Editorial

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Frantz Fanon: revolutionary psychiatrist

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Throughout my early adulthood at medical school in the 1980s, I had never heard of the revolutionary Martinique-born psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, author of Black Skin, White Masks (1952) and The Wretched of the Earth (1961), both classics of anti-colonial literature which have inspired generations of thinkers, activists and writers.

Occasionally, I’d pop into Freedom Press, the radical bookshop on Whitechapel Road, but it’s unlikely I’d have picked up a book with the title Black Skin, White Masks. As the child of black Jamaican migrants, I was drilled in not drawing attention to myself, in not foregrounding my blackness. Fanon’s book would have seemed too on the nose for me then, too embarrassing. I didn’t want to accept the possibility of my blackness being more of a stain than a simple birthmark, or to consider that I might be a damaged victim of colonial history.

I’m drawn to Fanon now. I admire him because of his fierce, uncompromising intellect, his charm, his cunning and his support for Algerian rebels in their fight against French colonisers in the 1950s. Undoubtedly, a kind of black pride features in my empathy towards Fanon and the recognition of his fearless and uncomfortable truth-telling from which white people, and sometimes black people, also recoil.

The origin of the title Black Skin, White Masks, which echoes the quest by black people to mask their differences from their former colonial masters, is grounded in themes explored in the text. These themes include the desire to eloquently match the coloniser’s language; an examination of the patronising tendency of his medical colleagues to mimic the pidgin French of their patients when treating them; and the damage to the psyche of black people from the perils of interracial love.

In this edition, ten writers explore Fanon’s legacy, his radical work as a psychiatrist, his literature, and his commitment to the fight against colonialism – all part of a remarkable life that came to an end when he died from cancer at the age of just 36.

© Colin Grant

Colin Grant

Colin Grant is Director of WritersMosaic and the author of six non-fiction books.