A new biography of Frantz Fanon debates the anti-colonial thinker’s legacy, writes Nadia Sayed
Nadia Sayed
SOCIALIST WORKER
Saturday 16 November 2024
The Rebel’s Clinic: the revolutionary lives of Frantz Fanon by Adam Shatz
When it comes to radical thinkers and fighters, Frantz Fanon is among the most enduring of our time.
Today, after more than 12 months of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians, people are once again turning to Fanon’s ideas. He was very clear on the difference between the violence of the oppressor and the violence of the oppressed.
In his 1961 book, The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon wrote, “Colonialism is not a thinking machine. It is violence in its natural state and will only yield when confronted with greater violence.”
Adam Shatz’s book, The Rebel’s Clinic, is among the most effective of recent efforts to understand Fanon’s life and ideas. He draws on a wealth of resources and interviews to produce his book.
Born in the French colony of Martinique in 1925, Fanon trained as a psychiatrist in France where he faced his most bitter encounters of racism. He joined the Algerian resistance to the French occupation while operating a clinic there in the 1950s.
Among those interviewed are colleagues of Fanon including Alice Cherki, an Algerian psychoanalyst, and Marie-Jeanne Manuellan, a militant activist who was Fanon’s secretary.
Shatz weaves the influences on Fanon’s life and the debates around him into the events of his life in great detail. One of the great strengths of Shatz’s book is the way he evokes the era Fanon lived in—the era of great anti-colonial struggles.
Early on in his biography, Shatz makes it clear that he’s an admirer of Fanon, but also thinks he is wrongly sanctified. But, at times, Shatz goes beyond a critical examination of Fanon’s ideas. At the start of the book, he describes Fanon as a man of “as many illusions as illuminations”, a sentiment that is a theme throughout the book.
For instance, in discussing Fanon’s relationship to the Algerian liberation movement, Shatz implies that Fanon almost imposed a vision of the movement that wasn’t shared by Algerians.
In Shatz’s account, Fanon saw the Algerian struggle as part of a global struggle. Shatz aruges that most Algerians saw it as a North African struggle that had nothing to do with the fight against apartheid in South Africa or against the Portuguese in Angola.
There are a number of issues with this interpretation. Crucially, Shatz doesn’t acknowledge the debates within the liberation movement.
Disappointingly for a biography on one of the richest anti-colonial thinkers, Shatz’s book avoids discussion of Israel’s genocide and how Fanon relates to the Palestinian resistance. Elsewhere, Shatz has addressed how we apply Fanon’s ideas to Palestine today—he tries to undermine support for Palestinians’ right to resist.
He emphasises Fanon’s warnings against “vengeful” and “undisciplined” violence against the colonisers.
When discussing Israel’s genocide, he emphasises the indefensibility of the “murderous” actions of 7 October, equating it to the violence of Israeli state terror.
Frantz Fanon, racism and revolution
Fanon did warn against undisciplined violence. But he did not do so as a condition of supporting people’s right to resist colonialism. There are important criticisms of Fanon. He said that Karl Marx was right to point to the power of the working class in advanced capitalist countries.
But Fanon argued that the same didn’t apply in the Global South where workers were “most pampered by the colonial regime”.
Yet, in the years after Fanon’s death in 1961, Africa was awash with working class struggles that shook the corrupt post-colonial leaders Fanon hated. Shatz’s book is an important contribution to the study of Fanon.
But Leo Zeilig’s biography offers a better insight, from the perspective of an activist, about the most important lessons from Fanon’s life and his ideas that can guide our struggles today.The Rebel’s Clinic: The revolutionary lives of Frantz Fanon by Adam Shatz (Bloomsbury), £22.50
When it comes to radical thinkers and fighters, Frantz Fanon is among the most enduring of our time.
Today, after more than 12 months of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians, people are once again turning to Fanon’s ideas. He was very clear on the difference between the violence of the oppressor and the violence of the oppressed.
In his 1961 book, The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon wrote, “Colonialism is not a thinking machine. It is violence in its natural state and will only yield when confronted with greater violence.”
Adam Shatz’s book, The Rebel’s Clinic, is among the most effective of recent efforts to understand Fanon’s life and ideas. He draws on a wealth of resources and interviews to produce his book.
Born in the French colony of Martinique in 1925, Fanon trained as a psychiatrist in France where he faced his most bitter encounters of racism. He joined the Algerian resistance to the French occupation while operating a clinic there in the 1950s.
Among those interviewed are colleagues of Fanon including Alice Cherki, an Algerian psychoanalyst, and Marie-Jeanne Manuellan, a militant activist who was Fanon’s secretary.
Shatz weaves the influences on Fanon’s life and the debates around him into the events of his life in great detail. One of the great strengths of Shatz’s book is the way he evokes the era Fanon lived in—the era of great anti-colonial struggles.
Early on in his biography, Shatz makes it clear that he’s an admirer of Fanon, but also thinks he is wrongly sanctified. But, at times, Shatz goes beyond a critical examination of Fanon’s ideas. At the start of the book, he describes Fanon as a man of “as many illusions as illuminations”, a sentiment that is a theme throughout the book.
For instance, in discussing Fanon’s relationship to the Algerian liberation movement, Shatz implies that Fanon almost imposed a vision of the movement that wasn’t shared by Algerians.
In Shatz’s account, Fanon saw the Algerian struggle as part of a global struggle. Shatz aruges that most Algerians saw it as a North African struggle that had nothing to do with the fight against apartheid in South Africa or against the Portuguese in Angola.
There are a number of issues with this interpretation. Crucially, Shatz doesn’t acknowledge the debates within the liberation movement.
Disappointingly for a biography on one of the richest anti-colonial thinkers, Shatz’s book avoids discussion of Israel’s genocide and how Fanon relates to the Palestinian resistance. Elsewhere, Shatz has addressed how we apply Fanon’s ideas to Palestine today—he tries to undermine support for Palestinians’ right to resist.
He emphasises Fanon’s warnings against “vengeful” and “undisciplined” violence against the colonisers.
When discussing Israel’s genocide, he emphasises the indefensibility of the “murderous” actions of 7 October, equating it to the violence of Israeli state terror.
Frantz Fanon, racism and revolution
Fanon did warn against undisciplined violence. But he did not do so as a condition of supporting people’s right to resist colonialism. There are important criticisms of Fanon. He said that Karl Marx was right to point to the power of the working class in advanced capitalist countries.
But Fanon argued that the same didn’t apply in the Global South where workers were “most pampered by the colonial regime”.
Yet, in the years after Fanon’s death in 1961, Africa was awash with working class struggles that shook the corrupt post-colonial leaders Fanon hated. Shatz’s book is an important contribution to the study of Fanon.
But Leo Zeilig’s biography offers a better insight, from the perspective of an activist, about the most important lessons from Fanon’s life and his ideas that can guide our struggles today.The Rebel’s Clinic: The revolutionary lives of Frantz Fanon by Adam Shatz (Bloomsbury), £22.50
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