My friends, I want to welcome all of you from the W. E. B. Du Bois Abolitionist School, and I invite you to hear my words about the late, great revolutionary, Dr. Frantz Fanon, “The Gift of Fanon.”
When we think of or even speak of the great Algerian revolutionary, Dr. Frantz Fanon, the word gift doesn’t immediately come to mind, but upon reflection on his immense contributions to the anti-colonialist struggles, perhaps that word — gift — will re emerge.
Fanon, although born in the Caribbean island of Martinique, made global impact with his master work, the book, The Wretched of the Earth. In it, he wrote powerful truths about the Algerian struggle for liberation from the French Empire, and the continuing struggle for African freedom and liberation from colonialism.
If Fanon provides any gifts for us, I think these that follow are soul food for the freedom struggles of today. First, his riveting message about the nature of colonialism, which is, of course, a present war, but also a war against history itself. Fanon wrote, and I quote, “Colonialism is not satisfied with snaring the people in the net or of draining the colonized brain of any form or substance. With a kind of perverted logic, it turns its attention to the past of the colonized people and distorts it, disfigures it, and destroys it.” – Fanon.
Why does the colonizer destroy the people’s history? Simple, destroy the past and you destroy the present. This gives you some sense of the power and value and worth of history. Here is his second gift, his message to the young people. Again, we turn to the pages of The Wretched of the Earth, where he writes, “Each generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity. The question becomes, for each generation: what is your mission? Will you fulfill it or betray it?” The words of the revolutionary thinker and worker, Dr. Frantz Fanon. With love not fear, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
