Comments on: Frantz Fanon: “Concerning Violence”

By: This Blog’s Top Posts for 2009 « ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

This Blog’s Top Posts for 2009 « ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 06:34:08 +0000

[...] Frantz Fanon: “Concerning Violence” – 1,912 [...]

By: Marcos

Marcos — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:33:45 +0000

I know what you mean. Everything he talks about is in plain sight, yet it’s ignored by the vast majority of people, who find such things to be extreme or radical. The truth should not be considered extreme or radical. We should all make ourselves aware of our surroundings.

By: MULTITUNES :: proletarian, funkadelicparliamentarian, pro revolt-in-the-21st-centurian :: Got Rage In My System :: April :: 2009

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:44:43 +0000

[...] Frantz Fanon wrote decades ago some thoughtful stuff about violence in the context of colonized Africa. Could some of these thoughts be applied in the context of our cities today? (In fact, the Italian radical thinker Paolo Virno has written about this, and if you read Finnish you could check out this text here). “The colonized man will first manifest this aggressiveness which has been deposited in his bones against his own people. This is the period when the niggers beat each other up (…) When the native is confronted with the colonial order of things, he finds he is in a state of permanent tension. (…) This hostile world, ponderous and aggressive because it fends off the colonized masses with all the harshness it is capable of, represents not merely a hell from which the swiftest flight possible is desirable, but also a paradise close at hand which is guarded by terrible watchdogs.” (Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of The Earth) [...]

By: Mike P

Mike P — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:33:11 +0000

Hope you guys are reading cesaire as well, and others like ifi amadume and expecially cheikh ante diop. these guys really provide an excellent anti colonial mode of thought.

By: Nation-building, Democracy, Free Markets: A Note to the Occupiers « OPEN ANTHROPOLOGY

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 00:31:07 +0000

[...] Earth (published in 1961 as Les damnés de la terre). The first chapter of the 1963 translation was posted here on this blog. In the new translation by Richard Philcox, we also find a foreword by renowned [...]

By: Maximilian Forte

Maximilian Forte — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:46:56 +0000

Thanks very much Owen. That link is very useful, and I can read the new foreword and compare at least parts of the translation.

But come on, I really don’t think that you got a mere 5% of what the course offered!

Best wishes.

By: o.w.

o.w. — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:43:49 +0000

Coincidentally,

This book just arrived on my doorstep yesterday. I ordered it a few weeks back when I realized I had missed/misinterpreted/failed to read 95% of what you taught in the decolonizing anthropology class.

The version I received is translated by Richard Philcox -
http://books.google.ca/books?id=-XGKFJq4eccC&dq=philcox+wretched&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=3IIB25b5w3&sig=obMgeVBlIxEd3Evmz-xRQvEuLtY&hl=en&ei=3Zi6SY-SH4TwMtWFzZsI&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result

Okay, back to the thesis.

By: Maximilian Forte

Maximilian Forte — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 13:37:22 +0000

Interesting questions Kate. Incidentally, I did not know about a more recently translated version, and I am hoping that the meaning has not changed significantly since the version I read a long time ago and that I scanned and placed here.

Part of the reputation for being revolutionary or controversial comes, I think, from the time in which it was written and the relative dearth of such perspectives in print. Since then, a number of Fanon’s perspectives have become almost mainstream in parts of the academic world, and some of his observations have been either widely repeated or widely confirmed (especially in connection with the newly “decolonized” states and the new “national bourgeoisie”). I think that what lingers as one reason for seeing his work as controversial is the fact that he doesn’t just justify oppositional violence, he sees it as absolutely necessary, not something that is unfortunate and just happens leaving us to understand why people might take desperate measures. He fully endorses violence, without making any apologies for his position.

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 10:19:16 +0000

There’s actually a more recent translation by Richard something or other that came a couple years ago. I read it as a junior after finding it in my High School’s library collection. My mother was surprised that I found it there in the first place. At the time I didn’t know anything about his public perception and to be honest I didn’t find much in the book that I found to be especially revolutionary or controversial. So why do I keep running into remarks that imply such? Is it because of previous books he’s written, or is it something to do with his public persona? I’m curious.