The Wretched of the Earth: Violence, Manichaeism, and the Useless Class
Introduction: Why Fanon Still Matters
Frantz Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth was published in 1961, at the height of the Algerian War of Independence. The book is not merely a manifesto for anti-colonial revolution; it is a profound work of cultural and political theory. Fanon, trained as a psychiatrist and shaped by his experience in colonial Algeria, analyzes how colonialism operates—not only through armies and economies, but through the psychological structures it installs in both the colonizer and the colonized.
The worksheet poses eight questions, and while the instruction says "any two," the expectation is that we engage deeply with several while weaving the others in. This blog addresses all eight, with Question 3 ("the infrastructure is also a superstructure") and Question 5 (the national bourgeoisie) forming the analytical spine.
| Question | Focus |
|---|---|
| Q1 | The role of violence in colonialism |
| Q2 | Manichaeism in a colonial context |
| Q3 | "The infrastructure is also a superstructure" |
| Q4 | The racialization of culture |
| Q5 | The national bourgeoisie and its "uselessness" |
| Q6 | Decolonization and global capitalism |
| Q7 | Culture and combat |
| Q8 | The meaning of the title |
1. Violence and Manichaeism: The Structure of the Colonial World
The Founding Violence of Colonialism
Any discussion of Fanon must begin with violence, because violence is the organizing principle of the colonial world. Fanon's opening claim in "On Violence" is uncompromising:
"Decolonization, which sets out to change the order of the world, is, obviously, a program of complete disorder... Decolonization is always a violent phenomenon."
(Fanon, "On Violence")
But this is not a celebration of violence for its own sake. It is a description of what colonialism is. Colonialism is not merely a political arrangement in which one nation governs another. It is a structure of total domination that depends on the constant exercise of force. The colonizer does not rule by consent; he rules by the gun, the whip, and the law.
Fanon is explicit that the colonial world is a world divided in two, and this division is maintained by violence:
"The colonized world is a world divided in two. The dividing line, the border, is represented by the barracks and the police stations."
(Fanon, "On Violence")
This violence operates on multiple levels—physically, economically, legally, and psychologically. Each level reinforces the others. The physical violence of the police makes possible the economic violence of exploitation, which in turn makes possible the psychological violence of self-hatred.
Manichaeism: The Divided World
Fanon uses the term Manichaeism to describe the spatial and moral division of the colonial world. The colonial city is split into two zones, and Fanon's description is unforgettable:
"The settler's town is a well-fed town, an easygoing town; its belly is always full of good things. The settler's town is a town of white people, of foreigners. The town belonging to the colonized people, or at least the native town, the Negro village, the medina, the reservation, is a place of ill fame, peopled by men of evil repute."
(Fanon, "On Violence")
The settler's town is "a well-lit town, paved with stone, with garbage cans overflowing with unknown but never seen objects" (Fanon, "On Violence"). The native town is "a world without spaciousness; men live there on top of each other, and their huts are built one on top of the other" (Fanon, "On Violence").
This division is not just physical; it is moral and psychological. The colonizer is presented as the embodiment of reason, progress, and civilization. The colonized is presented as the embodiment of irrationality, backwardness, and savagery. Fanon describes this as a world of "reciprocal exclusivity" (Fanon, "On Violence"). This binary is not innocent—it is the ideological justification for colonial violence. If the colonized is not fully human, then violence against him is not really violence. It is "pacification."
Manichaeism, therefore, is not simply a worldview. It is a technology of power. Fanon insists that this division is not natural—it is produced and maintained by force. And it can only be undone by force.
The Counter-Violence of the Colonized
Fanon argues that the violence of the colonized is not merely a mirror image of colonial violence. It is a necessary response:
"The colonized man liberates himself in and through violence."
(Fanon, "On Violence")
This counter-violence serves four functions: it purifies, it unifies, it reclaims, and it is proportional. Fanon describes this with a clinical precision that is also a kind of poetry:
"At the level of individuals, violence is a cleansing force. It frees the native from his inferiority complex and from his despair and inaction; it makes him fearless and restores his self-respect."
(Fanon, "On Violence")
Fanon's point is not that violence is good. It is that colonialism is a state of war, and in war, the oppressed have the right to fight back.
2. "The Infrastructure is Also a Superstructure": Colonialism as Totality
The Classical Marxist Model
To understand Fanon's most provocative theoretical claim, we must first recall the classical Marxist model: the infrastructure (or base) consists of the economic relations of production, and the superstructure consists of the legal, political, cultural, and ideological institutions that arise from and support the base.
Fanon argues that this model does not hold in the colony. And his formulation of the alternative is one of the most quoted sentences in postcolonial theory:
"In the colonies, the economic infrastructure is also a superstructure. The cause is effect: you are rich because you are white, you are white because you are rich."
(Fanon, "On Violence")
This sentence is a complete theory of colonial power in miniature. The first clause—"you are rich because you are white"—means that racial identity determines access to economic resources. The second clause—"you are white because you are rich"—means that economic position reinforces and reproduces racial identity.
The Implications for Decolonization
This has profound implications for how we understand decolonization. It cannot be limited to transferring political power from white hands to brown hands. Fanon is scathing about such a limited vision:
"The transfer of power from the settler to the native is not a decolonization. It is a change of hands."
(Fanon, "On Violence")
Fanon's insight is that colonialism is a totality. You cannot separate the economic from the racial, the political from the psychological, the material from the cultural. This is why reform is insufficient. Reform addresses one dimension while leaving the others intact. Only revolution—total, uncompromising, structural—can dismantle the colonial totality.
3. The Racialization of Culture: A Dead End
The Colonial Negation of Culture
Colonialism systematically negates the culture of the colonized. Fanon describes this negation with bitter irony in "On National Culture":
"The colonizer, who has never ceased to affirm that the colonized is a savage, a barbarian, an ignorant brute, now declares that the colonized has no culture, no civilization, no history."
(Fanon, "On National Culture")
This is not an accident; it is part of the ideological apparatus of colonial rule. If the native has no culture, he has no claim to nationhood, no claim to self-government, no claim to dignity.
The Négritude Response
In response, colonized intellectuals—particularly those associated with the Négritude movement—tend to affirm African culture in racial terms. Fanon respects the courage of this move. He calls it a necessary stage:
"The unconditional affirmation of African culture has succeeded the unconditional affirmation of European culture."
(Fanon, "On National Culture")
But he warns that it is not the final stage. The racialization of culture leads to a dead end. Fanon's warning is precise:
"The historical necessity in which the men of African culture find themselves to racialize their claims and to speak more of African culture than of national culture will tend to lead them up a blind alley."
(Fanon, "On National Culture")
Fanon argues that the struggle for national culture must move beyond race to nation:
"The struggle for freedom does not give back to the national culture its former value and shapes; this struggle... is itself the highest form of culture."
(Fanon, "On National Culture")
4. Culture and Combat: The Dialectic of Liberation
Culture as Living Practice
Fanon insists that culture is not a museum piece to be preserved. It is a living practice that is forged in struggle. His formulation of the relation between culture and combat is one of the most powerful passages in the book:
"The colonized intellectual who has come back to his people through the ordeal of the struggle... discovers that the truth of a nation is first of all its struggle. The truth of a culture is first of all its combat."
(Fanon, "On National Culture")
The Three Stages of Cultural Development
Fanon describes three stages in the development of national culture. In the first stage, the colonized intellectual assimilates the culture of the colonizer:
"The colonized intellectual has thrown himself headlong into the acquisition of European culture... He is all the more eager to prove his assimilation because he is aware of his own alienation."
(Fanon, "On National Culture")
In the second stage, the colonized intellectual rejects the colonizer's culture and affirms his own in racial terms:
"The colonized intellectual, in his desire to assert his own culture, will often fall into the trap of racializing his claims."
(Fanon, "On National Culture")
In the third stage, the colonized intellectual becomes a revolutionary:
"The colonized intellectual who has come back to his people through the ordeal of the struggle... puts his art at the service of the people. He does not create culture in the abstract; he creates it in the process of fighting for liberation."
(Fanon, "On National Culture")
The poem, the song, the novel, the play—these are not ornaments of the struggle; they are weapons in it.
5. The National Bourgeoisie: The Useless Class
The Colonial Creation of a Class
We now turn to the second major question: what is the national bourgeoisie, and why does Fanon think it is "useless"?
In the colony, there is no indigenous bourgeoisie of the European type. There is a national bourgeoisie, but it is a class created by colonialism and for colonialism. Fanon describes it with contempt in "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness":
"The national bourgeoisie of underdeveloped countries is not engaged in production, nor in invention, nor building, nor labor. It is completely canalized into activities of the intermediary type... It is the most useless class in history."
(Fanon, "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness")
This class is not industrial; it is a class of intermediaries—lawyers, doctors, merchants, civil servants, small businessmen—who were educated by the colonizer and who live off the crumbs of the colonial economy.
What Happens After Independence?
After independence, this class typically takes over the state but does not transform the economy. Fanon describes this as:
"The transfer into native hands of those unfair advantages which are a legacy of the colonial period."
(Fanon, "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness")
Fanon's description of what the national bourgeoisie does after independence is devastating:
"The national bourgeoisie steps into the shoes of the former European settlers. It takes over the businesses, the farms, the factories. But it does not transform them. It merely manages them. It is a bourgeoisie of the civil service, of the professions, of commerce. It is not a productive bourgeoisie."
(Fanon, "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness")
Why Is It "Useless"?
Fanon calls the national bourgeoisie "useless" not because it does nothing but because it does the wrong thing. It reproduces the colonial economy rather than transforming it. Fanon's condemnation is absolute:
"The national bourgeoisie is not engaged in production, nor in invention, nor building, nor labor. It is completely canalized into activities of the intermediary type... It is the most useless class in history."
(Fanon, "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness")
Fanon warns that the consequences are severe:
"The national bourgeoisie will not be able to solve the problems of the masses. It will not be able to transform the economy. It will not be able to build a nation. It will only be able to enrich itself. And when the masses realize this, they will turn against it."
(Fanon, "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness")
Fanon's critique of the national bourgeoisie is therefore not just a critique of a class; it is a critique of a model of decolonization—the model that sees independence as a transfer of power rather than a transformation of society. He calls instead for a revolutionary decolonization in which the masses—the peasants, the workers, the urban poor—become the agents of their own liberation.
This connects directly back to the "infrastructure is also a superstructure" argument. If colonial capitalism was a totality of race and class, then postcolonial liberation must also be a totality. The national bourgeoisie, because it cannot imagine such a totality, is structurally incapable of leading decolonization.
6. Decolonization and the Global Capitalist Picture
Decolonization as World-Historical Process
For Fanon, decolonization is not a national event; it is a world-historical process. The struggle in Algeria, in Vietnam, in Cuba, in the Congo—these are not isolated battles:
"The colonized world is a world of violence, of exploitation, of contempt. But it is also a world of hope. For the first time in history, the masses of the colonized world are rising up. They are demanding not just independence but a new world order."
(Fanon, "On Violence")
The Capitalist World-System
Fanon argues that the "development" of the core was paid for by the "underdevelopment" of the periphery:
"The wealth of the wealthy nations is built on the poverty of the poor nations. The development of Europe is built on the underdevelopment of Africa, Asia, and Latin America."
(Fanon, "The Pitfalls of National Consciousness")
Decolonization, therefore, challenges not just colonial rule but the entire global economic order that colonial rule made possible. Fanon is clear that this order will not be dismantled by appeals to the former colonizers:
"The colonized masses have no illusions about the goodwill of the former colonizers. They know that independence is not given; it is taken."
(Fanon, "On Violence")
Fanon's vision is therefore not just anti-colonial; it is anti-capitalist and internationalist. He wants a world in which the exploited of all nations—the "wretched of the earth"—unite to create a new order.
7. The Meaning of the Title: "The Wretched of the Earth"
The title of Fanon's book is taken from the opening line of the "Internationale":
"Arise, ye wretched of the earth."
It is a deliberate and powerful choice. The "wretched" are not just the poor. They are the colonized, the racialized, the dispossessed—those whom the colonial system has designated as less than human. Fanon describes them with a compassion that is also a call to arms:
"The wretched of the earth are the colonized, the exploited, the despised. They are the ones who have been denied their humanity. They are the ones who have nothing to lose."
(Fanon, "On Violence")
The phrase "of the earth" is also significant. It evokes the land—the earth that was stolen, the soil that was worked by slaves, the territory that colonialism carved up and redistributed. It also evokes the earth as a whole, the planetary scale of the anti-colonial struggle.
The title, therefore, is both a description and a call to action. It describes the condition of the colonized. And it calls them to rise up.
8. Conclusion: Fanon's Enduring Challenge
Fanon's The Wretched of the Earth remains a challenging and essential text more than sixty years after its publication. Its critiques of colonialism, of the national bourgeoisie, of the racialization of culture, and of the global capitalist order are as relevant today as they were in 1961.
| Key Insight | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Colonialism is a totality | Infrastructure and superstructure, economy and race, politics and psychology are inseparable. |
| The national bourgeoisie is useless | It reproduces the colonial economy rather than transforming it. |
| Decolonization must be total | It cannot be limited to a transfer of power; it must transform society. |
| Culture is forged in struggle | It is not a museum piece but a living practice. |
| The wretched have a world to win | The exploited of all nations must unite to create a new order. |
Fanon does not offer easy answers. He does not promise that decolonization will be peaceful, orderly, or quick. What he offers instead is a diagnosis and a call: a diagnosis of how colonial power works, and a call to dismantle it, completely and without apology. Fanon's final words in the book, from the conclusion of "Conclusion," are a testament to his revolutionary optimism:
"For Europe, for ourselves, and for humanity, comrades, we must turn over a new leaf, we must work out new concepts, and try to set afoot a new man."
(Fanon, "Conclusion")
The wretched of the earth have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.
Works Cited
Fanon, Frantz. The Wretched of the Earth. Translated by Richard Philcox, Grove Press, 2004.
Gibson, Nigel C. Fanon: The Postcolonial Imagination. Polity, 2003.
Sartre, Jean-Paul. Preface. The Wretched of the Earth, by Frantz Fanon, translated by Richard Philcox, Grove Press, 2004, pp. xliii–lxii.
Said, Edward W. Introduction. The Wretched of the Earth, by Frantz Fanon, translated by Richard Philcox, Grove Press, 2004, pp. xii–xxxvi.
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