. Geromini
becomes involved in student politics and advocates for Algerian independence.
He eventually joins the Algerian Revolution and he is welcomed “like any other
Algerian” even though he is French. Bresson Yvon spent his youth in Algeria and
studied in France. He joined the Algerian police force after graduation and
began to realize that he could not take part in the colonialist domination. He
begins to work secretly for the revolution. He was arrested but had no
regrets.
Conclusion:
Fanon suggests that Algeria and its people have successfully overcome
the psychological effects of 130 years of colonial oppression, breaking free
from the mental and emotional burdens imposed by the colonial era. When Fanon
mentions that French colonialism in Algeria is “wounded to the death,” he
implies that the revolution has severely weakened the grip of colonial rule,
making it nearly impossible for the French authorities to maintain control. The
revolution has reached a point of no return, indicating that the irreversible changes
in Algerian society have disrupted the possibility of returning to pre-1954 or
even pre-1958 conditions.
The Idea is that the revolution has fundamentally transformed Algerian
society, and Fanon is suggesting that the French authorities must recognize
this reality. Attempting to revive the past conditions or regain control as it
was before the revolution is futile, according to Fanon’s analysis. The
irreversible changes brought about by the revolution have left a lasting impact
on the socio-political landscape of Algeria.
