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A Frantz Fanon for our time - si se puede! US Army major firing two handguns killed 11 people and wounded 31 others in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood base in Texas, a prime point of deployment for US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army said the gunman was killed. US broadcast media identified him as Major Malik Nidal Hasan and said he was a psychiatrist facing an upcoming deployment to Iraq. There was no immediate official confirmation of his identity. US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas told FOX News: "I do know that he has been known to have told people that he was upset about going (to Iraq)." US military officials say the shooter's motives were still unclear. The incident at Fort Hood, the largest military installation in the world, was one of the worst killings reported on a US military base. In May a US soldier at a base in Baghdad shot dead five fellow soldiers. The Wretched of the Earth (French: Les Damnés de la Terre, first published 1961) is Frantz Fanon's most famous work, written during and regarding the Algerian struggle for independence from colonial rule. As a psychiatrist, Fanon explored the psychological effect of colonization on the psyche of a nation as well as its broader implications for building a movement for decolonization. Further reading reveals a thorough critique of nationalism and imperialism which also develops to cover areas such as mental health and the role of intellectuals in revolutionary situations. Fanon goes into great detail explaining that revolutionary groups should look to the lumpenproletariat for the force needed to expel colonists. Fanon uses the term to refer to those inhabitants of colonized countries who are not involved in industrial production, particularly peasants living outside the cities. He argues that only this group, unlike the industrial proletariat, has sufficient independence from the colonists to successfully make a revolution against them. Also important is Fanon's view of the role of language and how it molds the position of "natives", or those victimized by colonization. Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth has become a handbook for any and all political leaders faced with any type of decolonization. Even Abbas sounds like he's been forced into a basically 'Fanonist' position - and so is planning his retirement. Of particular interest to anarchists is Fanons advice for direct action in response to torture - he specifically advocates that the best psychiatric 'cure' for the tortured is for them to kill their -or any - torturer. Classic ' propaganda-of-the-deed' indeed. Torturers must be considered by any civilized people as fair-game. No jury will convict. Post a comment in response: |
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