The Wretched of the Earth

by

Frantz Fanon

Decolonization Term Analysis

The act of undoing colonialism, and for some of the countries mentioned in The Wretched of the Earth, the act of becoming an independent nation. Fanon is particularly concerned with decolonization, which he argues is always a violent endeavor that is driven by the peasant masses, especially the lumpenproletariat.

Decolonization Quotes in The Wretched of the Earth

The The Wretched of the Earth quotes below are all either spoken by Decolonization or refer to Decolonization. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Colonialism, Racism, and Violence Theme Icon
).
Chapter 1: On Violence Quotes

Decolonization, therefore, implies the urgent need to thoroughly challenge the colonial situation. Its definition can, if we want to describe it accurately, be summed up in the well-known words: “The last shall be first.” Decolonization is verification of this. At a descriptive level, therefore, any decolonization is a success.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 2
Explanation and Analysis:

In its bare reality, decolonization reeks of red-hot cannonballs and bloody knives. For the last can be the first only after a murderous and decisive confrontation between the two protagonists. This determination to have the last move up to the front, to have them clamber up (too quickly, say some) the famous echelons of an organized society, can only succeed by resorting to every means, including, of course, violence.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 3
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 2: Grandeur and Weakness of Spontaneity Quotes

It is among these masses, in the people of the shanty towns and in the lumpenproletariat that the insurrection will find its urban spearhead. The lumpenproletariat, this cohort of starving men, divorced from tribe and clan, constitutes one of the most spontaneously and radically revolutionary forces of a colonized people.

Related Characters: The Lumpenproletariat, The Peasant Masses
Page Number: 81
Explanation and Analysis:

The struggle for national liberation is not a question of bridging the gap in one giant stride. The epic is played out on a difficult, day-to-day basis and the suffering endured far exceeds that of the colonial period.

Related Characters: The Colonized
Page Number: 90
Explanation and Analysis:

The people who in the early days of the struggle had adopted the primitive Manichaeanism of the colonizer—Black versus White, Arab versus Infidel—realize en route that some blacks can be whiter than the whites, and that the prospect of a national flag or independence does not automatically result in certain segments of the population giving up their privileges and their interests.

Related Characters: The Colonized, The Colonists/Colonialists
Page Number: 93
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3: The Trials and Tribulations... Quotes

A country which really wants to answer to history, which wants to develop its towns and the minds of its inhabitants, must possess a genuine party. The party is not an instrument in the hands of the government. Very much to the contrary, the party is an instrument in the hands of the people. It is the party which decides on the policy enacted by the government. The party is not and never should be merely a political bureau where all the members of government and dignitaries of the regime feel free to congregate. Alas all too often it is the party which makes up the entire political bureau and its members reside permanently in the capital. In an underdeveloped country the leading party members should flee the capital like the plague. With the exception of a few, they should reside in the rural areas. Centralizing everything in the capital should he avoided. No administrative pretext can justify the bustle of the capital already overpopulated and overdeveloped compared with nine tenths of the territory. The party must be decentralized to the limit.

Page Number: 127-8
Explanation and Analysis:
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Decolonization Term Timeline in The Wretched of the Earth

The timeline below shows where the term Decolonization appears in The Wretched of the Earth. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: On Violence
Colonialism, Racism, and Violence Theme Icon
Decolonization, Neocolonialism, and Social Class Theme Icon
Decolonization—the liberation of a nation and the restoration of that nation to the people—will, according to... (full context)
Colonialism, Racism, and Violence Theme Icon
Oppression and Mental Health Theme Icon
Decolonization, Neocolonialism, and Social Class Theme Icon
During decolonization, Fanon writes, whenever the colonized begin to resist the colonists and rise up, they are... (full context)
Colonialism, Racism, and Violence Theme Icon
Decolonization, Neocolonialism, and Social Class Theme Icon
During decolonization, many colonized intellectuals have modified the demand that the last become the first and have... (full context)
Colonialism, Racism, and Violence Theme Icon
Decolonization, Neocolonialism, and Social Class Theme Icon
...is false. Comradery and brotherhood are forbidden by the colonialist bourgeoisie for a reason: during decolonization, the colonized intellectual will find power in the people and the notion of meetings and... (full context)
Colonialism, Racism, and Violence Theme Icon
Oppression and Mental Health Theme Icon
Decolonization, Neocolonialism, and Social Class Theme Icon
...masses do not recognize colonialist bourgeoisie thought. The colonized intellectual easily forgets the purpose of decolonization—to defeat colonialism—and they forget the main question fueling it: “Bread and land: how do we... (full context)
Colonialism, Racism, and Violence Theme Icon
Decolonization, Neocolonialism, and Social Class Theme Icon
The Manichaeanism of colonial society is left intact during decolonization, only the colonists are the evil ones. The colonized are “penned in” by colonial society,... (full context)
Colonialism, Racism, and Violence Theme Icon
Culture and the Emerging Nation  Theme Icon
...deep possession—organized séances that include stories of vampirism and zombies—but these rituals are lost during decolonization.   (full context)
Colonialism, Racism, and Violence Theme Icon
Oppression and Mental Health Theme Icon
Decolonization, Neocolonialism, and Social Class Theme Icon
...and business elite that nonviolence is in everyone’s best interest, but nonviolence is ineffective in decolonization. Colonialism “is naked violence,” Fanon says, and it “only gives in when confronted with greater... (full context)
Colonialism, Racism, and Violence Theme Icon
Capitalism, Socialism, and the Third World Theme Icon
Decolonization, Neocolonialism, and Social Class Theme Icon
...including the Cold War. The Americans closely guard international capitalism, and they recommend that Europe decolonize. But the greatest threat, according to the colonists, is socialism, and the colonized masses can... (full context)