A Catalyst In Anti-Colonial Sentiment

"Colonial domination Ð'... manages to disrupt in spectacular fashion the cultural life of a conquered people," is the opening line of Frantz Fanon's speech included in his work Les DamnÐ"©s de la Terre. Frantz Fanon's words remain relevant today, in a world where imperialism and colonialism are manifested in continually evolving forms in the international arena. Fanon inspects the effects of colonialism on the psyche of those occupied by a colonial power, within many areas including politics, sociology, anthropology and linguistics. His intellectual discourse in his written works and thesis raise numerous issues dealing with the psychological nature of oppressed societies. A subconscious acceptance of inferiority attributed to racial discrimination in the society of the colonial power, leads to a severely impaired and disrupted people.

Fanon's work in a contextual sense is monumental in how the relationship between a colony and the colonial power leads to a "cultural obliteration," the destruction of national identity. Expropriation of a society's customs and language are beginning steps in imposing control over the proletariat. Imposing the idea that one's culture is inferior, transforms into non-recognition of that culture from within; this cultural inferiority translates into acceptance of racial inferiority. Fanon proposes that a natural cultural identity cannot exist under colonial domination, and will be contested and destructed in a systematic fashion; the ritualistic traditions become habitual, and their institutions break down. Exploitation and extraction of wealth become recognizable to the oppressed, inciting dissent and eventually the desire to revolt.

Translation and interpretation of Fanon's works are misread as a promotion of violence in the liberation of a colonized nation. His ideas delve into and apply to the realities of how colonialism's effects are lasting and are still apparent in contemporary society. If read in