He He was born on July 20, 1925, in Fort-de-France and died, under the name Ibrahim Frantz Fanon, on December 6, 1961, in Bethesda at a military hospital in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., in the United States.
A graduate in psychiatry, he became involved in the struggle for Algerian independence and in the international Third World movement. This is certainly why some people tend to contrast him with Aimé Césaire, remembering of the latter only «the moratorium» under the banner of autonomy.
Fanon's research focused on the psychological consequences of colonization, both for the colonized and for the colonizer.
In 1943, he enlisted alongside his comrade Marcel Manville in the French Liberation Army after the French West Indies rallied to General de Gaulle. He explained this decision by saying that « Whenever human freedom and dignity are at stake, it concerns us all—whether we are white, Black, or Asian ».
He was wounded in battle in the Vosges, but came to realize the prevailing ideology, which was characterized by a certain «ethnic discrimination" », among other things.
A recipient of an Army medal, he was awarded a scholarship as a veteran and returned to France to study medicine; he edited the student newspaper *Tam-Tam* and took part in anti-colonial protests alongside the Communist Youth.
He then wrote «Black Skin, White Masks" » and, from that point on, no longer hesitated to denounce racism and the «linguistic colonization" »persisting in Martinique. And as for France, he will say: «For a Black person, the American South is a pleasant place compared to the cafés of Saint-Germain.».
In 1953, as chief psychiatrist in Algeria, he introduced new methods adapted to the cultural context of Algerian Muslim patients. He undertook an exploration of the traditional myths and rituals of Algerian culture and took a stance contrary to that of the Algerian School of Psychiatry, which described Algerians as « »A braggart, a liar, a thief, and a slacker… a hysterical moron; one who, moreover, is prone to unpredictable homicidal impulses." For Fanon, it is colonization that dehumanizes, that turns the colonized person into a being « »infantilized, oppressed, rejected, dehumanized, acculturated, alienated, and ripe for control by the colonizing authority."
«During colonization, the colonized never stop fighting for their freedom between 9:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. With this aggression ingrained in their muscles, the colonized will first direct it against their own people. This is the period when Black people turn on each other and when police officers and investigating judges are overwhelmed by the staggering levels of North African crime.” »
Fanon's groundbreaking psychiatric discoveries are less often discussed
in the colonial context to prioritize his political alignment with the FLN: In fact, from the very beginning of the Algerian War in 1954, he joined the nationalist resistance and established contacts with certain officers of the National Liberation Army as well as with the FLN’s political leadership.
Finally, he submitted his resignation as chief physician at the Blida-Joinville Hospital in November 1956 and was subsequently expelled from Algeria in January 1957.
Shortly thereafter, he renounced his French citizenship in favor of Algerian citizenship, joined the FLN in Tunis, where he contributed to the FLN’s central press organ, *El Moudjahid*, as an expert on torture issues, because he had treated several torturers as a psychiatrist at the Blida hospital. In 1958, he obtained a Tunisian passport under the name Ibrahim Omar Fanon. In 1959, he was part of the Algerian delegation to the Pan-African Congress in Accra; he published *Year V of the Algerian Revolution*, published by François Maspero. In March 1960, he was appointed ambassador of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic to Ghana. During this period, he narrowly escaped several assassination attempts in Morocco and Italy.
Before his death, he requested to be buried in Algeria. His body was laid to rest by Chadli Bendjedid, the future Algerian president, in the Sifana Cemetery near Sidi Trad. His remains were transferred in 1965 and reburied at the «Chouhadas» Cemetery (Cemetery of War Martyrs), near the Algerian-Tunisian border, in the municipality of Aïn Kerma (El-Tarf province).
As for the contrast between the political thought and practice of these two men, Frantz Fanon and Aimé Césaire, it is worth recalling that upon his return to Martinique, where he earned his high school diploma, he had supported the candidacy of Aimé Césaire (who had been his teacher) in the legislative elections of October 1945. And that Fort de France now has an avenue named after him, even though the proposal had been made by its mayor, Aimé Césaire, which had been in the works since 1965, was shelved for years. Two heroes whose’ Their mutual admiration and respect are beyond question. Gdc
