In Frantz Fanon’s book, Wretched of the Earth, he talks about identity, justice, and power in the context of several ideologies. These categories can be better understood in the context of two groups, the colonists and the natives. Each one has its own identity, justice and power.
The identity of these two groups can be clearly seen in Fanon’s representation of the struggle. These two groups struggled with each other because the colonists are on one side, and the natives on the other. The natives see the colonists as “the others”. They are seen this way because they came over from Europe and took over the native’s land and then made them slaves in their own society. These peoples’ individual rights were taken away, and they were forced to live a life of oppression. The colonists took over the upper class, and pushed everyone else down because they felt that their way was better. Therefore, the upper class wrote the history of the oppressed nation, but of mother country exploiting the colonies. The only way to get the oppressed nation into history was if the individual rises up and decides to write what he has seen and heard. These natives then lie in wait to take over their rights and freedoms from which they have been stolen. “The native is an oppressed person whose permanent dream is to become the persecutor.” These people want to seek justice for that which they have been dealt by the colonists. The natives are fighting for the justice of their “national culture.” They want to build a nation on that culture not on the values that somebody else says that they must abide by.
Justice will never exist in their “national culture”. It will not exist because the bourgeoisie will not let it. They are greedy people who only want the colonists kicked out, so they can take over. They do not care about the people; they just care about being bourgeoisie. When they kick out the colonists, they will not kick them out completely. They will only keep them for their capitalist intentions to make them money. In so following these habits, they take over “the small people” therefore causing those of the middle class to take over the poor natives, and send them home to the jungle. So the cycle of injustice continue unless a change is made to stop the greedy bourgeoisie from further wrecking the spirits of the people. The people will not stand for this and therefore, they will rise up and defend themselves against those that do not believe in a government for the people. “The national government, if it chooses to be national, ought to govern by the people and for the people, by the outcasts and for the outcasts.” This is the only way to break the cycle of injustice being done in third world countries.
Whether power causes injustice or injustice causes power it does not matter, power needs to be in the hands of the correct people. It is not in the case of the colonists or the bourgeoisie. The colonist never ceases to remind the native who is in power. He reminds the native that “there he alone is master.” The colonist puts up a force against the native, and somehow expects that the native will never respond. The native in complete contrast to the colonist’s beliefs is always ready and waiting for the day that he can strike. Those of the bourgeoisie rally the masses in order to kick out the colonists. Then they so happen to forget that they made these promises because they do not want a “mass mobilization”. If they can not control the masses then they do not have power over them. That is an issue they would like to avoid. Again, the people are riled up only to be put down later. Words like “mouthwash, word spinning, blather, and fruitless agitation” will be used to describe what were formerly promises to the natives. If people by chance do not agree with what the dominant party agrees with then they are kicked out, persecuted, and harassed. The masses have to run and hide for fear of upsetting the bourgeoisie. According to the bourgeoisie, they have no power and no authority to do anything, but the natives want the power to be free and to express themselves in a powerful way.
Several ideologies exemplify the points that have been made above. These are human rights, Marxism, and nationalism. Human rights in this book can be defined as “helping to rehabilitate mankind, and make man victorious everywhere, once and for all.” Europe needs to recognize that the natives do have rights, as stated by the United Nations, and that they need to respect those rights. Those rights being a right to exist in freedom, not slavery, a right to elect their leaders, not have them forced upon the people, and a right to be happy, not oppressed. Europe needs to be aware of these facts and let the natives live their lives. Marxism is shown through by the use of the languages as well as the ideas. Throughout the book, Fanon uses the term comrades, which is singular to Marxist ideology. It shows the equality among all people, which is what the natives are looking for. The idea portion is found in its anti-capitalism, anti-west feelings. This proponent is a key idea of Marxist thought. This book shows its anti- west tendencies because of the repression that they have been shown by the colonists. Nationalism is a strong bond in these third world countries. These people are working together to try and rectify the situations that they have been given by the colonists. The individual, while still important for his contribution to society, loses precedence to the solving of society’s problems. “Nationalism is not a political doctrine, nor a program.” They see it as their fight for freedom from oppression.
Fanon makes his points clearly that there is a difference between the identity, the justice, and the power of the natives versus the colonists. There will continue to be fighting until these issues are resolved between the West and third world countries.
