Suppressive Aspects of Colonialism - Term Paper Example

 Frantz Fanon and Colonialism Introduction The decline and practical demise of the colonial world began in the 1940s and was substantially over by 1960s. But by then, the Anglo-Saxon races of UK and Europe had ruled most parts of Asia, Africa and the Latin America as imperial masters for well over four centuries. One needs to stretch one’s imagination to visualise the dramatic moments when the ordinary indigenous folks came face to face with the strange looking white skinned persons with a different sounding tongue and a different looking cheek. Frantz Fanon suffered no such surprises for, he was born in 1925 and by the time he matured into an adolescent young man, colonialism was already on its way out. This is not to say that he did not suffer the suppression of body, mind and spirit under alien masters or being an alien in his own country, as did millions of others before him. To imitate a popular statement: You can take colonialism out of a colony but you can not take a colony (of people) out of colonialism! Fanon was born in the French colony of Martinique, French Antilles in the Caribbean. Creole is the language of this colony and black, the colour of his skin. Under the French administration, Martinicians were born and brought up as Frenchmen or Frenchwomen. This superimposition of a European culture on an African community in the Caribbean islands formed the background to the evolution of Fanon’s thinking and writings1. Formally trained as a psychiatrist and a philosopher, he was an original thinker, Marxist revolutionary and writer on _____________________________________________________________________________ 1. Michau, M.R., Fanon and a Radical Phenomenology of Responsibility. Frantz 2 suppressive aspects of colonialism and propounded his views in his seminal works, most important of which are “Black Skin, White Masks” (1952) and “The Wretched of the Earth” (1961). Through these writings and other works, Fanon has helped us understand colonialism as more than the exercise of political and economic power, but as a psychological process. We shall analyse this argument in the light of his cultural moorings, his works and his revolutionary interpretations. Colonialism The word colonialism has its origins in the mid-14th century Roman word ‘colonye’, a settlement, an outpost or occupied lands outside the Roman city states.2 ‘Colonialism’ is a 19th century concept of social, political and economic policy towards ‘occupied lands’ under the British imperialism. During the 15th and 16th centuries, European nations experienced renaissance of art, literature, music and drama even as Christianity and the church confronted the State to capture and control the minds of the people. The sea-faring nations of Europe and the UK set out to discover sea routes and conquer new lands for their empires. These adventurous journeys brought them face to face with new societies, races, cultures and riches. The voyages of discoverers were as much for adventurism, trade and / or conquering new territories as for spread of Christianity. In due course, what started in a small way as trading outposts, developed into colonies of protected places, generally set up with the generous permissions of local rulers. In countries like India, the permissions were turned into opportunities for bringing in armed forces and weaponry to fortify the colonies ostensibly to ward off rival European powers like the 2. Yew, L., Political Discourse: Colonialism and Post colonialism. Frantz 3 French, Portuguese and the Dutch, both on the sea and in the colonies. The allurement of the riches of these colonies and their raw materials, the internecine rivalry of the local rulers, the power of guns and gunpowder, the zeal to spread Christianity and imperial rule, were all to become a potent mixture by the middle of the18th century that lead to the development of full-fledged overseas territories with imperial control. Imperialism thus paved the way for colonialism in the later days. While economic issues like trade in raw materials, spices, slaves and indentured labour were at the core of colonisation, political skills of the imperial rulers and their agents were at work to support and achieve the economic goals. However, it was never easy to control the large populations of alien people by political manipulations or military power alone. One had to capture the minds of the people if not their hearts. The psychological dimension to colonialism surfaces here. As Frantz Fanon points out in his books, the colonisers looked upon the natives of the colonies with their Euro-centric attitude, dividing the human beings into compartments as ‘we’ and the ‘others’ and giving rise to alienation3. With clinical precision, he analyses the reasons for this alienation, following up on the views of noted European philosophers like Hegel and Sartre and giving his own interpretation of a colonised human being. Hegel and the individual According to Hegel, “Self-consciousness (of a being) exists in and for itself when, and by the fact that, it so exists for another; that is, it exists only in being acknowledged…” (Hegel 111)4… Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, and master / slave relationship in the social world, 3. Sharawy, H., Frantz Fanon and the African revolution, revisited at a time of globalization 4. Giron, A.R., Politics 105C, Modern Political Theory Frantz 4 explains existence in terms of being acknowledged by those in power and conversely, those in power exist in their positions by the subservience of those under them!5 Hegel’s early 19th century philosophy found favour especially with those in power and they gave meaning to his ideas in colonial politics. Even while recognising the validity of Hegel’s description of individual and the society, Fanon questions whether the Negro had to accept his being in existence in the society as a result of the recognition he received from his masters or if this interpretation justifies the cruelty and inhumanness of the colonisers and more fundamentally, why the black man was not being recognised for what he was in essence – another human being in glorious harmony with nature and with no stigma of the cruelty of the white man towards a fellow human being. Sartre and the individual Sartre’s approach to understanding human existence was guided by his ‘ethical interest’ …and …his ‘strong notion of freedom’6. According to Sartre, the widespread behaviour of human beings to conform to what was expected of them was a matter of fact. He called it ‘bad faith’ and termed it as omnipresent and inescapable. “As Sartre points out, by choosing, an individual commits not only himself, but the whole of humanity… Sartre's existentialist understanding of what it is to be human can be summarised in his view that the underlying motivation for action is to be found in the nature of consciousness, which is a desire for being.”7 Thus, Sartre arrives at the notion that an individual has choice of action unless he 5. Hegel, G.W.F., Phenomenology of Spirit. 6. Sartre, J-P, Existentialism. 7. Ibid. Frantz 5 indulges in bad faith. Fanon and the indoctrinated black individual In his works Fanon exhibited a deep-seated resentment of the way the colonisers killed the spirit of non-white individuals, especially the black people, in order to debunk their culture, religion, traditions, way of life and everything else. The vilification of Africans as cannibals or practitioners of witchcraft or as semi-animals still in the process of evolution etc runs in the face of facts of Africa being the cradle of evolution of human beings. He hinted out that this kind of degrading a fellow human being was reserved only to slaves or citizens of occupied territories or indentured labour brought in from colonies and the fact that there was no such organised abuse of whites by whites. He pointed out that even the persecution of Jews in Europe was a little play of politics when compared to the systemic and willful subjugation of the black people in particular. The citizens of occupied lands were made to study the history of their masters as their own, learn their language and manners, ignoring totally their own native history, language or culture. Under the pressure of such intense adversity, Fanon points out that the black man hides his own individuality and culture and starts aping his masters. In doing so, he hoped to receive approval not only for his actions but also to the very fact of his existence! Here we see the theories of Hegel and Sartre in action. Choices of behaviour are being made and made with a purpose to receive acknowledgement as an existing human being. Fanon’s analysis takes this logic further and makes one to ask this question: While this may be so for a white man to white man, why should this be so for a non-white man to a white man? Fanon’s writings point the needle of suspicion in the direction of racist-colonialism and the white man’s need to sustain Frantz 6 the myth of his superior culture and achievements in order to maintain his hold over the subjects of alien lands. Fanon has given pride of place to the value of human consciousness and it was this consciousness that the black people had to shove under the carpet in order not to receive punishments from their conquerors. In the book, ‘Black Skin, White Masks’ Fanon says, “Overnight the Negro has been given two frames of reference within which he has had to place himself. His metaphysics, or, less pretentiously, his customs and the sources on which they were based, were wiped out because they were in conflict with a civilization that he did not know and that imposed itself on him.” He then goes on to add: “What! When it was I who had every reason to hate, to despise, I was rejected? When I should have been begged, implored, I was denied the slightest recognition? I was resolved, since it was impossible for me to get away from an inborn complex, to assert myself as a BLACK MAN. Since the other hesitated to recognize me, there remained only one solution: to make myself known.” His analysis of the effects of indoctrination by the racist-colonialist rulers takes one into the homes and minds of the converts and with unerring precision draws out the miserable condition of such stateless people. A black person apes the life style of a white person in order to be recognised as one among ‘them’ and even marries a person of white colour. Does this put a stamp of acceptance? Not by a long stretch of imagination. On the other hand, such persons lose both worlds – the one to which they were natural heirs as well as the adopted world. One can put on a white suit over a black body but that made them only look ridiculous and invited racist sniggers from behind. Frantz 7 Fanon’s personal experiences Fanon’s works are full of personal experiences he had faced as one belonging to the other class, be they the innocent prattle of a little child like, “Look at the nigger! … Mama, a Negro!” or the condescending remarks of the grown ups, “Take no notice, sir, he does not know that you are as civilized as we. …”. He castigates the racist policy of France even in the matter of deployment of troops. He participated in France’s Algerian war and was appalled when the black troops were deployed as fodder for the cannons of enemy fire while the white troops were sent to a safer battlefront. In the chapter, The Fact of Blackness in ‘Black Skin, White Masks’ he laments his fate: “What? While I was forgetting, forgiving, and wanting only to love, my message was flung back in my face like a slap. The white world, the only honorable one, barred me from all participation A man was expected to behave like a man. I was expected to behave like a black man—or at least like a nigger. I shouted a greeting to the world and the world slashed away my joy. I was told to stay within bounds, to go back where I belonged.” Review / criticism of Fanon’s works “Fanon sought to diverge from traditional Freudian psychoanalytic discourse in his writings on psychoanalysis and race by arguing that the subject, both black and white, is constituted in and through cultural fantasies of race. In his Black Skin, White Masks, Fanon offers a prescient, if inchoate, analysis of the relationship between racism, phobia, stereotypes, and popular culture. He argues that the quotidian experience of racism- that any contact with the culture of a racist society-has the impact of psychical trauma in the subject. In this way, Fanon's Frantz 8 emphasis on developing a theory of cultural trauma and fantasy in psychoanalysis is crucial to understanding the very real, psychical effects of racism on all subjects.”8 Conclusion The traumatic experience of the people of occupied countries at the hands of their European masters was a matter of fact. The person in Frantz Fanon encountered indignities at the hands of those who had no business to indoctrinate him in the first place by denying him his own history and culture and imposing upon him an alien culture. Fanon searches for answers to his existential agony and comes to the inevitable conclusion that behind the inhuman behaviour of the imperialist white people, there existed and continues to exist the fact of racism and Euro-centrism. He gives vent to his findings in his remarkable books and lectures and boldly proclaims to the world that the political and economic elements were but temporary goals while the psychological subjugation of the people of the conquered territories through ugly display of racist superiority, was the chief goal in order to perpetuate their hold on those peoples and their territories. One can not but agree with this psychological aspect of colonialism. 8. Unknown, CCNY Grad Student, (2006) From a Teacher’s Perspective. Reference List Fanon, F., (1967) Black Skin White Masks. New York: Grove Press. Giron, A.R., (2004) Politics 105C, Modern Political Theory Miller, A.V., Translation of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. New York: Oxford. Paul Held, P., (2004) Individual Consciousness and the Social World Sartre, J-P., Existentialism. Retrieved on May 6, 2006 from http://www.Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.htm Sharawy, H., Frantz Fanon and the African Revolution, revisited at a time of globalization. Unknown, CCNY Grad Student, (2006) From a Teacher’s Perspective. Retrieved on May 5, 2006 from http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/cm/member-glance. Yew, L., Notes on Colonialism, Political Discourse: Colonialism and Post-colonialism. Retrieved on May 5, 2006 from http://www.scholars.nus.edu.sg/ post/poldiscourse/discourseov.html Read More