The Wretched of the Earth
Here is his last chapter, his conclusion to The Wretched of the Earth, which more than anything shows the humanist and idealist of Fanon, and the promise that decolonization always holds.
************************
Now, comrades, now is the time to decide to change sides. We
must shake off the great mantle of night which has enveloped us, and reach for
the light. The new day which is dawning must find us determined, enlightening
and resolute.
We must abandon our dreams and say farewell to our old
beliefs and former friendships. Let us not lose time in useless laments or
sickening mimicry. Let us leave this Europe which never stops talking of man,
yet massacres him at every one of its street corners, at every corner of the
world.
For centuries Europe has brought the progress of other men
to a halt and enslaved them for its own purposes and glory, for centuries it
has stifled virtually the whole of humanity in the name of a so-called
“spiritual adventure.” Look at it now teetering between atomic destruction and
spiritual disintegration.
And yet nobody can deny its achievements at home have not
been crowned with success.
Europe has taken over leadership of the world with fervor,
cynicism and violence. And look how the shadow of its monuments spreads and
multiples. Every movement Europe makes bursts the boundaries of space and
thought. Europe has denied itself not only humility and modesty but also
solitude and tenderness.
Its only show miserliness has been toward man, only toward
man has it shown to be niggardly and murderously carnivorous.
So, my brothers, how could we fail to understand that we
have better things to do than follow in that Europe’s footsteps?
This Europe, which never stopped talking of man, which never
stopped proclaiming its sole concern was man, we now know the price of
suffering humanity has paid for every one of its spiritual victories.
Come, comrades, the European game is finally over, we must
look for something else. We can do anything today provided we do not ape
Europe, provided we are not obsessed with catching up with Europe.
Europe has gained such a mad and reckless momentum that it
has lost control and reason and is heading at dizzying speed towards the brink
from which we would be advised to remove ourselves as quickly as possible.
It is all too true, however, that we need a model, schemas
and examples. For many of us the European model is the most elating. But we
have seen in the preceding pages how misleading such an imitation can be.
European achievements, European technology and European lifestyles must stop
tempting us and leading us astray.
When I look for a man in European lifestyles and technology
I see a constant denial of man, an avalanche of murders.
Man’s condition, his projects and collaboration with others
on tasks that strengthen man’s totality, are new issues which require genuine
inspiration.
Let us decide not to imitate Europe and let us tense our
muscles and our brains in a new direction. Let us endeavor to invent a man in
full, something which Europe has been incapable of achieving.
Two centuries ago, a former European colony took it into its
head to catch up with Europe. It has been so successful that the United States
of America has become a monster where the flaws, sickness, and inhumanity of
Europe have reached frightening proportions.
Comrades, have we nothing else to do but create a third
Europe? The West saw itself on a spiritual adventure. It is in the name of the
Spirit, meaning the spirit of Europe, that Europe justified its crimes and
legitimized the slavery in which it held four fifths of humanity.
Yes, the European spirit is built on strange foundations.
The whole of European thought developed in places that were increasingly arid
and increasingly inaccessible. Consequently, it was natural that the chances of
encountering man becomes less and less frequent.
A permanent dialogue with itself, an increasingly obnoxious
narcissism inevitably paved the way for a virtual delirium where intellectual
thought turns to agony since the reality of man as a living, working, self-made
being is replaced by words, an assemblage of words and the tension generated by
their meanings. There were Europeans, however, who urged the European workers to
smash this narcissism and break with this denial of reality.
Generally speaking, the European workers did not respond to
the call. The fact was that the workers believed they too were part of the
prodigious adventure of the European Spirit.
All the elements for a solution to the majors problems of
humanity existed at one time or another in European thought. But the Europeans
did not act on the mission that was designated them and which consisted of virulently
pondering these elements, modifying their configuration, their being, of
changing them and finally taking the problem of man to an infinitely higher
plane.
Today we are witnessing a stasis in Europe. Comrades, let us
feel this stagnation where dialectics has gradually turned into a logic of the
status quo. Let us reexamine the question of man. Let us reexamine the question
of cerebral reality, the brain mass of humanity in its entirely whose
affinities must be increased, whose connections must be diversified and whose
communications must be humanized again.
Come brothers, we have far too much work on our hands to
revel in outmoded games. Europe has done what it had to do and all things
considered it has done a good job; let us stop accusing it, but let us say to
it firmly it must stop putting on such a show. We no longer have reason to fear
it, let us stop then envying it.
The Third World is today facing Europe, as one colossal mass
whose project must be to try and solve the problems this Europe was incapable
of finding answers to.
But what matters is not a question of profitability, not a
question of increased productivity, not a question of production rates. No, it
is not a question of back to nature. It is the very basic question of not
dragging man in directions which mutilate him, of not imposing on his brain
tempos that rapidly obliterate and unhinge it. The notion of catching up must
not be used as a pretext to brutalize man, to tear him from himself and his
inner consciousness, to break him, to kill him.
No, we do not want to catch up with anyone. But what we want
is to walk in the company of man, every man, night and day, for all times. It
is not a question of stringing the caravan out where groups are spaced so far
apart they cannot see the one in front, and men who no longer recognize each
other, meet less and less and talk to each other less and less.
The Third World must start over a new history of man which
takes account of not only the occasional prodigious theses maintained by
Europe, but also its crimes, the most heinous of which have been committed at
the very heart of man, the pathological dismembering of his functions and the
erosion of his unity, and in the context of his community, the fracture, the
stratification and the bloody tensions fed by class, and finally, on the immense
scale of humanity, the racial hatred, slavery, exploitation and above all, the
bloodless genocide whereby one a half billion men have been written off.
So Comrades, let us not pay tribute to Europe by creating
states, institutions and societies that draw their institutions from it.
Humanity expects others things from us than this grotesque
and generally obscene emulation.
If we want to transform Africa into a new Europe, America
into a new Europe, then let us entrust the destinies of our countries to the
Europeans. They will do a better job than the best of us.
But if we want humanity to take one step forward, if we want
to take it to another level than the one where Europe has placed it, then we
must innovate, we must be pioneers.
If we want to respond to the expectations of our people, we
must look elsewhere besides Europe.
Moreover, if we want to respond to the expectations of the
Europeans, we must not send them back a reflection, however ideal, of their
society, and their thought that periodically sickens even them.
For Europe, for ourselves, and for humanity, comrades, we
must make a new start, develop a new way of thinking, and endeavor to create a
new man.
Comments