Fanon’s work is relevant because it was written during the height of colonialism, However, despite his achievements and views, it can be argued that the legacy of colonialism still lives on. The ‘Wretched of the Earth’ also influenced liberation movements and struggles in Africa, Asia, and South America. The ‘Wretched of the Earth’, attacks and counters the immoral beliefs which were held at the time and opposes the views of the colonial experts who believed that colonised people were inferior and were in need of enlightenment in order for them to be civilised. For instance, the belief that white Europeans were more superior to the colonised and more civilised compared to the native population of other continents from the colonised societies was abhorrent to him. He argues that such a view was racist and inherently connected at the heart of colonialism and imperialism. Fanon was intellectually challenging and attacking the very idea and assumption of colonialism, which depicted that the colonised people were inferior to their colonisers. The Wretched of the Earth was written to encourage revolt and rebellion.
Furthermore, he argues that the humanity of the colonised can be protected and served by means of violence. The centre of Fanon’s argument is that violence serves two purposes, firstly, to destroy the colonial system especially when one side is more dominant, carrying all the power and weapons and secondly, to serve as a psychological tool. For Fanon “ Decolonolism is always a violence phenomenon” (p.35). This, he believed, would give societies the political and moral authority to free themselves by any means necessary. Fanon argues that “ you fight fire with fire” since colonialism was instigated and enforced by force. The beginning of the book is associated with violence. It was his personal experiences of racism, colonialism and the imperial domination of global powers that directly influenced his contribution to the subject. He was born and bred in the French colony Martinique in 1925. Frantz Fanon was a prominent theorist and writer. Fanon also portrays an image that colonialism is both created and sustained by violence and can only be destroyed by violence.
This book also highlights how colonialism dehumanised the native (colonised) and the explicit need for a violent response to overthrow colonialism through any means necessary. In this remarkable book, Frantz Fanon analyses the effects of colonialism on societies by examining the process of decolonisation and psychoanalysis of the independence movements around the globe.
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