Peau noire, masques blancs or Dark skin, White masks

Frantz Fanon

Background

This book is a psychological, philosophical and political essay that tries to unfold how an inferiority complex towards the French, and white people in general, emerged and persisted among the local populations of the French colonies. The author wrote it in 1952 at the age of 25. It was published in the same year. It uses studies and essays from different authors such as Sartre [Being and nothingness, Anti-semite and jew], Adler [The neurotic constitution], Hegel [The phenomenology of spirit], Aimé Césaire [Discourse on colonialism]; to name the most important ones. It has been written in an attempt to explain some traits and characteristics observed within the populations of the French overseas territories (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion…) and by extension, these of the inhabitants of the French colonies in Africa.

Summary and criticism

Considering the dynamics of slavery, forced labour, colonisation and segregation that amount to a considerable portion of black history [approximately 500 years], a feeling of dehumanisation, injustice and inferiority has been dwelling within the black populations for a very long time. This has greatly distorted the relationships between the black and white communities over the years. Fanon condemned the approach of the French government which to justify colonisation, organized a propaganda to emphasise some negative practices in Africa; notably anthropophagy in the Central region. This was undertook while hiding and altering the complete African history with its positive aspects and strong civilisation; it is important to note that before colonisation, many empires and civilisations were present in Africa with a precise hierarchy based on several pillars regarding family, education, art, spirituality, occupational activities and defence. This skewed the opinion of the wider public; legitimising colonisation and making it seem as a humanitarian duty of the “civilised” populations towards the “savage and primitive” ones. At this point in history, science was not advanced to prove that the human race is unique, and that the different pigments and phenotypes proper to the continents were due to the adaptation, for millions of centuries, of the populations’ genotype to the climatic and environmental conditions. Also, archaeology, anthropology and information technologies were not that developed to demonstrate and mainstream the fact that black ancient Egypt is the common root to all the current civilisations and that it set the fundamental knowledge in terms of mathematics, astronomy, astrology, arts and especially spirituality; the Greek scholars who got formed in ancient Egypt then spread this knowledge across Western Europe.

Frantz Fanon explained that this inferiority complex, though a lot of white scientists and politicians tried to correlate it with a biologic condition that would be predisposing the colonised nations to be dependent of the colonisers, was simply the result of sociogenic factors. He stated that it was the consequence of a reckless cultural imposition. He developed the concept of collective subconsciousness which is not inherent but rather, is the result of the educative and cultural factors in force in a given civilisation, population. He pointed out that in French colonies and French overseas territories, children’s adventures books always depicted the heroes as white and the villains as black or Indians. Moreover, he highlighted many widely accepted concepts such as the association of good and evil with white and black respectively, or the assimilation of physical and moral dirtiness to black while cleanliness would be corresponding to white. People, especially children, no matter their skin colour would always identify with the good side, this created over the long-term a sort of self-hate of the black person towards herself and the result has been division inside the black community who before colonisation, had strong communal values and traditions. Fanon underlined that as a result, the relationships among the black people evolved into a continual comparison narrative nurtured by a growing distrust and individualistic culture; he presented an observation among the West Indians who defined themselves as more than or less than their peers. He supported the idea that their orientation line was dependent upon the performance of the others, that they were building their value and worth on their peers’ failures and shortcomings. Instead of trying to work together and remain united, each of them wanted to be the only one to shine, stand out, impress, not leaving any room for concurrence. This came from a strong and usually unconscious desire to differentiate themselves from the other black people so as to be accepted by the white community. This caused many of them to negate their blackness, their origins, in order to belong to the stronger group, but they could never reach their goal given the structural racism that characterised the society.

Depending on the location and environment, the experiences, practices, mindsets and social constraints are and should be different. Hence, only the populations living in these specific conditions are capable of establishing, institutionalising and explaining their traditions and rituals, thus building and transforming their civilisation, culture and community. Every population should have the right to tell its own story according to its vision and ideology; this right has been denied to the populations who have been colonised. Instead, their story has been told by the colonisers who purposefully twisted and perverted it. The fact that history in most African regions was transmitted orally made it easier for them. These years of colonisation with the rise of the colonial schools also contributed to a cultural alienation by introducing the black children to the French history, culture and language. This largely influenced them in viewing the French culture as superior to theirs since they lost touch of their roots and civilisation very early on. The imperialist objective of colonisation was to effectively standardise the cultures and lifestyles in favour of the occidental civilisation to erect their economic, financial, political and cultural superiority. The main damage of colonisation has been to try to fashion a Single man, corresponding to the occidental ideology and expectations, while still denying him his dignity and part of his rights as human. Nevertheless, as Amadou Hampâté Bâ pointed out, the common language we now use can bring us closer in allowing to build the future together but this will only work if everyone has an equal opportunity to express his view. No decision should be taken unilaterally and imposed, especially, no economic predation should be allowed, this is even more relevant in this era of neo-colonialism.

Furthermore, in the second half of the 20th century, especially after the independences of the French colonies, there was an emerging a movement that Fanon called “black genius”. A lot of black scientists, writers and poets such as Cheick Anta Diop, Aimé Césaire, Amadou Hampâté Bâ… undertook to restore the History of Africa that had been erased, stolen because of those years of slavery and colonisation. The black community wanted its humanity, dignity and identity to be restored. Up till now, this hidden history is not widely mainstreamed because of the ongoing white supremacy and its control over the media. This part of history is not taught in schools, especially in the African schooling systems. As a result, many people within the current generations of the ex-colonies do not fully know their past and thus, are still not conscious of their full potential, expecting the occidental solutions and systems to solve the problems specific to their environmental, social and economic realities. This inferiority complex is still present, even though more subtle, insidious; it is often amplified by a superiority complex from the white communities. For example, it is commonly observed that black people, especially when they constitute the ethnic minority, need to work 2 to 3 times harder compared to their white peers in order to make it and be accepted. In the US and France, many people talk about the glass ceiling phenomenon when mentioning this issue. A considerable work still needs to be done within the African populations in order to clear this complex so as to free them, so that they access full financial, economic, political, psychological and intellectual independence.

Finally, it is the duty of every person, no matter the community she belongs to [Black, White, Asian, Latino], to educate herself and be more tolerant in accepting the others and working alongside with them to create a better future, with equal opportunities for the next generations. This task needs to be multilateral to produce positive and effective results. This book is really instructive, it goes in depth into the topics examined given the author was a psychiatrist. The themes analysed in this book, even though written in 1952, are still relevant in relation to the current social, political, economic and cultural paradigms.

References

Jean-Paul Sartre

· L’Être et le néant or Being and nothingness

· Réflexion sur la question juive or Anti-semite and jew

Alfred Adler, Le tempérament nerveux or The neurotic constitution

Hegel, Phénoménologie de l’esprit or The phenomenology of spirit

Aimé Césaire, Discours sur le colonialisme or Discourse on colonialism

Go deeper

Other books to increase knowledge of the black history and civilisation

Cheick Anta Diop

· Nations nègres et culture or Negro nations and culture

· L' Afrique noire pré-coloniale. Étude comparée des systèmes politiques et sociaux de l’Europe et de l’Afrique noire, de l’antiquité à la formation des états modernes or Precolonial Black Africa

Jean Philippe Omotunde, L’origine négro-Africaine du savoir grec