Fanon’s Death and the Ever-Expanding Global American Periphery
Photo: Fabio Teixeira
Few things paint a clearer picture of the insidious nature of American Imperialism than the CIA’s approach towards African anti-colonial wars of the 50s and 60s. During this period, the Civil Rights movement, the Cold War, and the eruption of Independence movements across Africa reached a robust symbiosis. Although the struggle against colonizers never lacked “philosophical justification and leadership”, the FBI accused Black Revolutionaries in the USA of “misquoting” and “inflat[ing] [them] into exaggerated dimensions” (p.988*). Frantz Fanon not only became this leadership, but also provided a philosophical justification that was heavily influenced by Hegel, and therefore by his pre-eminent progeny — Marx. In this mid-20th-century conjuncture, how did Fanon — a Latin American anti-capitalist philosopher, psychiatrist, and fighter in the Algerian National Liberation Front — die at the age of 36 at the hands of the CIA in Maryland?
In 1961, the same year his critically acclaimed book Wretched of the Earth came out, Fanon was flown to the US by his CIA handler for leukaemia treatment. Though the book endorsed violence against colonialists, and heavily criticized the US and its capitalist tactics — not to mention his explicit relationship with the Soviets and influence over the Black Liberation movement in America — death seemed to be inevitable even if not at the arms of ‘the enemy’. Nevertheless, the bizarre set of circumstances is evident to anyone familiar with his work, as well as to Fanon himself and his handler. Why did he have a CIA handler anyway?
During this current period of uncertainty and loss, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like if Fanon had had the chance to live until a ripe old age. What greater masterpieces or mistakes would he have made? Both of which we could have learned so much from. Perhaps the inhumanity of American foreign policy is easier to cope with than the unstoppable power of nature and the unbearable frailty of the human body. While all are true, I’m not a doctor, so I’ll focus on the former.
Of the broad geopolitical landscape of the 50s and 60s, not much escaped the tentacles of US Foreign Policy. In Latin America, they manifested themselves ruthlessly, in the shape of dictatorships and reigns of terror. In Russia, it was through the space race. In the Middle East, the tentacles brought investment contracts in the oil sector that the UK could not compete with. To Africa, they came disguised as helping hands, motivated by principles of independence and freedom. This help was kept from Europe and NATO (p.986*), whose authorities could only hope for the best case scenario, that the speeches from American politicians conveyed neutrality — a tentacle of omission.
Fanon’s CIA handler, a man named Oliver Iselin, may have genuinely believed in Africa’s independence from Europe, though only to the extent to which it resembled the American one. In other words, he believed in Capitalism more, and a helping hand was an opportunity to replace existing shackles with more discrete, lighter ones. He recruited informants in North Africa, and “[b]ecause of NATO and everything, this all had to be very sub rosa.” (p.986*) According to Thomas Meaney in his research Frantz Fanon and the CIA Man, Iselin quickly became disappointed by the Liberation Movements, especially as he noticed that once independence was achieved, they chose “collective farms, all this crap, and trying to build a steel industry”, as opposed to becoming a “wonderful tourist country” (p.991*). To the handler, Africa was little more than a massive commodity pool, a “conveyor-belt-like process of new nations rolling into view” (p.987*), and, as Meaney puts it, “where decolonization was supposed to remake colonized populations into able restaurateurs and concierges, catering to, and benefiting from, visitors from the capitalist core.” (p.992*)
American exceptionalism became so consolidated in the psyche of the white American population, that this helping hand to African Nations seeking independence appeared genuine even to the agents. It was they who needed moral “justification” for their global web of deceit and “inflated” their moral principles “into exaggerated dimensions”. This theory of exceptionalism revealed itself as indispensable for any American to effectively deliver the message that servitude to them would be Liberation from servitude to Europe, or to the Soviets. It provided the ounce of authenticity needed to convince at least some people that becoming an American periphery was an outstanding opportunity. It would be an understatement to say that Fanon was unconvinced:
Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness, and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions. (p.312**)
The banking magnates, the technocrats, and the big businessmen of the United States have only to step onto a plane and they are wafted into subtropical climes, there for a space of a week or ten days to luxuriate in the delicious depravities which their "reserves" hold for them. (p.153**)
Three years prior to the publication of these words, Fanon might have had a kinder approach towards the Americans, perhaps as to give them one last chance before waging war. In 1958, he gave US Americans valuable advice, which appears to have been successfully implemented during the 2020 elections:
Original black and white negative by Warren K. Leffler. Taken August 28th, 1963, Washington D.C, United States. Colorized by Jordan J. Lloyd.
Americans should be told that if they want to fight communism they must, in certain sectors, adopt Communist attitudes. […]
The colonial peoples are not particularly communistic, but they are irreducibly anti-colonialist.
They will not choose the United States because they are afraid of communism, but because their attitude in the great problems that shake the world — in this case the problems of decolonization — will conform to a spirit of solidarity, of equity, and of authentic justice. (p.94***)
As we see today, the ‘Democratic’ embrace of social justice movements, particularly the anti-racist one, is playing an indispensable role in restoring American morale. American exceptionalism, which during the Trump presidency didn’t degenerate — only reversed itself into the sentiment of exceptional inadequacy — came back mostly unscathed to its original form. The US Government’s response to COVID-19, for instance, went from exceptionally-bad to exceptionally-good, with Biden successfully touching the hearts of the most radical of American leftists. The melodramatic delivery of the message that he will not only meet his promise of vaccine distribution and schedule — he will surpass it — led to a nationwide sigh of relief. But is it “authentic justice”, or has Biden’s importance “been inflated into exaggerated dimensions by the need […] for philosophical justification and leadership”?
Fanon didn’t get to see the fall of the Soviet Union, 9-11, the Obama or Trump presidencies, and I can only imagine what he would have said about the Black Lives Matter movement and its endorsement by the Democratic Party. One thing is for sure, though, and he has taught us well, that it is not through kindness, asking please, begging for crumbs and simply pointing out injustices that we will overcome our condition as colonized peoples. And most importantly, it is not through the reproduction of the oppressor’s tactics that we will regain our humanity.
[L]et us not pay tribute to Europe by creating states, institutions, and societies which draw their inspiration from her. Humanity is waiting for something from us other than such an imitation, which would be almost an obscene caricature. […] [I]f we want humanity to advance a step further, if we want to bring it up to a different level than that which Europe has shown it, then we must invent and we must make discoveries. (p.314**)
* History Unclassified | Frantz Fanon and the CIA Man | THOMAS MEANEY | American Historical Review.
** THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH | FRANTZ FANON
*** TOWARD THE AFRICAN REVOLUTION | Political Essays | FRANTZ FANON
MIRNA WABI-SABI
is site editor at Gods and Radicals, managing editor at PLATAFORMA9.