Abstract
This essay explores the question of Frantz Fanon’s relevance to the contemporary Caribbean in the context of his views, articulated in Peau noire, masques blancs and Les Damnes de la terre , on the psychological legacy of the violence of colonialism and his proposed solution for psychological and political decolonization. In the 21st century context, technological advances in the area of communication extend the promise of a brave new world, which minimizes or even erases the importance of an individual’s visual (visible) persona. Drawing on illustrations from his native land of Barbados, as a territory with a history of colonization similar to that of Fanon’s native Martinique, this author offers insights into Fanon’s importance to contemporary generations of Caribbean people emerging in the context of a globalized, virtual environment that, while diminishing the significance of the visual in relation to the skin color of individuals, tends to mask the persistence of new permutations of neo-colonial, racialized ideologies.
Highlights
This essay explores the question of Frantz Fanon’s relevance to the contemporary Caribbean in the context of his views, articulated in Peau noire, masques blancs and Les Damnés de la terre, on the psychological legacy of the violence of colonialism and his proposed solution for psychological and political decolonization
Frantz Fanon is for many a disturbing figure and a dissonant voice for several reasons: he dares to articulate thoughts, ideas, and feelings about topics that more than 50 years after his death are still sensitive: about race, identity, colonialism, women of color, “lactification,” wanting to be white, inferiority complex, the epidermization of inferiority (Peau noire, masques blancs 28), and the justification of violence
A blog by Francis Carole ( Président of the Parti pour la Libération de la Martinique [PALIMA]) on Wednesday 13 July 2011, headlined “Fanon effacé de la liste des grandes personnalités de la Martinique,” refers to a “circuit” produced by the Conseil Régional which includes among these eminent figures the names of Aimé Césaire and Édouard Glissant, and even the Empress Joséphine, but not that of Fanon
Summary
This essay explores the question of Frantz Fanon’s relevance to the contemporary Caribbean in the context of his views, articulated in Peau noire, masques blancs and Les Damnés de la terre, on the psychological legacy of the violence of colonialism and his proposed solution for psychological and political decolonization. This essay explores the question of Fanon’s relevance to the contemporary Caribbean in the context of his views, articulated in Peau noire, masques blancs and Les Damnés de la terre, on the psychological legacy of the violence of colonialism and his proposed solution for psychological and political decolonization.
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