The Wretched of the Earth

Fanon examines the dangers nationalism poses to the decolonization process. Unfortunately, achieving independence is only the first step in the long and difficult process of creating a more just society. In fact, in most decolonized societies what follows after independence is just as bad as what preceded it. The underdeveloped national middle class steps into the position left behind by the settlers and begins to accumulate personal wealth at the cost of exploiting their own countrymen. There is no structural change, simply a shift in ownership.

In its pursuit of wealth, the middle class turns away from the interior where the most of the population lives in poverty and looks to the mother country for profit. Fanon calls them the party organizers for the former colonies and sees the resorts and beach towns that cater to Westerners as proof of the moral and political failure of the local bourgeoisie.

The middle class’ nationalist rallying call against the foreigners as a means to appropriate their positions and land gradually turns into ultranationalism, then chauvinism, and ultimately racism. Gradually, the struggle for control over national resources evolves into racial and ethnic conflicts. After the exodus of the European colonizers, the “foreigners” who threaten to take away local jobs and opportunities are other Africans.

Fanon blames the national bourgeoisie across the continent for assimilating the colonialist way of thinking and for propagating and exacerbating the tensions between different groups. Rather than trying to uphold African unity, each country takes up a chauvinistic stand against what it perceives as inferior or threatening. North African countries look with disdain to the south, while South African countries distrust the Muslim Arab north.

A second major problem facing a newly liberated nation is the national political party. According to Fanon, a party should serve the people’s interests, but usually it becomes a tool of oppression in the heads of the elite. Often, a local leader who takes control over a former colony attempts to solidify his power by appointing people from his family or clan to all key positions, creating an ethnic division between different groups. The solution to this problem is to educate the masses, especially the young people.