Probably one of my most important reads as of late. Especially relevant within the context of the current stage of the Israel-Palestine conflict. What will stay most with me from this book, besides Fanon's excellent and poetic command of rhetoric which has been excellently translated by Richard Philcox, are the bookend chapters - "On Violence", where Fanon argues the necessity of violence I nthe fight for decolonization without necessarily condoning it, and "Colonial War and Mental Disorders" where he details several individual cases that delineate the personal toll of colonialism on Algeria and its citizens.

Really interesting read.

“…Hardly had the sons opened their eyes, then they saw their fathers being beaten […]. These constant acts of repeated aggression, far from forcing them into submission, plunged them into an intolerable contradiction which sooner or later the Europeans will have to pay for. After that, when it is their turn to be “broken in,” when they are taught shame, pain, and hunger, we will only be fueling in their bodies a volcanic fury whose power matches the power applied to them.”

beautifully explained!

Common Fanon BANGER

Written during the de-colonial era of the 1950s and 1960s it is a searing critique of western powers mostly in Africa and Asia. Things were more hopeful for the poor countries back then. The anger had hope in it. I don't know what Fanon would write now that we are well into the neoliberal era and its unraveling.

Update 7/10/2022
Interesting that this book put hope in the revolutionary overturning of Capitalist imperialism. Africa has yet to unyoke itself long after decolonization. We are well into the neocolonial era and the laboratory of third-world exploitation is coming back to the core countries to try out on the privileged populations of the rich countries. Capitalism is intensifying and concentrating and increasingly previously bought-off populations are now becoming disposable to be jettisoned as the falling rate of profit makes class war more brutal. The future is in places where the wretched of the earth dwell until the tables are turned if that is possible and the core will look more and more like the periphery until this happens.

A wide-reaching, complicated, and often exhausting work. Hence why it took my six months to finish the book.