Seminar Paper - Week 4 - Sartre on Franz Fanon and The Battle of Algiers

A bit about Jean Paul Sartre (1961)

Before I talk about Sartre’s writing “Preface to Frantz Fanon’s ‘Wretched of the Earth’”, I felt it was necessary to introduce the man that wrote it in the first place. Sartre was a French Existentialist born in the early 1900’s. He is considered one of the most influential thinkers and writers of the 20^th Century. His ideas focussed around human experience and consciousness. 

http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/sartrebio.html

Now; the chapter itself “Wretched of the Earth”

The article itself I found a little difficult to read through all the way without re-reading what I’d just read, to ensure that I understood what on earth I was reading. I’m still pretty certain I have no idea what the hell it’s about but I will do my best to describe what I think I understood from it.

This chapter is the preface to Frantz Fanon’s “Wretched of the Earth”. In short, it discusses violence as a means of liberation, just like the film The Battle of Algiers, which I found a little unbearable to watch. I found it hard to believe that people truly believe that violence is the way to make people listen. In the film, given, this tactic worked but I really fail to see how sacrificing so many lives, for a cause, is worth it. But then, perhaps I’m just extremely naive.

Back to the article; the article opens with a brief history of ‘the Earth’. It explains that ‘at the beginning’ there were two separate groups, the Five Million Men (who I can only assume we should class as ‘French or White people’ with some ‘education’) and the other One Thousand Five Hundred Million Natives (the tribal people from cultures that we would consider unusual). The first group, Sartre calls ‘men’ and the second group he calls ‘Natives’. He goes on to explain that the Men took a select few of Natives and, how shall I put it, dressed them up and taught them “the correct ways”. As we know through many years of development and research that these people classed as Natives are people the same as you and I, they just have a lifestyle different to ours. One in which they don’t need material things like technology and fashion because it disrupts their ancestral way of living. Our Western ways were pushed onto these people and fellow westerners were amazed that these Natives were able to interact in our Western Way. However, teaching the Natives only made the Native’s rebel and realise the way they were being treated was racist. 

“You are making us into monstrosities; your humanism claims we are at one with the rest of Humanity but your racist methods set us apart.”

The Men’s idea to make the native more Western in order to make them ‘better people’ ultimately failed in that it made them miserable and unhappy. Even though the Natives were in this misery, the Men continued to believe it was the right thing to educate them and leave them in their disconsolate state.

In the following paragraphs Sartre explains that Fanon, in the book he is writing the preface, says that Europe is doomed and is plummeting into a dark abyss and because she is falling at such a pace there is no stopping it. He does however claim that miracles have been known to happen. I don’t know if this is a racist attack upon the natives that Men chose to educate or just an observation that Fanon seems to believe is true.

“the Third World finds itself and speaks to itself through his voice”

This quote from the pre-face, enhanced by the previous reading from the chapter, makes me think that the Western Men are putting beliefs and words into the mouths of the Natives and are perhaps forcing them to believe that this is the right way to think and giving them a fake independence to live by. This links to the Marxist idea of the Bourgeoisie. By separating the Natives in the first place, and only educating the select few, they created a Native Bourgeoisie. This is where the film and the chapter co-inside, Fanon states that in order for the Natives to get their way of life back, they must fight against the Western man, this means they must first fight against themselves.

“The rebel’s weapon is the proof of his humanity”

Sartre explains that in the book Fanon says that the Natives will revolt as they are unhappy that their colonial way of living has been disrupted by people ‘trying to help’. He says that in the first few days of this revolt you must kill. “to shoot down a European is to kill two birds with one stone, to destroy an oppressor and the man he oppresses at the same time”

Once a rebel has done, Sartre says he will feel like a free man. He will, however at the same time, be a dead man walking. 

Towards the end, and I think this is probably a good point for me to also finish, Sartre explains that us, the Western Community are the ones who travelled to far off countries to find resources that we don’t have in Europe. Because we were the first to find Gold and Metals we have been blessed with riches that our ancestors never thought we would have. These riches have given us something that Sartre describes a Human Status. This human status has made us feel superior compared to those in third world countries, it has allowed our travelling ancestors to exploit the land and the people of the third world. This is what Fanon calls narcissism – a self love or self obsession. And i rightly agree. If you look at Britain today, everyone is obsessed with the idea of being rich in order to treat themselves beyond their wildest dreams and being better than their neighbour. To finish I would like to end on the point that i am greatly glad that racism and the idea of being better than someone is almost over. I know that we will never get over the prejudices that people have against certain cultures. I'm just greatly glad that good people don’t want to change how people think, they just accept that they are different and so are we all.