Nigel Gibson Wonders What Fanon Would Think About Today’s Social Crisis
Nigel Gibson, author of Fanonian Practices in South Africa, says that the questions posed by Frantz Fanon continue to echo across the postcolonial world. Reflecting on the 50 years that have passed since Fanon’s death in an article for Pamazuka News, Gibson explains why Fanon is still relevant today:
When I was asked by Dr. Keithley Woolward to address the question of Fanon’s contemporary relevance, I was reminded of a blurb on the back of my recent book Fanonian Practices in South Africa: From Steve Biko to Abahlali baseMjondolo which reads, ‘This is not another meditation on Fanon’s continued relevance. Instead, it is an inquiry into how Fanon, the revolutionary, might think and act in the face of contemporary social crisis.’ My comments today should be considered in that spirit.
‘Relevance’ — from a Latin word ‘relevare’, to lift, from ‘lavare’, to raise, levitate — to levitate a living Fanon who died in the USA nearly 50 years ago this coming Tuesday in cognizance of his own injunction articulated in the opening sentence from his essay ‘On national culture’: ‘Each generation must out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfil it, or betray it’ (1968 206). The challenge was laid down at the opening of this year of Fanon’s 50th (as well as the 50th anniversary of his ‘The Wretched of the Earth’) which began with revolution — or at least a series of revolts and resistance across the region, known as the Arab Spring.
Book details
- Fanonian Practices in South Africa: From Steve Biko to Abahlali baseMjondolo by Nigel Gibson
EAN: 9781869141974
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