Three Specific Examples Fanon Used to Support Cultural Benefits - Essay Example

?The Mission Civiliastrice promised the colonized material and cultural benefits, according to Fanon, a-what does it provide instead? Provide THREE specific examples Fanon uses to support his argument, and demonstrate how he does so. B- Lastly, according to Fanon, how do the effects of colonialism live on after the colonial powers depart? Can you provide an example of this today? a-The Mission Civiliastrice promised the colonized material and cultural benefits, according to Fanon, what does it provide instead? Provide THREE specific examples Fanon uses to support his argument, and demonstrate how he does so? The powerful states of Europe, from seventeenth century onward, started colonizing many parts of the world. Their ideological claims however concealed their oppressive and exploitative designs as they claim to introduce this part of the world with the modern spirit, i.e., with the ways developed and learned by the races of Europe far superior than any such thing in the human history. Their ideologies not only claim to own the best possible civilization’s characteristics but also found their existence as pursuing the developmental logic of human history. With such understanding, the European states considered it their historical burden to modernize all those areas of the world so far remained behind the developmental train. The so-called white man’s burden, as some used to term their ideologies, was assuring to provide lot of benefits, including economic prosperity and better control on nature through modern knowledge forms to the colonized world. However, the process of releasing white man’s burden could not provide the claimed benefits rather remained lethal for the colonized, as many theorists, including that of Franz Fanon understands it. The process of Colonization, for Fanon, speaking from the position of a colonized, is a process of compartmentalization. The colonial world is divided into two parts. The dividing line can be seen through the frontiers visible as barracks and police stations. In the colonies, Fanon maintains, it is the policeman and the soldier who are the official, instituted go-betweens, the spokesmen of the settler and his rule of oppression (Fanon 38). Contrasting with the European capitalist societies, Fanon maintains, the educational system, whether lay or clerical, the structure of moral reflexes is handed down from father to son, the exemplary honesty of workers who are given a medal after fifty years of good and loyal service, and the affection which springs from harmonious relations and good behavior—all these aesthetic expressions of respect for the established order serve to create around the exploited person an atmosphere of submission and of inhibition which lightens the task of policing considerably (38). Fanon thinks that the educational system within the capitalist states hides people from the direct coercion of the state authorities. In the colonial countries, for Fanon, on the contrary, the policeman and the soldier, by their immediate presence and their frequent and direct action maintain contact with the native and advise him by means of rifle butts and napalm not to budge (38). The colonized world, instead of finding the fruits of the best civilization, remains placed upon the language of pure force, divided and mutilated, devoid of humanity. Fanon proves his position by providing examples of the dehumanizing and deforming of the colonized world, as: Example 1 The settlers or the colonizers build separate towns for them. Their towns remain clean, organized and beautiful. For Fanon, the settlers' town is a strongly built town, all made of stone and steel. It is a brightly lit town; the streets are covered with asphalt, and the garbage cans swallow all the leavings, unseen, un-known and hardly thought about (39). The natives live, however in dirty and ugly places. The native town, for Fanon, is a hungry town, starved of bread, of meat, of shoes, of coal, of light. The native town is a crouching village, a town on its knees, a town wallowing in the mire. It is a town of niggers and dirty Arabs (39). The zone where the natives live is opposed to the zone inhabited by the settlers but not in the service of a higher unity (38). Example 2: Fanon provides an example of Monsieur Meyer’s speech in the French National Assembly. In that speech Monsieur Meyer rebukes those liberals in France allowing Algerian people to become part of the Republic. Monsieur Meyer emphasized that the Republic must not be prostituted by allowing the Algerian people to become part of it. For Fanon, all the values of the settlers, in fact, are irrevocably poisoned and diseased as soon as they are allowed in contact with the colonized race (41-42) Example 3: Fanon points out that the colonizers consider the colonized as animal, as a being bereft of humanity. He referred to the French president, General de Gaulle who speaks of "the yellow multitudes" and Francois Mauriac of the black, brown, and yellow masses which soon will be unleashed (43). b- How do the effects of colonialism live on after the colonial powers depart? It is interesting that Fanon does not follow simplistically all those who consider decolonization as sufficient enough for free human living. For him, the changes already introjected in the life of the colonized are rooted so deep, and prevalent so wide that without consistent efforts colonization would keep on going. Few significant changes in the decolonized societies are: Distance between Educated class and the common masses Close ties between the political elites No Economic policy Distance between Educated class and the common masses For Fanon, the period of colonization developed a distance between the native educated class and the native masses. The communication between these two sections remains fissured. For Fanon, the unpreparedness of the educated classes, the lack of practical links between them and the mass of the people, their laziness, and, let it be said, their cowardice at the decisive moment of the struggle will give rise to tragic mishaps (148) Close ties between the political elites Even after liberation from France the president of an African state assures the previous colonizers that they are still related the ruler. Fanon says that this feeling enables Monieur M'ba, the president of the Republic of Gabon, to state in all seriousness on his arrival in Paris for an official visit: "Gabon is independent, but between Gabon and France nothing has changed; everything goes on as before." In fact, Fanon maintains, that the only change is that Monsieur M'ba is president of the Gabonese Republic and that he is received by the president of the French Republic (67). No Economic policy The political struggle for the liberation from the colonized rule remained entangled in political ideologue without having any serious economic policy. For Fanon, the national economy of the period of independence is not set on a new footing. It is still concerned with the groundnut harvest, with the cocoa crop and the olive yield (151). Works Cited Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press, 1963. Read More