Frantz Fanon, was a psychiatrist, originally from
Martinique, who had become a spokesman for the Algerian revolution
against French colonialism. Embittered by his experience with
racism in the French Army, he gravitated to radical politics,
Sartrean existentialism and the philosophy of black consciousness
known as negritude. His 1952 book, ''Black Skin, White
Masks,'' offers a penetrating analysis of racism
and of the ways in which it is internalized by its victims.
While secretly aiding the rebels of the Algerian anti-colonial
war as a doctor in Algeria, Fanon cared for victims and perpetrators
alike, producing case notes that shed invaluable light on
the psychic traumas of colonial war. Expelled from Algeria
in 1956, Fanon moved to Tunis where wrote for El Moudjahid,
the rebel newspaper, founded Africa's first psychiatric clinic,
and wrote several influential books on decolonization. Frantz
Fanon, His Life, His Struggle, His Work traces
the short and intense life of one of the great thinkers of
the 20th century.
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