"I am not the slave of the slavery that dehumanized my ancestors."
Frantz Fanon
By contrast, a genuine transition from colonialism would involve the masses, and represent a sustained move towards the creation of a national identity. A successful decolonization movement would develop a national consciousness, generating new approaches to art and literature in order to articulate a culture that was simultaneously in resistance to, and separate from, the tyranny of colonial power.
Fanon’s influence
These ideas about the violence of colonialism, and the importance of identity in shaping the future political and social direction of a nation, have had a direct impact on the way activists and revolutionary leaders treat the struggle against colonial power – The Wretched of the Earth is, in essence, a blueprint for armed revolution. Beyond this, Fanon’s role in shaping the understanding of colonialism’s workings and effects has left a lasting legacy. His insightful perspectives on the racist underpinnings of colonialism, and, in particular, his theories concerning the conditions for a successful decolonization, have been hugely influential in the study of poverty and the phenomenon of globalization.
In France, colonizers were portrayed as civilized Europeans bringing order to savage natives. Such racist attitudes were used to justify the use of oppression and violence.
FRANTZ FANON
Frantz Fanon was born in Martinique in 1925 to a comfortably well-off family. After fighting for the Free French Army during World War II he studied medicine and psychiatry in Lyon. Here he encountered the racist attitudes that were to inspire much of his early work.
On completing his studies, he moved to Algeria to work as a psychiatrist, and became a leading activist and spokesman for the revolution. He trained nurses for the National Liberation Front, and published his accounts of the revolution in sympathetic journals. Fanon worked to support the rebels until he was expelled from the country. He was appointed ambassador to Ghana by the provisional government towards the end of the struggle, but fell ill soon afterwards. Fanon died of leukaemia in 1961 at the age of just 35, managing to complete The Wretched of the Earth shortly before his death.
Key works
1952 Black Skin, White Masks
1959 A Dying Colonialism
1961 The Wretched of the Earth
See also: Simón Bolívar • Mahatma Gandhi • Manabendra Nath Roy • Jomo Kenyatta • Nelson Mandela • Paulo Freire • Malcolm X
IN CONTEXT
IDEOLOGY
Civil rights and equality
FOCUS
Self-determination
BEFORE
1947 The British are forced to leave India as a result of Mahatma Gandhi’s campaign for independence.
1955 Black American Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat in the “white section” of a bus, sparking Martin Luther King to organize direct action.
AFTER
1965 The assassination of Malcolm X leads to the formation of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, a militant black power movement.
1965 The Voting Rights Act is passed in the USA, restoring equal voting rights to all US citizens and overturning an earlier law that required citizens to pass a literacy test.
The civil rights movement in post-war America was a focal point for the long-running struggle to establish social and political equality across society. The means by which this should be achieved, however, was far from certain. Civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King took inspiration from the non-violent protest of Mahatma Gandhi in India, and built a similar movement that began to gain sympathy from all areas of society. However, the slow pace of change and the continued oppression of black people in America led many to contest this approach.
Malcolm X was one of the leading figures in the Nation of Islam, an organization that advocated ideas of racial separatism and black nationalism. In this capacity, he articulated a view of the civil rights struggle that was very different from the mainstream represented by King. Rather than concentrate on non-violence, Malcolm believed the struggle for equality was closely bound up with people’s ability to determine their lives for themselves, and therefore any attempt to restrict those rights should be met with direct action and, if necessary, force. The Nation of Islam forbade its members from taking part in the political process, but when Malcolm left the Nation in 1964 to start his own organization, he advocated political participation and demanded equal voting rights. He envisaged the development of a black voting bloc, which could be used to demand genuine change at election time and direct the actions of white politicians to ensure greater social and political equality. Despite this, Malcolm remained sceptical about the likelihood that the extension of voting rights would promote real change in America. In particular, he was concerned about the disparity between the words of politicians during election campaigns and their actions once in government.
"We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary."
Malcolm X
The year of action
In 1964, Malcolm delivered a speech in Detroit that contained a stern warning to politicians: if formal politics did not adequately recognize black people’s needs, they would be forced to take matters into their own hands, and violence would follow. “The young generation,” he said, “are dissatisfied, and in their frustrations they want action.” They were no longer ready to accept second-class status, and didn’t care whether the odds were against them. He said that black Americans had “listened to the trickery, and the lies, and the false promises of the white man now for too long.” Unless the political system became genuinely more responsive to the demands of black voters, there would be little alternative but to use not votes but guns; not the ballot, but a bullet.
Despite his high profile at the time, Malcolm X left few written words. However, his ideas continue to shape the civil rights agenda, with their focus on empowerment and reconnecting black Americans with their African heritage.
African-Americans carry a coffin and a “Here Lies Jim Crow” sign down a street to demonstrate against the “Jim Crow” segregation laws of 1944, which legitimized anti-black racism.
MALCOLM X
Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska in 1925. In the early part of his life, he experienced racism directed at his family, and in particular his father, a Baptist lay-preacher. His father’s death in 1931 precipitated the break up of the family. Malcolm’s mother was committed to a mental institution and he was taken into foster care. He fell into petty crime and was imprisoned for burglary in 1946.
During his imprisonment, Malcolm experienced a religious and social awakening, converting to Islam and becoming involved with the Nation of Islam (NOI). On his release, he took the name Malcolm X and rose to become one of the public faces of black nationalism in America. In 1964, he left the NOI and became a Sunni Muslim, completing his Hajj to Mecca and speaking publicly in Africa, Europe, and the US. In 1965 he was assassinated by three members of the Nation of Islam.
Key work
1964 The Autobiography of Malcolm X (with Alex Haley)
See also: José Martí • Emmeline Pankhurst • Emiliano Zapata • Marcus Garvey • Mao Zedong • Nelson Mandela • Che Guevara • Martin Luther King
IN CONTEXT
IDEOLOGY
Structuralism
FOCUS
Power
BEFORE
1532 Machiavelli publishes The Prince, which analyses the cynical use of power by individuals and the state.
1651 Thomas Hobbes completes his magnum opus, Leviathan, a comment on the role of the sovereign and man’s corrupt state of nature.
AFTER
1990s Green theorists use Foucault’s ideas to explain how ecological policies can be developed by governments alongside experts.
2009 Australian academic Elaine Jeffreys uses Foucault’s theories to analyse power structures in China, emphasizing the rational nature of
Chinese society.
Political thought has long been concerned with how best to define and locate the source of power in society. Many of the most significant political works have imagined a powerful state as the centre of legitimate political authority. Machiavelli, in The Prince, viewed the crude expression of power as justified in the interests of government. Hobbes, in Leviathan, saw a powerful monarch as the antidote to the corrupt spirit of mankind. These and other thinkers set the template for much modern political scholarship, and the analysis of state power has remained the dominant form of political analysis.
For French philosopher Michel Foucault, power – rather than being centred on the state – was diffused across a great many “micro-sites” throughout society. Foucault criticized mainstream political philosophy for its reliance on notions of formal authority, and its insistence on analysing an entity called “the state”. For Foucault, the state was simply the expression of the structures and configuration of power in society, rather than a single entity that exerts dominance over individuals. This view of the state as a “practice” rather than a “thing in itself” meant that a true understanding of the structure and distribution of power in society could only be reached through a broader analysis.
"Power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it a certain strength we are endowed with."
Michel Foucault
Foucault’s analysis concerned the nature of sovereignty. He wanted to get away from what he considered to be a mistaken idea – that political theory should involve understanding the power wielded by an individual sovereign, who passes laws and punishes those who break them. Foucault believed that the nature of government changed between the 16th century – when the problems of politics related to how a sovereign monarch could obtain and maintain power – and the present day, when the power of the state cannot be disconnected from any other form of power in society. He suggested that political theorists needed to “cut off the King’s head” and develop an approach to understanding power that reflected this change.
Governmentality
Foucault developed these thoughts in lectures at the Collège de France in Paris, where he proposed the concept of “governmentality”. This approach viewed government as an art involving a range of techniques of control and discipline. These might take place in a variety of contexts, such as within the family, at school, or in the workplace. By broadening his understanding of power away from the hierarchical structures of sovereignty, Foucault highlighted different kinds of power in society, such as knowledge and the collection of statistics. He elaborated on this analysis of power in many of his works, looking at areas such as language, punishment, and sexuality.
The school classroom is a “micro-site” of political power, according to Foucault. Micro-sites exercise this power within society, away from the traditional structures of government.
MICHEL FOUCAULT
Foucault was born in Poitiers, France, to a wealthy family. Academically gifted, he soon established a reputation as a philosopher. In 1969, he became the first Head of the Philosophy Department at the newly created University of Paris VIII, itself created in response to the 1968 student unrest in France. He gained notoriety by embracing student activism, even engaging in running battles with police. In 1970, he was elected to the prestigious Collège de France as professor of the History of Systems of Thought, a position he held until his death.
Foucault engaged in activism in his later career, which was spent mainly in the US. He published widely throughout his life, and became a major figure in a variety of fields across philosophy and the social sciences. He died of an AIDS-related illness in 1984.
Key works
1963 The Birth of the Clinic
1969 The Archaeology of Knowledge
1975 Discipline and Punish
1976–1984 The History of Sexuality
See also: Niccolò Machiavelli • Karl Marx • Paulo Freire • Noam Chomsky
IN CONTEXT
IDEOLOGY
Revolutionary socialism
FOCUS
Guerrilla warfare
BEFORE
1762 Jean-Jacques Rousseau opens The Social Contract with: “Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in chains”.
1848 Political theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish the Communist Manifesto.
1917 Revolutions in Russia depose the tsar and his family and establish a communist Bolshevik government.
AFTER
1967 French political philosopher Régis Debray formalizes the tactics of guerrilla warfare as “focalism”.
1979 The Somoza dictatorship in Nicaragua is overthrown through the use of guerrilla warfare tactics.
Because of his participation in revolutions in Cuba, Congo-Kinshasa, and Bolivia, Guevara is popularly seen as a “man of action” rather than a political theorist, but his adoption of guerrilla tactics was a major contribution to the development of revolutionary socialism. Having seen first-hand the oppression and poverty throughout South America under dictatorships backed by the US, he believed the salvation of the continent could only come about through anti-capitalist revolution, as advocated by Karl Marx.
However, Guevara’s practical interpretation of revolution was more political and militant than Marx’s economic analysis, which was intended to be used against the capitalist states of Europe. The tyrannical regimes of South America made European states seem relatively benign, and Guevara realized that the only way to achieve their overthrow was through armed struggle. Rather than waiting for the arrival of conditions that would allow for a successful revolution, Guevara believed that these conditions could be created through a strategy of guerrilla warfare, which would inspire the people to rebellion.
"If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine."
Che Guevara
Power to the people
In his Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War and Guerrilla Warfare, Guevara explains how the success of the 1956 Cuban Revolution was dependent on the mobilization of a popular front. Rather than seeing the revolution in terms of a liberator bringing freedom to the people, he saw it as a grass-roots movement to topple an oppressive regime, with the people liberating themselves. The starting point for this kind of revolution, he believed, was not in industrialized towns and cities, but in rural areas where small groups of armed rebels could have maximum effect against a regime’s forces. This insurrection would then provide a focus for discontent, and support for the rebellion would develop into a popular front, providing the impetus necessary for a full-scale revolution.
After his success in Cuba, Guevara expressed his support for the armed struggles in China, Vietnam, and Algeria, and later fought in the unsuccessful revolutions in Congo-Kinshasa and Bolivia. Guevara’s guerrilla warfare was key to his foco (“focus”) theory of revolution, and his ideas later inspired many other movements to adopt the tactics, including South Africa’s ANC in their fight against apartheid, and Islamist movements such as the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Guevara was also recognized as an able statesman. While a minister in the Cuban socialist government, he helped establish Cuba as a leading player among international socialist states, and instituted policies in industry, education, and finance that he believed would continue the liberation of the Cuban people by eradicating the egotism and greed associated with capitalist society. He left a legacy of writings, including his personal diaries, that continue to influence socialist thinking today.
An army of the people led the Cuban Revolution to victory over the state military. The tenets of guerrilla warfare outlined by Guevara were key to the revolution’s success.
CHE GUEVARA
Ernesto Guevara, better known by the nickname Che (“friend”), was born in Rosario, Argentina. He studied medicine at the University of Buenos Aires, but took time out to make two motorcycle journeys around Latin America. The poverty, disease, and appalling working conditions he saw on his travels helped to
consolidate his political views.
After graduating in 1953, Guevara made a further trip across Latin America, when he witnessed the overthrow of the democratic Guatemalan government by US-backed forces. In Mexico in 1954, he was introduced to Fidel Castro, with whom he led the rebels during the successful Cuban Revolution. In 1965, he left Cuba to aid guerrillas in Congo-Kinshasa, and the next year he fought in Bolivia. He was captured by CIA-backed troops on 8 October 1967 and, against the wishes of the US government, was executed the next day.
Key works
1952 The Motorcycle Diaries
1961 Guerrilla Warfare
1963 Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War
See also: Karl Marx • Vladimir Lenin • Leon Trotsky • Antonio Gramsci • Mao Zedong • Fidel Castro
The Politics Book Page 36