LAST week, progressives, activists, intellectuals and trade unionists from all over Nigeria and the continent converged in the University of Jos for reflections and considerations on Fanon’s enduring legacy for the forces of change and social transformation.
The conference recognised Fanon not merely as a revolutionary thinker, psychiatrist, and anti-colonial activist, but also as a prophetic voice whose ideas illuminate the persistent contradictions of post-colonial governance.
Fanon died at a relatively young age. The themes he worked on, colonial domination and violence, race and the erosion of African dignity, the land question and the imperative of the nationalist struggle were all issues of central concern for all thinking Africans. Fanon had been sent to Algeria as a psychiatrist serving the French colonial regime. What he saw in his practice revealed the systematic destruction, physical and mental, of the Algerian people. His heart was wholesome. He committed class suicide, denounced French colonialism, became a revolutionary and joined the struggle against capitalist, colonial and racial exploitation and oppression. It is for these reasons that he became a guide and torch bearer for generations of concerned Africans.
Two veteran Fanonists, Professors Adele Jinadu of Nigeria and Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja from the Democratic Republic of the Congo – who have been working on the Fanon theme for over fifty years each provided seminal reflections to set the discussions going.
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Fanon’s work, most especially his iconic Wretched of the Earth, have been very influential for the community of progressives. Many participants spoke about their encounters with Fanon, for the majority at a very young age in their late teens. His work gave them the hope of the precious gift of liberation. Indeed, both his analysis of the debilitating nature of the colonial condition and his prescription of how to seek emancipation have stuck with them throughout their lives. About 100 papers were presented by Fanon-inspired change agents at the conference.
Maybe the most important aspect of the life and work of Fanon as a perpetual influencer was his call to action. The dictum is: “Each generation must discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it, in relative opacity.” The key Fanonian legacy is the gift of the belief that we can understand our physical and mental subjugation and use the same violence that has been used against us to liberate ourselves.
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Violence, he teaches us, can be used for our emancipation. “Violence is a cleansing force. It frees the native from his inferiority complex and from his despair and inaction; it makes him fearless and restores his self-respect.” Despair is indeed the African crisis today as people lose hope in their ability to overthrow their corrupt, self-centred leadership ruling and ruining their countries.
The Conference Communiqué drew attention to the importance of maintaining commitment to Fanon’s injunction to remain focused on the methodology of Pan-African Solidarity and the pursuit of Global Justice. Africa must remain committed to Pan-African cooperation, including unified continental stances on debt, fair trade, migration, climate justice, and global governance reform.
Emancipatory violence produces positive outcomes in Fanonian thinking, only when it is directed at the colonial regime and not at the people. What he shows however is that a predatory class that sought to replace the colonial regime, rather than change the nature of the regime it contested, after it took over power. It is for this reason that participants affirmed that sixty years after Fanon’s passing, many African states still confront unresolved structural challenges: neo-colonial economic dependencies, elite domination, violent governance cultures, increasing youth disillusionment, and widening legitimacy deficits. The conference therefore emphasised that engaging Fanon today requires not commemoration alone but action – towards justice, dignity, autonomy, and people-centred governance.
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Participants affirmed, as theorised by Fanon, that the national petty bourgeoisie in Africa is incapable of liberating both itself and the countries it inherited from colonialism through the colonial and nationalist struggles because their core commitment is to extend rather than destroy the essence of the colonial system. It is for this reason that much of the African continent has been experiencing both economic stagnation and democratic decline and indeed backsliding, essentially due to the persistence of neo-colonial structures, thinking, and institutions.
Fanon died at a relatively young age. The themes he worked on, colonial domination and violence, race and the erosion of African dignity, the land question and the imperative of the nationalist struggle were all issues of central concern for all thinking Africans. Fanon had been sent to Algeria as a psychiatrist serving the French colonial regime. What he saw in his practice revealed the systematic destruction, physical and mental, of the Algerian people. His heart was wholesome. He committed class suicide, denounced French colonialism, became a revolutionary and joined the struggle against capitalist, colonial and racial exploitation and oppression. It is for these reasons that he became a guide and torch bearer for generations of concerned Africans.
At the end of the conference, many students encountering Fanon for the first time appear to have found a pathway to a more engaged future of exercising their civic agency. That is a positive outcome. For us the old ones, it was more the nostalgia about the hopes we had of being successful change agents and the blockages that prevented the pathway to transformation. Nonetheless, as the saying goes, the struggle continues.
He remains relevant for Africa’s liberation because of his insistence that the continent must get out of the traps of the extractive economies that had been imposed on them and seek redemption in transforming their economies for value addition rather than continued dependence on raw commodity exports.
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For Fanon, political action is always the pathway to liberation and successive generations of young Africans have found his work inspirational because it gives them both hope and a strategy. Africa’s Gen Z has heard the clarion call and have been acting since the Arab Spring in Egypt, Tunisia, etc., through to successive uprisings in Burkina Faso, Senegal, Kenya, Morocco, Madagascar, Tanzania and so on. They have shown solid determination to rise and fight in spite of acute State violence.
However, even when the political engagement results in regime collapse, regime transformation in favour of the popular classes have not occurred. Fanon’s works offer lots of insights on how to avoid the pitfalls of national consciousness and the youth have much to gain on studying his work and of course also updating their strategies in this world marked so strongly by both the strengths and weaknesses of social media and its hashtags.
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The Conference Communiqué drew attention to the importance of maintaining commitment to Fanon’s injunction to remain focused on the methodology of Pan-African Solidarity and the pursuit of Global Justice. Africa must remain committed to Pan-African cooperation, including unified continental stances on debt, fair trade, migration, climate justice, and global governance reform.
At the end of the conference, many students encountering Fanon for the first time appear to have found a pathway to a more engaged future of exercising their civic agency. That is a positive outcome. For us the old ones, it was more the nostalgia about the hopes we had of being successful change agents and the blockages that prevented the pathway to transformation. Nonetheless, as the saying goes, the struggle continues.
Ibrahim is a professor of Political Science and development consultant/expert, and Senior Fellow of the Centre for Democracy and Development. He is also the Chair of the Editorial Board of Abuja-based online newspaper, PREMIUM TIMES.
