Remembering Franz Fanon and what he means today

iol

He has long been dead, but his ideas are truly alive. Still dangerous. On July 20, Frantz Fanon, the revolutionary, philosopher, doctor and perhaps the most influential anti-colonial thinker of the 20th century would have been 92. His ideas of race and critical theory of colonisation and assimilation have never aged.

Born in Martinique in the French Antilles, Fanon lived in France, Algeria, Ghana and Tunisia. He died from cancer at the age of 36 in 1961. His work was all encompassing; becoming a supporter for the Algerian struggle for independence from French rule, and a member of the Algerian National Liberation Front.

Fanon’s ideas in those times were as revolutionary as they are today; rejected, fought over, and yet welcomed by those most inspired by its single-minded vision of social change. Fanon’s ideas formed the backbone of much of Steve Biko’s work on black consciousness and the need for decolonisation. The mutterings of decolonisation by today’s students, or the Fallists are, by definition, Fanonian.

Interpretations of his large body of work have shifted with the times: ideas used and abused by thinkers, leaders and snake-charmers alike. But at its core, the values remain the same. [MORE]