Franz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth

 This blog is written as a task assigned by Megha Trivedi ma'am.

🌍 Decolonizing the Mind: Violence, Manichaeism, and the Colonial World in Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth.

Introduction: Frantz Fanon and the Project of Decolonization

Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth (1961) remains one of the most influential texts in postcolonial theory, revolutionary politics, and cultural psychology. Written at the height of the Algerian War of Independence against French colonial rule, the book functions as both a philosophical treatise and a revolutionary manifesto. Fanon was not only a political thinker but also a psychiatrist who experienced firsthand the psychological effects of colonization while working in a colonial hospital in Algeria. His intellectual project sought to understand how colonialism destroys the minds and cultures of the oppressed and how liberation must occur not only on the level of politics and economy, but also within consciousness itself.

The title The Wretched of the Earth evokes the global scope of suffering under imperialism  it borrows its name from “The Internationale,” the socialist anthem, symbolizing the solidarity of the oppressed across nations. Fanon’s concern was not limited to Algeria but extended to all colonized peoples in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He believed that the process of decolonization is a total revolution, one that must overthrow the colonial system materially, psychologically, and culturally.

Two of Fanon’s most significant and interrelated ideas in The Wretched of the Earth are:

1. The role of violence in colonialism and decolonization, and

2. The Manichaean structure of the colonial world.

These two concepts form the core of Fanon’s analysis: colonialism operates through violence and through binary divisions that dehumanize the colonized. The task of decolonization, therefore, is to destroy both the material structures of domination and the mental categories that sustain them. In this essay, we explore these two ideas in detail, showing how Fanon links physical liberation with psychological transformation a process he calls “decolonizing the mind.”

1. The Colonial World: A Geography of Oppression

Before understanding Fanon’s concept of violence, it is important to grasp his description of the colonial world. Fanon famously characterizes colonial society as a world divided into two zones:

“The colonial world is a world cut in two. The dividing line, the frontiers are shown by barracks and police stations.” (The Wretched of the Earth, p. 3)

In this spatial metaphor, the colonizer’s world represents order, wealth, and privilege well-built houses, clean streets, abundance, and comfort. The colonized world, by contrast, is a world of filth, hunger, disease, and deprivation. This stark division is not only economic or spatial; it is moral and psychological. The colonizer constructs a worldview that justifies exploitation by portraying the colonized as less than human  as primitive, violent, and incapable of self-rule.

This division, which Fanon calls “Manichaean,” creates a system of absolute opposites good versus evil, light versus darkness, civilization versus barbarism. The colonized exist only as the negative image of the colonizer. The entire colonial structure is thus built upon and maintained through systematic violence  not only physical but also epistemic and symbolic violence.

2. The Role of Violence in Colonialism

2.1. Colonialism as Institutionalized Violence

Fanon’s most provocative claim is that colonialism is itself violence in its natural state. He rejects the liberal humanist idea that colonial rule could ever be peaceful or benevolent. The establishment of colonial authority required military conquest, dispossession of land, enslavement, and suppression of local populations. In his words:

“Colonialism is not a thinking machine, nor a body endowed with reasoning faculties. It is violence in its natural state, and it will only yield when confronted with greater violence.”

This means that violence is not an accident of empire it is its essence. The colonizer maintains control through armed police, the army, laws, and institutions that are designed to instill fear and obedience. Every colonial encounter  from the plantation to the courtroom, from taxation to education  is underwritten by coercion.

2.2. Psychological Violence and Alienation

As a psychiatrist, Fanon was deeply concerned with the psychological effects of this system. Colonial violence is not only external; it penetrates the psyche of the colonized. It produces what he calls “a racialized inferiority complex”  the colonized begin to internalize the colonizer’s image of them as inferior beings. They come to despise their own language, religion, and customs, and aspire to imitate the colonizer’s culture as a means of validation.

In this sense, violence becomes psychic as well as physical. The colonized subject suffers from alienation, neurosis, and self-hatred. Fanon documents in his final chapter (“Colonial War and Mental Disorders”) several cases of psychological trauma resulting from colonial oppression  both among colonized subjects and European soldiers.

Thus, for Fanon, the work of liberation must begin with the mind. The colonized must unlearn the internalized inferiority and regain a sense of dignity and humanity. But this psychic liberation cannot occur within the existing colonial structure; it requires revolutionary change and, therefore, violence.

3. Violence as a Means of Liberation

3.1. “Decolonization is always a violent phenomenon.”

Fanon’s most quoted sentence from The Wretched of the Earth encapsulates his radical position:

“Decolonization is always a violent phenomenon.”

Why? Because colonialism itself was born in violence. The colonizer never peacefully gave power to the colonized; rather, domination was enforced through physical conquest, and so liberation, Fanon argues, must take the form of counter-violence  the overthrow of colonial institutions by force.

This violence, however, is not merely destructive. Fanon sees it as regenerative and cleansing. It has the capacity to rebuild the self-respect of the oppressed. In the act of rebellion, the colonized transforms from a passive victim into an active subject  one who can shape his destiny. Violence, therefore, is a dialectical process: it destroys the old order but also creates the conditions for a new humanism.

3.2. Violence and Psychological Rebirth

In the colonized psyche, fear, submission, and despair are deeply rooted. Violence breaks this psychological bondage. When the colonized person picks up arms and confronts the colonizer, he experiences a moment of self-realization  he recognizes his capacity to act, to resist, to assert existence. Fanon writes:

“At the level of individuals, 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.”

Thus, violence is not only political but existential  it reconstitutes the being of the colonized. It transforms what Fanon calls “the object” (a passive being defined by others) into “the subject” (an autonomous being who defines himself).

3.3. Organized Violence and Political Consciousness

Fanon also warns that spontaneous violence is not enough. For revolution to succeed, it must be guided by political consciousness and collective organization. The energy of the masses must be channeled through structured movements that aim not only to overthrow colonial rule but to reconstruct society on new, egalitarian foundations.Without this discipline, violence risks degenerating into chaos or, worse, being co-opted by the emerging national bourgeoisie  the local elites who may simply replace the colonizer without changing the oppressive system.Thus, Fanon’s call to violence is not a glorification of bloodshed but a demand for revolutionary transformation  the creation of a new political, economic, and cultural order that abolishes exploitation in all forms.

4. The Manichaean World: Colonialism as a System of Binary Oppositions

4.1. What is Manichaeism?

The term Manichaeism comes from an ancient Persian religion founded by the prophet Mani, which viewed the universe as a battle between the forces of Light and Darkness, Good and Evil. Fanon borrows this term metaphorically to describe the binary structure of colonial ideology.

In the colonial world, everything is divided in oppositional terms:

• The colonizer is seen as good, rational, civilized, human.

• The colonized is seen as evil, irrational, barbaric, subhuman.

This Manichaean division is not based on objective difference but is a deliberate construction that allows the colonizer to justify domination. By defining the colonized as morally and intellectually inferior, the colonizer can rationalize oppression as a “civilizing mission.”

4.2. The Spatial and Moral Geography of Manichaeism

Fanon describes the colonial city as a geography of segregation. The colonizer’s quarter is clean, bright, and orderly, symbolizing goodness and reason. The native quarter is dirty, chaotic, and dark  the embodiment of evil and disorder. This physical separation mirrors the moral division between colonizer and colonized.

The Manichaean worldview, therefore, is deeply spatial and symbolic. The colonizer lives in the “zone of being,” while the colonized inhabit the “zone of non-being.” The latter are denied full humanity and excluded from the moral universe of the colonizer.

4.3. The Internalization of Manichaeism

Over time, the colonized internalize this dualism. They come to believe in their own inferiority and in the colonizer’s superiority. This internalized Manichaeism leads to a split within the self a condition that Fanon also explores in Black Skin, White Masks (1952).

In that earlier work, he describes the black man who wears a “white mask”  who tries to assimilate into colonial culture to gain acceptance but in doing so loses his authentic self. Similarly, in The Wretched of the Earth, the colonized intellectual often begins by admiring the colonizer’s values, language, and aesthetics. Only through revolutionary struggle does he begin to reject these and rediscover his identity.

4.4. The Collapse of the Manichaean Structure

The Manichaean world cannot survive once the colonized begin to resist. Violence disrupts the binary order. When the colonized rise up, the colonizer is forced to confront the fact that the “savage” is capable of agency, organization, and courage.

In Fanon’s words:

“The colonized man liberates himself in and through violence. This praxis enlightens the militant because it shows him the means and the end.”

Through resistance, the colonized refute the moral dualism of colonial ideology. They expose the hypocrisy of the colonizer’s claim to civilization, revealing that the so-called civilized order is itself sustained by brutality. The Manichaean logic collapses, paving the way for a new, non-hierarchical vision of humanity.

5. Violence and Manichaeism: The Dialectic of Liberation

Fanon’s brilliance lies in showing how violence and Manichaeism are interconnected. Colonialism constructs the Manichaean binary through violence, and only violence can destroy it.

The colonized world is divided  materially and symbolically  by the gun. To reverse this division, the colonized must take up arms. In doing so, they not only reclaim the land but also redefine the meaning of humanity itself. The struggle becomes a dialectical process: the violence of decolonization negates the violence of colonization and leads to a synthesis  a new humanism beyond the colonial categories of race and culture.

Fanon’s ultimate goal is not perpetual conflict but the creation of a new human condition — one in which no one is defined as superior or inferior, colonizer or colonized. He calls for “a new man,” liberated from both the material structures and psychological residues of empire.

As he writes:

“For Europe, for ourselves, and for humanity, comrades, we must turn over a new leaf, we must work out new concepts, and try to set afoot a new man.”

6. Decolonizing the Mind: Psychological and Cultural Liberation

For Fanon, the most enduring legacy of colonialism is not simply economic dependency but mental colonization  the internalization of colonial values, hierarchies, and ways of seeing the world. To truly decolonize, one must engage in a process of psychic and cultural renewal.

This involves:

1. Rejecting colonial myths of superiority and inferiority.

2. Reclaiming indigenous culture as a source of strength and identity.

3. Creating new cultural forms that express the experiences of struggle and liberation.

In his chapter “On National Culture,” Fanon argues that culture cannot be static or nostalgic. True national culture emerges not from passive preservation of the past but from active resistance. The artist, writer, and intellectual must participate in the struggle, using creativity as a weapon of liberation.

In this sense, decolonization is not merely a political event but a total reconfiguration of consciousness  a decolonization of the mind.

7. Global Relevance and Critical Perspectives

Even though Fanon wrote in the context of 20th-century anti-colonial wars, his analysis continues to resonate in the 21st century. Neo-colonialism, global capitalism, and racial hierarchies still reproduce the logic of colonial Manichaeism. The global North is often seen as rational and developed, while the global South is portrayed as chaotic and dependent.

Fanon’s insights into the psychology of oppression have influenced movements such as:

• Black liberation and civil rights in the United States (e.g., Malcolm X, the Black Panthers).

• Anti-apartheid struggles in South Africa (Steve Biko and Black Consciousness).

• Postcolonial cultural theory, influencing scholars like Edward Said, Homi Bhabha, and Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o.

Critics, however, have debated Fanon’s endorsement of violence. Some argue that his position risks romanticizing bloodshed. Others, like Hannah Arendt, claimed that violence cannot create legitimate political institutions. Yet, many defend Fanon by clarifying that his call for violence was contextual and symbolic  not a universal prescription, but a diagnosis of colonial reality.

8. Conclusion: Toward a New Humanism

The Wretched of the Earth is not simply a book about war or politics; it is a book about human renewal. Fanon’s vision of decolonization is deeply ethical and existential. Violence is, for him, a means to an end  the creation of a new humanity that transcends the binaries of the colonial world.

In dismantling the Manichaean order, decolonization allows the oppressed to rediscover themselves as fully human. It is not only about reclaiming land but also about reclaiming the capacity to think, feel, and imagine freely.

As Fanon concludes:

“Humanity is waiting for something other from us than such an imitation, which would be an obscene caricature. If we wish to restore mankind to its proper place, we must invent and discover a new humanity.”

In the end, to decolonize the mind is to imagine a world beyond domination  a world where the color of one’s skin or the language one speaks no longer defines one’s worth. Fanon’s call echoes across decades: decolonization is not only the liberation of nations but the liberation of the human spirit itself.

References

• Burke, Edmund. “Frantz Fanon’s ‘The Wretched of the Earth.’” Daedalus, vol. 105, no. 1, 1976, pp. 127–35. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20024388. Accessed 2 Nov. 2025.