Quotes from Frantz Fanon

motives are entirely new. One paradox

The Church in the colonies is a white man's Church, a foreigners' Church. It does not call the colonized to the ways of God, but to the ways of the white man, to the ways of the master, the ways of the oppressor. And as we know, in this story many are called but few are chosen.

For a population 98 percent illiterate, there is, however, an enormous amount of literature written about them.

le n**** esclave de son infériorité, le Blanc esclave de sa supériorité, se comportent tous deux selon une ligne d'orientation névrotique.

Let us be honest, the colonist knows perfectly well that no jargon is a substitute for reality.

Oui, comme on le voit, en faisant appel à l'humanité, au sentiment de la dignité, à l'amour, à la charité, il nous serait facile de prouver ou de faire admettre que le Noir est l'égal du Blanc. Mais notre but est tout autre : ce que nous voulons, c'est aider le Noir à se libérer de l'arsenal complexuel qui a germé au sein de la situation coloniale. M.

Self-criticism has been much talked about recently, but few realize that it was first of all an African institution.

tradition has it that disputes which break out in a village are worked out in public. By this I mean collective self-criticism with a touch of humor because everyone is relaxed, because in the end we all want the same thing.

The native who decides to put the program into practice, and to become its moving force, is ready for violence at all times. From birth it is clear to him that this narrow world, strewn with prohibitions, can only be called in question by absolute violence.

Such a colonized intellectual, dusted over by colonial culture, will in the same way discover the substance of village assemblies, the cohesion of people's committees, and the extraordinary fruitfulness of local meetings and groupments. Henceforward, the interests of one will be the interests of all, for in concrete fact everyone will be discovered by the troops, everyone will be massacred—or everyone will be saved.

The colonist makes history and he knows it.

The colonized' subject thus dicovers that his life, his breathing and his heartbeats are the same as the colonist's. He discovers that the skin of a colonist is not worth more than the 'native's.

Brother,' 'sister,' 'comrade' are words outlawed by the colonialist bourgeoisie because in their thinking my brother is my wallet and my comrade, my scheming.

The colonized's revolutionary new assurance stems from this. If, in fact, my life is worth as much as the colonist's, his look can no longer strike fear into me or nail me to the spot and his voice can no longer petrify me. I am no longer uneasy in his presence. In reality, to hell with him. Not only does his presence no longer bother me, but I am already preparing to waylay him in such a way that soon he will have no other solution but to flee. The colonial context, as

Those values which seemed to ennoble the soul prove worthless because they have nothing in common with the real-life struggle in which the people are engaged.

I am not a prisoner of history. I should not seek there for the meaning of my destiny. I should constantly remind myself that the real leap consists in introducing invention into existence. In the world through which I travel, I am endlessly creating myself. I am a part of Being to the degree that I go beyond it.

A colonized people is not alone. In spite of all that colonialism can do, its frontiers remain open to new ideas and echoes from the world outside. It discovers that violence is in the atmosphere, that it here and there bursts out, and here and there sweeps away the colonial regime—that same violence which fulfills for the native a role that is not simply informatory, but also operative.

The Church in the colonies is a white man's Church, a foreigners' Church. It does not call the colonized to the ways of God, but to the ways of the white man, to the ways of the master, to the ways of the oppressor.

Voici des siècles que l'Europe a stoppé la progression des autres hommes et les a asservis à ses desseins et à sa gloire ; des siècles qu'au nom d'une prétendue "aventure spirituelle" elle étouffe la quasi-totalité de l'humanité. Regardez-la aujourd'hui basculer entre la désintégration atomique et la désintégration spirituelle/

We ought not to say to the people:"Kill yourselves that the country may become rich."...Public business ought to be the business of the public.

We have sown the wind; he is the hurricane

For the black man there is only one destiny. And it is white.

You do not disorganize a society, however primitive it may be, with such an agenda if you are not determined from the very start to smash every obstacle encountered. The colonized, who have made up their mind to make such an agenda into a driving force, have been prepared for violence from time immemorial. As soon as they are born it is obvious to them that their cramped world, riddled with taboos, can only be challenged by out and out violence.

National liberation, national reawakening, restoration of the nation to the people or Commonwealth, whatever the name used, whatever the latest expression, decolonization is always a violent event.