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Chapter 5: From the North African’s...
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Wretched of the Earth, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Colonialism, Racism, and Violence
Oppression and Mental Health
Capitalism, Socialism, and the Third World
Decolonization, Neocolonialism, and Social Class
Culture and the Emerging Nation
Summary
Analysis
“Now comrades,” Fanon writes, “now is the time to decide to change sides.” We must leave Europe, he says, a country that has massacred men all over the world. Europe has halted the progress of man and enslaved others for nothing but their own greed and glory. They have taken over the world’s leadership with violence, and, Fanon says, “we have better things to do than follow in Europe’s footsteps.” Africa must not be concerned with competing with Europe or emulating it.
This is Fanon’s call to action. He wants to thoroughly challenge the colonial situation in the hope of ending colonialism entirely. This also identifies Europe as the immoral savages, not the colonized as is usually assumed, and this, too, upsets the colonial situation. In claiming they have better things to do than follow Europe, Fanon denies Europe’s supposed superiority. After all, Europe isn’t even worth following, he implies.
Themes
“Let us decide not to imitate Europe,” Fanon says, “and let us tense our muscles and our brains in a new direction.” Two hundred years ago, a former European colony known as the United States took it upon itself to compete with Europe and now the country is “a monster” where the “flaws, sickness, and inhumanity of Europe have reached frightening proportions.” In light of this, Fanon says, Africa must start a new history and “create a new man,” one that is developed with “a new way of thinking.”
To break the colonial situation means to stop Western mimicry as well, and Fanon’s words highlight this. Plus, following Europe has proved dangerous for others, and Fanon gives the United States as an example. To imitate Europe is to commit such violent atrocities, Fanon implies, and it is not behavior to which the Third World should aspire.
Themes
