Wednesday, July 20, 2011

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRANTZ FANON POSTHUMOUSLY




If there was no disease called leukemia, the probabilities would be greater Frantz Fanon Doctor, Soldier, Philosopher, Freedom Fighter And-You-Name-It would not only be still alive today, but he would have been turning exactly 86.


If Birth and Death are some of the seven or so characteristics of life as we know it, Lengibatsandzako therefore believes life continues even after death with death only confirming that indeed the individual is alive; and that is why we remain unabashed in pronouncing HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Comrade Fanon!!!!!




It is for us inspiriting to see your ideas staying strong in the South Africa of 2011 just as it did in the days of anti-apartheid struggle.  With literacy standing among the lowest on the African Continent, there is no doubt whatsoever that the Republic is one country still standing in dire need of the kind of psychological analyses your scholarly pen is best known for.


We also give thanks to Richard Pithouse (there are two links on this post related thereto) for contemplating Fanon 50 years after his death. In the months like the fingers of your palm stands the target for all activities Richard Pithouse is seized with in order to commemorate a charasteristic (death) of great ethnic African who succumbed to leukaemia.


Yet for those who have no clue who Frantz Fanon was, worry not; as there will be lots of websites to quench your thirst, not forgetting the inimitable Wikipedia where you will find such scintillating paragraphs as the following:



"Frantz Fanon (July 20, 1925 – December 6, 1961) was a French psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary and writer whose work is influential in the fields of post-colonial studies, critical theory and Marxism. Fanon is known as a radical existential humanist thinker on the issue of decolonization and the psychopathology of colonization....."

"....While in France in 1952, Fanon wrote his first book, Black Skin, White Masks, an analysis of the psychological effects of colonial subjugation on people identified as black. This book was originally his doctoral thesis submitted at Lyon and entitled, "The Disalienation of the Black Man". The rejection of the thesis led Fanon to seek to have the book published. It was the left-wing philosopher Francis Jeanson, leader of the pro-Algerian independence Jeanson network, who insisted on the new title and also wrote an epilogue for this publication...."

"...His participation in the Algerian FLN (Front de Libération Nationale) from 1955 determined his audience as the Algerian colonized. It was to them that his final work, Les damnés de la terre (translated into English by Constance Farrington as The Wretched of the Earth) was directed. It constitutes a warning to the oppressed of the dangers they face in the whirlwind of decolonization and the transition to a neo-colonialist, globalized world....


"...Fanon has had an influence on anti-colonial and national liberation movements. In particular, Les damnés de la terre was a major influence on the work of revolutionary leaders such as Ali Shariati in Iran, Steve Biko in South Africa, Malcolm X in the United States and Ernesto Che Guevara in Cuba. Of these only Guevara was primarily concerned with Fanon's theories on violence; for Shariati and Biko the main interest in Fanon was "the new man" and "black consciousness" respectively. Fanon's influence extended to the liberation movements of the Palestinians, the Tamils, African Americans and others. His work was a key influence on the Black Panther Party, particularly his ideas concerning nationalism, violence and the lumpenproletariat. More recently, radical South African poor people's movements, such as the influential Abahlali baseMjondolo (meaning 'people who live in shacks' in Zulu), have been influenced by Fanon's work.[15] His work was a key influence on Brazilian educationist Paulo Freire, as well. Barack Obama references Fanon in his book, Dreams from My Father....[16]


"...The Caribbean Philosophical Association offers the Frantz Fanon Prize for work that furthers the decolonization and liberation of mankind...."

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Richard Pithouse Contemplates Fanon, 50 Years On | UKZN Press: "On 6 December 2011, 50 years will have passed since the death of Frantz Fanon. Around the world people are getting together in universities, trade union offices, shack settlements, prisons, church halls, and other places where people try to think together, to reflect on the meaning of an extraordinary man for us and our struggles here and now."

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