A Lil' Fanon to Close out 2008....

Decolonization
The colonial system, which was initially organized through violent measures of oppression and exploitation of subjugated people, affords Fanon’s (1963) notion of violent decolonization to be exceedingly germane. Decolonization is nothing short of the reversal of colonization; it sets out to change the order of the world (i.e., the colonial system) (Fanon, 1963). In the very first sentence of The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon (1963) boldly states that “decolonization is always a violent event” (p. 1). Understanding the context in which decolonization takes place, coupled with a comprehension of its nature as a reversal process, it should be considered as a logical and natural impetus to violence. The logic of violent decolonization process is made more apparent when one considers that one cannot disorganize “a society, however primitive it may be, with such an agenda if you are not determined from the very start to smash every obstacle encountered” (p. 3). Violence used toward efforts of decolonization is instrumental violence in the fact that it operates in a means-end continuum; meaning that it is used to achieve a particular goal that has been premeditated (Roberts, 2004). In line with this simple but effective strategy, Fanon (1963) argues that the “wretched of the earth” have the most logical plan of attack against hegemony focusing on bread and land. He suggests the goal of acquiring ‘bread and land’ is what the people find the most rewarding and effective working model (p. 14). At the essence of Fanon’s framework is the simple idea of oppressed populations reversing control and using the resources to benefit themselves thus freeing themselves of exploitation. In the process of altering their relationship with the ‘bread and land,’ they are no longer solely labor, but they are capitalists. Fanon’s claim is that this is done most effectively and expeditiously through violence.
This focus on “bread and land” emphasizes the pragmatism that instrumental violence achieves in a strictly decolonial sense. The pragmatism of decolonial violence is most evident in the direct attempt to thwart hegemonic power. This violence is instrumental in the fact the colonial system represents the means-end continuum in which this violence operates. After a discussion of the drastic juxtaposition between the colonizer’s habitat and the living situation of the colonized, he says “the gaze that the colonized subject casts at the colonist’s sector is a look of lust, a look of envy” (Fanon, 1963, p. 5). Fanon continues by suggesting that this envy leads the subjugated populations to concentrate on possessing items that the colonist owns; even sleeping with the colonist’s wife. However, the lust does not end at material items or the sexual conquest of the colonist’s women, it is about removing hegemony from locations of power and assuming those positions (Fanon, 1963). As result of decolonial violence, the relationship between the “bread and land” and the oppressed population that acts as solely labor is substantially and significantly altered. The oppressed are no longer merely labor, but have the potential to become masters of the “bread and land” they produce and toil. Consequently, at the moment power is assumed through violence, the populations of chattel, niggers, and slaves are blessed with the opportunity to become human beings, thus reaching the brink of liberation.