In the first two chapters of Wretched, Fanon emphasizes that (armed) "violence" is essential to the initiation and maintenance of colonialism, e.g., "Their first encounter was marked by violence and their existence together-that is to say, the exploitation of the native by the settler-was carried on by dint of a great array of bayonets and cannon." (1.2) He also sets out to show how-and why-(armed) "violence" is also a necessary means for rhe success ful pursuit of national and social revolution, because decolonization "can only triumph if we use all means to turn the scale, including, of course, that of [armed] violence." (1.5) (my emphasis) Since the publication of Wretched, people have read those and similar lines, and come away with a narrow or one-sided concept of "violence"; they've read the first two chapters and come away with little more than a belief in the need to "pick up the gun." The people of Africa have suffered for this. We've suffered for it, and our children and grandchildren suffer for it today. Too many of us still fail to understand that the underlying aim of social revolution is to promote a change in people and to assist the development of political and social consciousness. Everything else that We usually associate with "revolution" or "national liberation" comes through and after change in people's consciousness! Meditate on "all means"-most people read that line, and by the time they get to the last word in the sentence (violence), they've totally forgotten the "all means"! Consequently, what they come away with is something like: "Decolonization can only succeed if We use armed violence," and this reading and understanding leaves something out, and the absence proves itself in subsequent practice. The use of all means demands theory and practice on all levels and in all social spheres. Our job is to determine how to do this based on the conditions that We find in our own social reality, especially as We want to move from a "low tide" to a "high tide." Our job is to acquire an understanding of the weak links in the system of oppression that binds us in the 21st century U.S.A., where revolution has " failed" not once, but several times before.
Meditations on Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth James "Yaki" Sayles
