After the success of the Algerian Revolution (1954-61), Frantz Fanon studied the practice of decolonization in Les Damnés de la terre (usually mistranslated as The Wretched of the Earth). In this session, we’ll read the opening chapter line-by-line, old school style. Fanon’s writing is direct but the range of his implication(s) is immense. How do we “see” the “damned”? What prevents us from so “seeing”?
Those interested in cultural studies and histories of race should compare the ways in which Stuart Hall adopted Fanon’s viewpoint in Policing the Crisis (1978), a text that feels oddly timely once again.
In short, the question becomes: how might the “damned” overturn the colonial regime (again)?